Here 's another picture from my days at Missouri School of Mines (MSM). This was taken mid-afternoon, in the spring of 1961, in Rolla, MO, during my freshman year at MSM. The location is just east of the Rolla depot. An eastbound freight is grinding its way up the line after climbing Rolla Hill out of Newburg, headed by SLSF 5030, an EMD F7A, on its way to Lindenwood Yard in St Louis. Note it appears to be an all covered wagon consist. I sure do miss seeing those, and hearing them all chant in unison! The five chime Leslie horn with all bells facing forward, the "nail" radio antenna, and the single horn facing rearward, a Leslie or the original "blat", are evident on F7A SLSF 5030, as is the single fixed beam headlight. Note also that the yellow cigar band comes to a slight point at the apex on EMD Frisco A-units. It was rounded on the ALCo FA-1s, as well as on the later "austerity" paint scheme applied to some of Frisco's Fs, Es and FA-1s. Note also the degrading black paint on the riveted-on nose coonskin herald. Three of those bricks from the Rolla depot platform now reside in my back patio. Son Kurt and I liberated them from a big pile of scrap that was being loaded into trucks for disposal as the BN (yechhh!) tore down the Rolla depot sometime in the early to mid 1980s. Ken
I was sitting here admiring the photo after "blowing" it up to about double its size, drifting back in time to when I used to see the SSW F3 consists come thru Waldo, AR after the strain of climbing the grade on both east and west directions from the station. That is an awesome photo, Ken, and it sure brings back memories to me of a different time and setting. Then I was jolted back to the present and thought, "I wonder if Ken ever stood on one or more of those bricks that he "liberated"?"
I have no idea where in the platform "my bricks" were located, as they came from a pile of ruble just to the west end of the then demolished depot. I certainly walked that platform enough that I might well have stepped on any or all of them. I have mentioned in several prior posts on this site, however, that on a calm summer night, while sitting out on the patio close to the three Rolla bricks, and armed with a stiff adult libation or two (Dewars works well), I can still hear 567's, 244's, 645's, and, yes, 1500's as they pull by the Rolla depot. Ken
