Mid-Continent Railway Gazette Vol 25
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Mid-Continent’s Winter Workers Volunteer hours make Snow Train possible. Among the many members who helped with the winter event were Jeff Nelson, top left; Bob C. Welke, top right; Dave Schumacher and Art Oseland, bottom left; and Delrosa Bruns, bottom right. The Mid-Continent Railway Gazette is published by the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, Inc., P.O. Box 55, North Freedom, Wis. 53951, 608/522-4261, and is distributed free to members and friends of the society. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the editor, Jo h n Gruber, 1430 Drake St., Madison, Wis. 53711. Vol. 25, No. 1, March 1992. © 1992 Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, Inc. 2 / Mid-Continent Railway Gazette ROUNDHOUSE 1 While heavy snow blanketed the state and help with work projects. The social on the first day of spring, preparations for committee is serving coffee and rolls Sat the 1992 season continued. Special events urday morning and lunch at noon. A promise to draw more visitors as Thomas meeting for members interested in joining the Tank Engine brings attention to the the train crew is at 9 a.m. gift shop. Ed Green, who recently retired as art With mostly overcast skies,Mid- director of the Milwaukee Public Museum, Continent trains carried 2,311 passengers is the speaker at the dinner Saturday during the Feb. 14-17 Snow Train week night at Pierce’s Viking II restaurant, 323 end: 209 on Friday, 1,082 Saturday, and South Blvd., Baraboo. Cocktails are at 1,020 Sunday. Patrons include: coach, 6:30, buffet at 7:30. Costs is $9; reserva 1,577; first class, 512; caboose, 101; din tions are due at the office by April 18. ner, 97; and photo session, 24. The event Green directs the Mitchell Gallery of opened Friday with a train headed by the Flight at Milwaukee’s airport. He was restored wooden Russell plow. Saginaw largely responsible for what has become Timber no. 2 and WC&C no. 1, assisted by known as the “Milwaukee style” in exhibit ex-Milwaukee diesel 988, pulled the techniques. During his 33-year tenure at trains. the museum, he designed European Vil Spring FlingApril 25-26 provides an lage, Old Milwaukee Streets, Japanese opportunity for members to get acquainted House, Hopi Pueblo, and many other Saginaw Timber no. 2 is ready to leave North Freedom with the Snow Train passen ger train. Photo by David Kahler. March 1992 / 3 A father and son team helped at Snow Train, Ralph Marquardt (left) on the train crew and Ron Marquardt as a locomotive engineer. Ralph worked for the Chicago and North Western from Aug. 29, 1950, to Dec. 19, 1991. Although he spent most of the time in freight service, he occasionally worked on C&NW passenger trains until about 1963; his jacket dates from the passenger days. exhibits. His talk will include travel and Day weekend on the following schedule field experiences as well as “Fifth Child each day: 10:30 a.m., steel passenger hood,” trains, soldiers, cars, airplanes, train with first-class service; 10:45 a.m., boats, dolls, and other collectable toys wood passenger train with first class ser from before 1940. vice in the Oak Park; 11:45 a.m., freight Season openingis Monday, May 11. train; noon, wood train; 1 p.m., steel train; During the first weeks, Mid-Continent has 1:15 p.m., wood train; 2:15 p.m., freight special fares for school groups. train; 2:30 p.m., wood train; 3:30 p.m., Although work was not completed for steel train; 3:45 p.m., wood train; 6:30 Snow Train, locomotive 1385 should be in p.m., dinner train (Saturday, and Friday if good shape for the opening. State inspec reservations warrant). tors checked boiler work Feb. 24; FRA Freedom Day May 24 in the village of officials were at the museum March 7. North Freedom includes a parade on the Shop forces tested the locomotive under main street and other events. steam March 19-20. The lagging and On Memorial Day, May 25, trains run jacket, with a fresh coat of paint, must be on the four-trips a day summer schedule. put back on the boiler, and many finishing John Hankey,curator of the B&O touches are needed. Volunteers have put Museum, Baltimore, will speak at a mem in long hours on the project, even on the bers meeting at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 20. coldest days of winter. Hankey(Gazette, March 1991) will be a Railfest, May 23-24, the first special guest at the museum that weekend. event of the season, includes additional Drake Hokansonwill be picture editor trains, demonstrations with the ex-Mis for the 30th anniversary calendar, featur souri Pacific steam wrecker, and a ing a Mid-Continent theme. railroadiana flea market. A ribbon cutting "Mid-Continent has been around long ceremony marking the 29th anniversary is enough to have a substantial history of its Saturday morning. own. We should pay attention to it. The Three types of trains will be operated calendar is a good way to do it. I am happy during the first two days of the Memorial to sift through the photos that depict the 4 / Mid-Continent Railway Gazette history I have been a small part of since sufficient to enable us to express, and we 1974,” said Hokanson, a member of the do not express, an opinion on these finan faculty at Lakeland College since last fall cial statements," Smith said in an accom and author of Lincoln Highway: Main panying letter to the board of directors. Street Across America (University of Iowa The December appealfor debt reduc Press, 1988). Photos may be sent to tion on the new car repair building Hokanson, 1617 N. 10 St., Sheboygan, WI, brought in $6,743. With monthly pay 53081 or to John Gruber, who will be the ments and the gifts from members, the car publisher and coordinate the printing. The shop loan, taken out in November 1989 deadline is May 1. for $62,803, has been reduced to $52,191. Thomas the Tank Engine,introduced President Jeff Bloohm thanked members in the U.S. by “Shining Time Station” on for their gifts. PBS television stations, has hit our gift Equipment gifts include a 24-duplex shop. The original 104 stories, known to roomette sleeper, ex-VIA Ingramport, from Britons as the Railway Series, were written Northern Rail Car Corp., Cudahy. The car by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry from the mid- was built by Canadian Car and Foundry l940s to the mid-l970s. Co. in 1950 as Canadian National 2002; it Of 58 Thomas items, the most popular was transferred to VIA in March 1978. The proved to be the die-cost toys from ERTL, car is equipped with steam heat. It has “so much so that we couldn't keep the moved to North Fond du Lac, where Wis product in inventory, and the ERTL Co. consin Central is painting the car. couldn’t supply us or the nation,” accord Curt Weber, Ft. Collins, Colo., donated ing to Jeff Haertlein. The gift shop has a steam heater car, stored at Janesville. “corralled quite a bit a mail order busi The car was built for the Great Northern, ness” and has a mail order list available. later used by W estern Pacific. As the G azette begins volume 25, its Rock IslandTechnical Society featured page size has changed. The larger, 6-inch RI baggage-coach no. 1094, owned by Jim by 9-inch format provides a 15 percent Neubauer, in data sheets 15 and 16. The increase in space with only a 6 percent car has been at Mid-Continent since 1968. increase in the base cost. “RI 1094 certainly is a relic worth of pres Results of a survey, mailed in December ervation, since it represents wood passen with the calendar, are being tabulated by ger car construction as it existed just Charles Kratz, Homewood, Ill. Members before 1910, and as modified over the returned 171 usable questionnaires. A years following,” says sheet 16 (January preliminary look at the questionnaires 1992). showed many members would prefer a Neubauer advises: “Have good relations larger size, and the beginning of a new with your service station owner, and get volume seemed like an ideal time to ini our folders in his rack. If each of our vol tiate the change, according to John unteers put a handful of brochures in Gruber, editor, who thanked members for such locations, our patronage would in returning the surveys. Full results will be crease.” Snow Train brochures Neubauer in the May Gazette. put in a service station folder rack brought The annual financial audit,prepared satisfied Mid-Continent customers. by Walter D. Smith, a Baraboo CPA, Planning ahead.The C&NW Historical shows assets of $1,003,600 for the year Society meeting is scheduled in Baraboo ending Oct. 31. Support and revenue in May 1995. totaled $410,899; costs and expenses were Deaths. James J. Kin, 73, Waukesha, $388,646. Dec. 11. For 20 years, he was a truck "The society does not have documenta driver for Jennaro Brothers, Milwaukee. tion to support the valuation of donated He also worked for the Elegant Farmer property and equipment or the cost of and, most recently, Mathison Metalfab. some which was purchased. The society’s “Please know th at he was proud of his life records do not permit the application of membership for these many years.