C&O/Chessie System part #3

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From C&O Historical Newsletter September of 1981.

Motive Power News by way of Mark W. Kapka, Saginaw, MI,

C&O SW9 5090, in the fall of 1980, badly needed repainting, and the decision, was made, to send it to Grand Rapids, for overhaul and repainting, as Saginaw, had enough yard switchers to allow this. Grand Rapids though, was booked, so they allowed Saginaw to do the repainting it in the roundhouse. The blue and yellow coats of paint and all lettering was applied, and then the painter took his vacation. It is reported that at this time several of the switchers in Saginaw, went down due to maintenance problems, and the 5090, was put back into service, with out its Vermilion stripes. It was in Saginaw, for a few days, when it was sent to Flint, it returned to Saginaw, the next week, where it was sent to Grand Rapids, for the final color, and overhaul. When it returned, it was put into storage, in the Saginaw roundhouse, with stack's capped.


The Car Department by way of Carl W. Shaver (associate editor)

More renumberings of non-revenue equipment into the 900000 series have apeared. Mr. Ervin G. Heck, in Saginaw, Mi., has seen the Saginaw Wrecker DK-6, is now 940003. At Grand Rapids, Mr. Jim Lindholm, has spotted the C&O wedge snowplow SP-20, in its new number of 914020.

From Tom Lindholm, of Grand Rapids, Mi., on August 1st, of 1981
C&O cab 3167 is still assigned to train's MP-17 & ML-18, as these are the only road trains out here with a cupola cab. A recent repaint was C&O 3134, witch is assingned to the Kroger local. Two other repaints, last week, still needing windows installed, are the 900302 & 900347. It is also reported that there are many 90000 series cabs in Grand Rapids for rebuildig.

Mr. Bon Tennant reports that the C&O saftey cab, that had been repainted (3143), is now on trains 331 & 334, between Holland and Muskegon.

Current News on the C&O by way of Everett N. Young (associate editor)

Manifest Schedule Changes
Canadian Div. trains ST41 (St. Thomas 41), from the B&O yard, in Buffalo to St. Thomas, has been dropped, this was a manifest. Due to this, CG41 (Chicago 41) now begins at Buffalo, instead of Suspension Bridge, NY. Also ICG3 (Illinois Central Gulf 3), has been discontinued, between Detroit, Mi., and New Buffalo, starting July 1st. It still opperates, between New Buffalo, Mi., and ICG's Markham yard, 41 miles, on the old schedule. Still more, LU75 (Ludington 75) is annulled between Toledo, Oh., and Saginaw, Mi., on July 1st, but still holds its old running times between Saginaw, and Ludington.

The following were annulled on the Michigan Div., with out replacement.
SA63 (Saginaw 63), from Detroit to Saginaw
DT64 (Detroit 64), from Saginaw to Detroit
TL80 (Toledo 80) from Grand Rapids to Toledo
GR81 (Grand Rapids 81) from Toledo to Grand Rapids

[Aleks]

Interesting about the Canadian Division trains. I was going to St. Thomas in those days on an occasional basis and in the 70's I knew of 2 trians to Buffalo but didn't know their symbols. They used to leave St. Thomas around 14:00 and 14:30 roughly following each other. The 1st was always the bigger train with more horsepower, the 2nd was smaller with lower horsepower. In the early -mid 80's when I photographed the area fairly extensivly there was only DT41 / NI 42 that used to run between Buffalo and Detroit. The other trains on the line were ST 98 from Sarnia to St. Thomas and SA 99 between St. Thomas and Sarnia. Plus locals out of Chatham and Sarnia.
Intersting to now know earlier symbols from this line.
Actually I did a slide presentation of the C&O operations in Ontario at the C&O Historical Society convention in Midland back in 95 when I was a member. I'd thinned down my collection to 5 reels covering from Montrose Yard in Niagara Falls to Windsor and up to Sarnia.
Looks like I should have gone through back issues after I'd joined so I could have found out more.
My model layout is based on the Canadian operations were it currently covers from West Lorne to Ridgetown with further expansion in the coming years to get to Blenheim and Chatham.