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Volume 37 Number 5 May 2006 Trips I Have Taken Oh So Long Ago - To Kansas City For Ball Games — By H. Martin Swan Inside this issue Missouri Pacific’s Missouri River Eagle at Kansas City. Photo-Courtesy H. Martin Swan Officer Contact List P.2 Membership Information P.2 Meeting Notice The May meeting of the Northstar Chapter will be at 7pm May 20 The President’s Page P.2 at the St. Paul Fire Department Training Center, 1695 Energy Park Trips I Have Taken Oh So Long Ago- P.3 Drive, St. Paul (Snelling and Energy Park Drive just east of Midway Kansas City Stadium). Mike Mackner will show a program on Civil War railroading. Interchange Track P.4 What’s In A Name? P.5 Rail Camp Manager Terminated P.7 April Meeting Minutes P.7 Page Northstar Chapter Officers Board of Directors President H. Martin Swan Email: [email protected] Phone: 612-961-1684 Vice President Mark Braun Email: [email protected] Phone: 320-587-2279 Past President Bill Herzog Email [email protected] Phone: 952-470-4021 National Director Doug Johnson Email: [email protected] Phone: 612-825-6458 Treasurer Joe Fishbein Email: [email protected] Phone: 651-457-1610 Secretary Dave Norman Email:[email protected] Phone: 612-729-2428 Trustee Dennis Louden Email: [email protected] Phone: 651-698-8559 Staff Program Chairman John Goodman Email: [email protected] Newsletter Editor Russ Isbrandt Email: [email protected] Phone: 651-426-1156 Webmaster Dan Meyer Website: www.northstar-nrhs.org Note: Consult the website for any announcements regarding Chapter activities including cancellation of meeting for any reason including weather. Membership Information Dues are $34 (this includes $22 National dues and $12 Northstar Chapter dues). Family memberships are $4 additional. The student rate is $17 ($11 to the National). If you want to join, an application is available at http://www.northstar-nrhs.org/. Print out the application and send it with a check made out to Northstar Chapter, NRHS to Treasurer, Northstar Chapter NRHS, 1092 Humboldt Ave, West Saint Paul, MN 55118. The President’s Page Well it is time for some fun stuff and then some not so fun director for the Chapter after Doug was required to leave in stuff. order to come back to Twin Cities) will present the details of the BOD to the membership. But while I was there, a very How to tell if you are getting old: I have a watch with a little good friend of mine and I went to a very nice and very expen- BN freight train running around and around on the face of the sive restaurant for our evening meal. watch. It had stopped and I decided that I might want to wear it one of these days again. So I took the watch to one of those My friend loves battery places to have them install a new battery. I handed prime rib and the watch to the guy behind the counter. He opened it up, the restaurant looked at it, closed it and then wound it up and handed it offered just one back to me. Uh, it works just fine now that it has been wound size of prime up again. Too bad somebody wasn’t there with a camera to rib- 32oz bone take the picture of my jaw falling to the floor and the beauti- in! He ordered ful color of red my face became. it, and man, I have never seen I, along with Doug Johnson and Dan Meyer, just returned from such a hunk of Indianapolis to attend the Spring BOD. I will give a trip write meat. I would up later on, and both Doug and Dan (who was the alternate say he ate 28 oz of it. Being somewhat saner, I opted for the 15oz rack of Page 2 lamb hmmmmm. I’ve included a picture of that prime rib One year I talked my Grandfather into taking the Missouri meal. It has nothing to do with railroading but I think it worth- River Eagle down. This did cost Grandfather a little bit of while seeing. money since he had a CB&Q pass where he could ride free, whereas he had to pay 50% on the MoPac’s Missouri River The hotel we stayed at in Indy was the Crowne Plaza, which Eagle. uses the head house of the old Indianapolis Union Station. The railroad/bus terminal is in a small corner in what was the I was thrilled with the chance to ride the Eagle because (1) it basement of the Union Station. There is NO direct connection was on a railroad I had never been on, (2) they used Alco PA’s between them nor could anybody at the railroad/bus terminal and (3) the Eagle had a Planetarium dome. tell us how to get to the hotel. So at 4:00 am Doug Johnson, two other NRHS members who came by train, and I were So it was that on July 16, 1960, Grandfather and I went over wandering around the streets of Indy with all of our luggage, to 33rd & O Street to flag down the bus that ran from Lincoln trying to get to the hotel. We finally got there, but you know, to Union where we would intersect the MoPac’s Omaha/ while the lobby has railroad pictures and plaster figures of Kansas City main line. Clearly after all these years I don’t conductor’s etc. standing around, once you get to your room, really remember too much about the trip. I recall that there it is just like the hotel rooms of a million other hotels. The were a handful of passengers in the bus and when we got to only view from our room was looking down on the railroad Union there was already a gaggle of passengers waiting for cars that had been converted into suites for guests with lots the train. The train came in—headed by a E-7 not an Alco PA, of money. further there was no dome this day. Oh well, getting on that blue and cream train was a thrill. About all I can remember Now for the not so fun stuff: I had to send to a little over 20 about the ride was that the Missouri River was nowhere to be of our members a letter in lieu of this newsletter, advising seen. them that their membership was terminated. Dues were due by March 31st. Yes, while the National was late getting the Lunch was also a bit of a disappointment; I had a choice of a dues notices out, they still came out in January. and our choice of a beef or pork sandwich or a chef’s salad. members have had 2+ months to pay their dues, plus an ad- ditional month that I allowed in April. It is my fervent hope that these members will send in their dues so that they can participate in our activities, and for that matter the National’s activities including the Annual Convention, once again. Not to terminate these memberships would not be fair to those of us who have paid our dues. All of you who have paid will be reading this and I hope to see you at our May meeting. Marty Trips I Have Taken Oh So Long Ago To Kansas City For Ball Games By H. Martin Swan The Silver Streak Zephyr at St. Joseph, MO. Note the 9932B When I was young, my Grandfather and I would several times has the then new red nose stripes. Photo by H. Martin Swan a year go down to Sherman Field to watch the Class A West- ern League Lincoln Chiefs play baseball. We were in the Pitts- After the game it was time to return on train #21. This train burgh Pirate organization and we had a great many players used to be the Silver Streak Zephyr which operated as a sin- that later became stars for the Pirates play for Lincoln. gle train from Kansas City to Lincoln. The CB&Q decided to cut the train back to a Kansas City/Omaha train with “cross About once a year Grandfather and I would go to Kansas City the platform” connections with trains to/from Lincoln. For to watch the Kansas City Athletics play. This was before some reason they also removed the train’s name, and as Charlie Finley. At that time the KC A’s were considered a joke such it only carried the number. It was a full service day train and a de facto New York Yankee farm team, since every time with streamlined and heavyweight coaches and a dining par- they would get a good player, they would trade him to the lor car. I had been on this route before and it was, shall we Yankees, for example Bob Cerv. say, uninteresting—at least for a 19 year old. Years later as a 29 year old I found the route quite interesting. At least this We would check the schedule for a Saturday or Sunday after- dining car had “food”, halibut steak, Plantation shortcake and noon game and head down on the Silver Streak Zephyr for boiled brisket of fresh beef. the game. I believe that this was the last of our Kansas City trips. I was (Continued on page 5) Page 3 Interchange Track Items from Exchange Newsletters Fort Wayne Historical Society’s Nickel Plate Berkshire 765 86 were headed to Chicago April 2nd, and 9370, 71,and 72 performed break-in runs March 25-26 on the Chicago Fort were in Chicago’s Cicero Yard April 4th.