Algoma Central

[Anonymous]

I was a train order operator in Franz during the mid 1970s. I was employed by CP Rail at the time, but worked 3 days a week (under a co-operation agreement) with Algoma Central.

The ACR was both a progressive and old time rail company. While the CPR operated under CTC, we moved trains on the ACR by orders, dispatched from Sault Ste Marie. At that time, most trains were powered by GP7's and GP9's. The GP9's were not preferred by the train crew and were very rarely seen leading. I'm not exactly sure as to why, but seem to recall it had something to do with the braking systems.

The ACR was a tight-knit corporation. They were a small company and everyone knew everyone. From the clerks to the train crews, everyone was on a first name basis. If you needed something out of the ordinary done, all you had to do was ask someone. I bought an old Wurlitzer jukebox (sight unseen) from a conductor who knew where one was for a few years in an abandoned camp north of Franz. He arranged to have the jukebox loaded on to #6 and unloaded at Franz while I was away. Much to my delight, when I returned the following week, the jukebox was sitting in the waiting room and turned out to be a Model 1015, which is the classic "Bubbler" from 1948.

The ACR was the first railroad in North America to become fully dieselized. A tradition which didn't stick, because since then, rarely bought new equipment. The Maroon and Silver livery scheme was a late 70's paint when they aquired the F-units and superceded the classic Grey/Yellow/Maroon of previous years.

I have a website which has several photos and a description of the job at the time:
http://www.trainweb.org/franzswing

Dave

[Anonymous]

When I was working for the Wisconsin Central, every once in a while I'd read in the Chief Dispatcher's Turnover about the wayfreight crew at Gladstone, Michigan refusing the wayfreight power because they were F's (they cited visibility concerns).

My response to the assistant chief at the time was to arrange to send them down to New Brighton where we could use them on the transfer! [:D]

Back when the B's were still out of service, my conductor and I lobbied (albeit unsuccessfully) to get the 2 SD24's assigned to New Brighton as permanent transfer power and suggested that they bring a couple of the B's down to use between the SD24's (shades of the old CB&Q, anyone??). We had even offered to do some rewiring work on the SD24's when they weren't being used (they were having a lot of low-voltage control problems on them at the time).

Oddly enough, they were listening on the first part and tried to send us SD24's on a couple of occasions (one at a time on the inbound trains), only to have a thrifty power planner use them on the outbund trains so they could fill the trains to tonnage. Oh, well. It almost worked! Somewhere I have some video of one second or third out on a train at New Brighton and just east of Cardigan Jct. That was the last time I personally observed them in any sort of road service.

Those were just a few of my many memories working at the WC. Those were days when a lot of the planners actually listened to the field guys. I think some of them got a kick out of finding someone who actually wanted the old junk. Then of course, there was my "call list" of people I would tip off if we had something interesting on the point of the transfer, like say and ex-Soo GP30. I remember the day we sent one of the lower numbered 1500 series Geeps east on the point of an outbound train - this was shortly after the unit had been released to service when the short hood had been lowered. I have photos of the outbound train at New Brighton and even brought my Mom down there after I got done with work to show her the old Geep. Having grown up on the C&NW in Ames, IA, she remembered the Geeps and made a comment about how it had been a long time since she had seen one.

Those days were without a doubt, the highlight of my RR career....

Respectuflly,

-Dennis J. Holmes (Homer)
BNSF Train Dispatcher
Fort Worth, TX

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I remember an article in Railfan and Railroad 10 years ago about AC's last F-Units, and with the exception of LTV Steel, defunct since 2001, AC must have been the last operator to run F-Units in scheduled freight service. Oftenly the F-Units weren't alone as they were mixed with Geeps, but 10 years ago it was still possible to see an F-Unit heading a freight.

The author of the article was then remembering the same F-Units (wearing Soo Line's paintscheme) at the same location when he was a youngster.

Dominique

[fuzzybroken]

Never mind, found it... [sigh]