Anonymous User
September 24, 2009 09:29AM
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I am new to this group but share the passion for tracks a little narrower than usual.
I grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin home of the famous overalls used by many a railroader but now better know for the enormous EAA convention held there every summer. My grandfather was a tower operator for the C&NW which is where my passion first started. Every summer we would journey to Colorado for vacation near Nathrop so that instilled my love of the mountains.
Following my graduation from college with a degree in Mechanical Engineering I was hired on by the BN to work in their backshops. My first assignment was Burlington, Iowa which was formerly the main backshop for the CB&Q. At that time (1981) there were still a few steam heads left. The boilermakers were of course all deaf but my boss had been involved with the design and manufacturing of the 5600 series of engines including the famous CB&Q excursion engine the 5632 which was unfortunately scrapped. At the Burlington shop I ran the erecting room floor which was responsible for the initial teardown and final assembly on all locomotives. At Burlington we only handled EMD's. Our responsibility included rebuilds for the last of the E units running Metra service in Chicago. There was considerable pressure to turn a Metra engine Class I overhaul in one weeks time as there were so few spare engines. A Class I overhaul was a complete teardown of the engine to its frame and done every 1 million miles. We had spare engines and trucks ready for the process so usually the only slowdown was painting. We had sufficient crane capacity to lift the entire locomotive and place it on its new trucks vs the standard practice of using a drop table.
I was promoted to General Foreman of the Livingston, Montana shops after several years. At Livingston we overhauled both EMD and GE units. our test procedure on completed units was to put them into helper service over the Bozeman Pass and see if they would throw a rod or suffer some other embarassing meltdown before shipping them out over the system.
The BN abruptly decided to close both Livingston and Burlington Iowa following the merger with Santa Fe. Since I didn't want to move to Alliance, Nebraska and was getting tired of the endless promise of more moves I decided to leave the railroad and have worked independently since as a mechanical and electrical designer of automation equipment.
I have a rather diverse range of hobbies, including antique airplane restoration (mostly Aeronca's), pipe organ construction and chopper construction. I just returned from another trip to Durango and hope to get involved there with some volunteer work.
Bruce Case
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Samart |
September 11, 2009 06:03PM |
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Etrump |
September 11, 2009 07:56PM |
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dandtsrr2 |
September 12, 2009 12:31AM |
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rdmstr |
September 12, 2009 12:29AM |
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Samart |
September 12, 2009 08:35AM |
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michael |
September 12, 2009 10:08AM |
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k28drgw |
September 24, 2009 09:28PM |
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K-27 Afficianado |
September 12, 2009 01:30AM |
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Ten Wheeler |
September 12, 2009 11:38AM |
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Steve Singer |
September 12, 2009 01:58PM |
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San Juan |
September 12, 2009 12:20PM |
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gbrewer |
September 12, 2009 01:39PM |
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Jason Rose |
September 12, 2009 05:04PM |
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dandtsrr2 |
September 12, 2009 06:13PM |
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Skip |
September 12, 2009 04:35PM |
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Will Gant |
September 12, 2009 07:19PM |
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JS Driver |
September 12, 2009 10:32PM |
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South Park |
September 12, 2009 11:20PM |
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El Skonk |
September 12, 2009 11:43PM |
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chris king |
September 14, 2009 02:23PM |
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Brian Norden |
September 12, 2009 11:47PM |
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Wayne Laepple |
September 13, 2009 08:03AM |
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Phil Raynes |
September 24, 2009 07:52PM |
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Donald Foster |
September 13, 2009 09:46AM |
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J.B.Bane |
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BillD |
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Samart |
September 13, 2009 02:47PM |
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BillD |
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Festus |
September 13, 2009 03:17PM |
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EBTfan15 |
September 13, 2009 06:55PM |
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Larry Spencer |
September 13, 2009 08:33PM |
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Steve Singer |
September 14, 2009 10:52AM |
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Jason Rose |
September 14, 2009 11:01AM |
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EBTfan15 |
September 14, 2009 02:09PM |
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Ed Stabler |
September 14, 2009 03:42PM |
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EBTfan15 |
September 14, 2009 05:45PM |
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Ed Stabler |
September 20, 2009 08:29PM |
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Russo Loco |
September 21, 2009 09:55PM |
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Ed Stabler |
September 21, 2009 10:16PM |
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Russo Loco |
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Swissboy |
October 09, 2009 02:29PM |
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Russo Loco |
September 18, 2009 07:15AM |
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Festus |
September 18, 2009 10:21AM |
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Russo Loco |
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EBTfan15 |
September 20, 2009 06:53PM |
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South Park |
September 20, 2009 09:03PM |
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Skip |
September 21, 2009 09:55AM |
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Russo Loco |
September 18, 2009 06:56AM |
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Ed Stabler |
September 18, 2009 07:32AM |
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Russo Loco |
September 18, 2009 08:00AM |
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South Park |
September 20, 2009 09:07PM |
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Russo Loco |
September 21, 2009 11:05PM |
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Jason Rose |
September 20, 2009 05:23PM |
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Skip |
September 18, 2009 01:53PM |
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Russo Loco |
September 16, 2009 11:51PM |
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Ed Stabler |
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Russo Loco |
September 17, 2009 09:58PM |
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John Bush |
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wt fan |
September 14, 2009 04:02AM |
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sjh7 |
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bookemdanno |
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Larry Spencer |
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drgwk37 |
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u3o8geo |
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jalbers |
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drgw0579 |
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John West |
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Tom Moungovan |
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Doc |
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Samart |
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BillD |
September 14, 2009 07:53PM |
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Russo Loco |
September 18, 2009 10:28PM |
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Eugene Blabey |
March 23, 2010 06:32AM |
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Skip |
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Mike Trent |
September 14, 2009 05:13PM |
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jim pallow |
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1972FordF-100 |
September 14, 2009 07:28PM |
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Consol |
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Bob Foley |
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Rick Steele |
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jalbers |
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Rick Steele |
September 15, 2009 02:28PM |
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myork |
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southparkline1 |
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MD Ramsey |
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Rick Steele |
September 16, 2009 04:28PM |
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Larry Spencer |
September 17, 2009 12:21AM |
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MD Ramsey |
September 17, 2009 07:17AM |
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Rick Steele |
September 17, 2009 01:29PM |
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Skip |
September 22, 2009 10:08AM |
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jim pallow |
September 15, 2009 06:16PM |
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D&RGW Chase |
September 15, 2009 06:56PM |
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Rick Steele |
September 15, 2009 08:38PM |
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Jeff Badger |
September 15, 2009 08:52PM |
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Charlie Mutschler |
September 16, 2009 07:38AM |
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Russo Loco |
September 18, 2009 10:44PM |
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TUnfried |
September 16, 2009 09:42AM |
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Russo Loco |
September 16, 2009 10:50PM |
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Russo Loco |
March 22, 2010 06:27PM |
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Samart |
March 22, 2010 06:47PM |
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bookemdanno |
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John Cole |
March 22, 2010 08:46PM |
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Tom Shreve |
September 17, 2009 01:46AM |
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bonefish |
September 17, 2009 07:47AM |
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Jeff A. |
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Skip |
September 18, 2009 02:03PM |
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Granflaten |
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El Nehi |
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Sam Seiber |
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SandingValve |
September 19, 2009 09:50PM |
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george pearce |
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John West |
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george pearce |
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geode |
September 22, 2009 08:13AM |
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SebJ |
September 22, 2009 12:52PM |
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bookemdanno |
September 25, 2009 05:07AM |
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SebJ |
September 25, 2009 05:46AM |
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Jim Grigsby |
September 23, 2009 02:47PM |
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Anonymous User |
September 24, 2009 09:29AM |
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Tom Moungovan |
September 25, 2009 07:16AM |
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TUnfried |
September 25, 2009 04:14PM |
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Russo Loco |
October 08, 2009 08:03PM |
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guymonmd |
September 24, 2009 01:00PM |
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Dan Markoff |
March 22, 2010 11:36PM |
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JJreel |
April 16, 2010 04:05PM |
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Skip |
April 16, 2010 04:21PM |
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Jon Bentz |
April 16, 2010 05:03PM |