While strolling down mem-lane, after looking at site pics, I remembered that sometime in the '70s the wreck train came to clean up a derailment at Gateway AR. While the work progressed, the bunk car, dining car and I vaguely recall a few others, sat in Seligman. I believe they sat on the former A&O tracks. While admiring the novelty of the silver cars in my town, the cook took notice and showed me around inside. I wish I could remember his name. I also recall seeing one of the boxcars from the wreck numerous times later. It was one of the yellow hi cube cars, memorable because of the red Arkansas clay stuck in the dent at the top of the car on one end. I noted the car was less than a month old (June). The wreck was northbound at the time. You could follow the cuts in the ties almost to "Devil's Eyebrow" in AR. The wheel caught the switch at Gateway (where they stored the equipment for bldg Beaver Dam, including a couple of small RR engines).
As a kid growing up within earshot of Lindenwood, I remember the roundhouse whistle "calling out the wrecker".They had a certain whistle code for the Eastern Division and one for the River Division. As Dad was an engineer, if he was on the road, it was nervous times and if he was home, he would wonder what happened and who it was. I hadn't thought of the roundhouse whistle for ages. It also blew at shift change. It was a huge whistle and could be heard for miles.
