Interesting tidbit from the October, 1928 FEM, headlined EXTINGUISH FIRE WITH ENGINE. The exact date is not listed, but the Crew of Extra 1292 was picking up a car at a Festus, MO furniture factory on the River Division-St. Louis Sub. Conductor J.R. Johnson of St. Louis discovered the building on fire. Engineer Dave Heltibrand drew the locomotive up to the fire while conductor called in a fire alarm. They then opened the blow-off valve on 1292, spraying steam onto the fire and getting the situation under control by the time the fire department arrived. Try doing that with a diesel!
Neat photo, Karl - someone I don't recall seeing this one when first posted or I'd overlooked it. As I read through old Frisco employee magazines I've started compiling a spreadsheet of River Division trains from the Locomotive Fuel Performance column. Mr. Heltibrand's name shows up a lot on the River Division. Thanks for the lead,
A locomotive blowoff makes a dandy fire extinguisher. One of my duties as Brakeman/Conductor on the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railroad in Jackson Mo. was to be on "Fire Watch". When we would run our Porter engine it would occasionally drop a cinder setting the grass on fire. Several times we used the blowoff to put it out.
