by Tom Johnson, Chapter President
Greetings to all chapter members and friends!
Our March meeting was another good one. We had fifteen people in attendance and we all enjoyed ourselves.
One of my goals for this year was accomplished at the March meeting, namely the purchase of a back-up overhead projector that we can use for slide presentations and for times when the old unit in the Depot doesn’t want to work. We voted to buy Chuck Hinrichs’ projector for $250. The motion was passed with a unanimous vote.
We have some details to work out as far as where the unit will be kept. We may have the means to lock it up safely at the Depot between meetings.
The subject for discussion at the March meeting was “Why did the IC RR continue to use steam locomotives on their coal trains in western Kentucky so long after other railroads had gone to diesel-electrics exclusively?”
Someone said that they believed that the continuing use of steam was just a manifestation of the IC’s tendency to use equipment until it was “used up.” Someone even said the IC believed equipment should be used until it is worn out and then re-built and used again. Another reason put forth was that the IC had that excellent roundhouse and shop in Paducah where steam locomotives could be totally rebuilt. Investments in the steam locomotive fleet had been made as late as the 1940s and even the early 1950s, so the fleet was in good shape in the mid 1950s.
Whatever their reasons, your Old Prez is grateful to the IC that they kept those steam locomotives running as long as they did because that allowed me to see them in action “up close and personal” when I spent summers with my grandmother in 1958, 1959, and 1960. Her house was only 100 feet from the tracks on the “Old Line” that ran from Dawson Springs to Central City. Those locomotives were something I will never forget.
I ask you chapter members again to please submit your ideas for the discussion part of our meetings. You submit those ideas by emailing Matt Gentry at the Chapter Email address, info@westkentuckynrhs.org. Ideas are used on a first come first served basis.
Hey, a few chapter members have been getting together over the last few weeks and going train spotting. It has not worked out so that I could go but I have been asked several times and I appreciate it. Maybe one of these days I will be able to go. If you would like to be included when some of the members are going train spotting, just let it be known that you would like to be asked; I’m sure you would be welcome.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing all of you at the next meeting on April 21, 2014.