Looked like it would have been some great footage, but I couldn't get past the horrid camera work (shaking terribly, cuts so fast I couldn't see what was to be seen). Such a shame. I dropped out a bit over 5 minutes in. What a treasure that could have been.
Yes, horrible camera handling but... More great River Division action from Chaffee north and back at Chaffee. The short semaphore at about 1:30 is in Cape Girardeau just north of MP T-131. The view is northbound. The switch being thrown at 1:45 is the south end of Freeze siding. 1:55 the train in in Freeze siding at Cape Rock. You can see a towboat with barges 3 wide coming down the river. 2:14 the water intake from the Mississippi for the Cape Girardeau Municipal Water plant is in view. 2:36 north end of Freeze siding. 3:07 parking at Trail of Tears State Park. 3:30 quarry called Pit at MP T-106.6 4:28 Grand Tower Energy across the river 4:43 Menfro 5:01 Flood gates at Bois Brule Creek 5:08 Flood gates at Gelwix 5:09 St Mary (or St Marys in the timetable) 5:35 Saline Creek bridge, note US-61 on the left 5:58 Tower Rock quarry 6:53 #807? southbound 7:29 Crystal City 10:00 Lindenwood shots east near Lindenwood; can see some landmarks 10:17 at Union Station 11:22 Tower Grove depot westbound 12:03 now westbound through Lindenwood 12:28 looks like southbound into Chaffee 12:55 #807 arriving southbound at Chaffee 13:36 shorter gentleman next to locomotive ladder looks like Clifford Pobst, engineer 14:21 #808 arriving northbound late or next day
Actually this is a wonderful treat, for many reasons. First, the rough video reflects the actual track conditions in 1964. I rode 808 on June 28 from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis to catch the Mopac Colorado Eagle to Colorado Springs to start at the Air Force Academy. I was amazed how much smoother the ride was on the Mopac. In addition, the video clearly shows how much smoother an E unit rode than the 4 wheel trucked F. Second, the video really captures the scenes on the River Division like no other, great for modeling and understanding the railroad environment. Keith, the slides and prints I gave you a few years ago include most of the places of interest in this video. It would be fun to correlate them. Third, the daily operations are fully represented. It’s apparent that the photographer overnighted in Chaffee and then shot from the cab of the northbound freight between there and St. Louis early the next morning. From the cab of 836 (?), the southbound meet at Cape Rock is the M-I train from Ste. Genevieve to Thebes and back north up the Illinois side following cessation of the ferry operation. Note all of the cement and lime cars plus the Mopac caboose. The other southbound was the local freight to Chaffee, as well as the 807 meet around Crystal City. You can fill in the details using the River Division ETT. Fourth, it’s hard to miss the differences in the culture from ours today and what we have lost, in my opinion. All of the passengers are dressed as if traveling were an important event (I wore a suit and tie.) And photographing the crew at Chaffee was a hoot. Imagine photographing the pilots or an Amtrak engineer today. I got chewed out by the flight attendant a couple of years ago for even asking the pilots of a commuter flight a question as we were deplaning in Dallas. ps. This video from Chaffee northward was done on a Sunday, as the passenger train did not have an RPO baggage car that day. The other ones in the video have them. Thank you for posting. Ken McElreath
Right you are Keith! During that era, none of the Engineer's seats had any shock absorption, and little padding. (Referred to as "Toad Stool" seats by the crews.) During my full time years, I actually had a few engines with armrests and reclining backs. I don't think I've ever run an engine that had shock absorption, unless the Ace/Dash things did and I just didn't know it. However, with that power I essentially made yard moves (20 MPH max), so can't say in regards to main line track speeds.
Isn’t there some software that can smooth the camera work out some? If we can land a tractor on Mars and fly a helicopter around there, surely we can smooth out the camera work in this film. I agree. Great imagery throughout. A world long gone that I can remember very well and miss terribly.
All the comments about seat cushions in engine cabs reminded me what my friend was told by an engineer when my friend mentioned the new air conditioners being installed on the Cab roofs of the units. When my friend said it’s great that they did that for the crews, the engineer said hell, son, they didn’t do that for us, they don’t care about us at all, they did that for the new computers.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=831735518404565 My small tidbit of the River Division from Chaffee to St. Louis 1967.
You actually did pretty well, here. What was the load on the car directly in front of you? From this angle, at least, it doesn't look like anything I've seen before. GS
