Gosh how I hate to see something like this happen. Those guys have been working so hard, against odd like this, just to keep running. I don't believe that they have had a steam engine operating in several years, although they have been working on getting back into steam. I wonder how much this will set back their efforts. Must be very discouraging.
In addition to the webcam, which now shows things drying out nicely, there are a couple other links to view which show before & after views of the operations & flooding at North Freedom. Links are below:
Not to belittle the tragedy, at least all the Mid-Continent equipment more or less remained in place, and from the pictures it appars to be just mud and silt damage. Here in Cedar Rapids Iowa most of downtown was ruined and many irreplaceable items destroyed (1928 just restored Wulitzer theater organ), as well as having sanitary sewer system backup everywhere (YUK).
On the railroad side, the local CRANDIC bridge collapsed in spite of having rock ballasted cars on it. Union Pacific bridge in Waterloo washed away, and Iowa Northen lost tracks to roadbed washouts.
Sam, nice to hear from you. We were worried. Do you have drinking and cooking water yet? My sister in Cedar Rapids didn't have any, due to 2 out of 3 water plants out of service.
Posts: 2318 | Location: Stone Mountain, GA | Registered:: February 18, 2004
Hi Mike Sent long reply offline, but your email address mike.mcnally@vta.com might not be correct as it bounced back. Send me a email at sdillon at infionline dot net.
One thing you can see is the value of a steamer in flooded conditions. The diesel in the water would have the traction motors shorted out, but I remember my dad telling me that when the minnesots river flooded in the 50's they went to the cities from mankato via waseca to get to the twin cities and used all the steam they could get as steamers do not short out in water.
