Trains and railroading have always been a part of my life. Multiple members of my family have worked for the railroad, I grew up with a model railroad, and my Dad and Uncle used trains as a bonding tool for me as a kid since I wasn’t much of a sports guy. Needless to say, trains are a major part of my life and always will be. If I had to guess, 90% of my most memorable experiences have been trackside, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
My first assignment after joining the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Research & Test Deptartment (R&T) at the end of 1977 as an environmental specialist was to support the development of national noise standards for the railroad industry. We measured sound levels of locomotives, retarders, car coupling, load testing, refrigerator cars, and other noise sources at several railyards around the country. I’d like to share with you some images from one of the yards we studied: Southern Railway’s Brosnan hump yard at Macon, Georgia.
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A line of severe thunderstorms had just rumbled through Silvis, Illinois on a hot June Sunday morning. The clouds parted and the sky quickly filled with billowing smoke and steam from an idling locomotive preparing for its last run. No, this was not 1953 when the last Rock Island steam locomotive dropped its fire for the final time. This was June 12, 2022, and Iowa Interstate’s QJ-6988 was getting ready to highball eastbound with freight train SIBU-12 to Bureau Junction.
This trip was to be memorable but bittersweet, for in just a few hours, QJ-6988’s flue time would expire and the fire would be dropped for the last time for quite awhile. “Going into hibernation,” as one railfan put it. Actually, the locomotive’s flue time had already expired, but its owner, the Central States Steam Preservation Association (CSSPA), had been granted a small extension on the flue time by the Federal Railroad Administration, allowing for one final farewell run.
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I pulled into town in the afternoon of a sunny and warm day in late April. After checking-in to a hotel on the highway for the night, I drove into town for dinner. The first thing I saw as I crossed the tracks on South Division Street was a substantial and well preserved former Rock Island depot. After eating at Ruby’s Pub and Grill, the late afternoon sun was about right for photography so I made my way over to the depot.
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