I was an 11 year old kid in 1959, I asked the engineer if i could ride from the terminal to the Cadiz roundhouse at the end of the day.. He said " sure kid ". and up the ladder i went. What a great day. I have been crazy about 0-6-0 switchers ever since.
Thanks for visiting the channel and your comment. I have found railroad employees were very kind and understanding about a request like a cab ride. I had very much the same experience when I was growing up.
I'm jealous of you to the point of nausea! I was too shy to even get close to the locomotive, much less talk to the engineer or fireman (or switchman)...!.. ARGHH!!!
Some may recall that I commented that I was a Towerman in the '60s in DUTCo,s South and North towers, on a couple of videos, some time ago. Note the partially-demolished viaduct in several of the shots. It was east of the terminal and was the Texas Electric (TE) interurban and Dallas Railway & Terminal (DRT) streetcar viaduct over the Trinity River south to the DRT's shop and lines in Oak Cliff and the TE's shop and line to Waco. It was double-tracked. The South Tower is/was just south of the viaduct by maybe several hundred feet or so. (Haven't been in that area in decades.) As a side-note: The traction lines were 600 Volts in town. The TE switched to 1,200 Volts outside of the city limits for mainline running. There was a Voltage changeover switch in the interurban cars and freight motors which the motormen operated at the boundaries. All the Dallas cars were straight 600 Volts. I remember 7-Spot very well, as I hung-out around the Terminal starting in '59 and took a Kodachrome of her blowing-down her mud ring one day - very spectacular! The word on the street was that she had broken her frame several times and there was concern about it being able to be welded again. Plus the American Petrofina refinery in Paris, Texas had announced that it would no longer be refining/supplying Bunker-C, which the locomotive burned. Seven-Spot's time had come to an end. I followed her the day she was moved to The Age of Steam exhibit in Fair Park, dead, in a short train. That was a depressing day and after, as she sat derelict and lifeless in the park. She was replaced by a 1,000 hp E-M-D switcher which was later painted, as I recall, with both the Katy herald (Deramus era) and the T&P (or maybe MP) herald - not sure, now - but I know that some photos yet exist of it. Your videos sure bring back some bittersweet memories... I'm really glad that you reproduced some of the newspaper clippings, as they helped refresh my memory! Keep up the chronicles of my youth! Thinking back, those were hard but great days!
Thanks so much for watching and your very valuable comments. It is great that you, as a former DUTCo employee, found this channel and was able to give us all firsthand accounts of those days. There were so many changes from the final run of No 7 until the last passenger service prior to Amtrak. Would you be able to tell us what DUTCo offices were extended above the train sheds? That part was removed for some reason. I would think that would be the best offices in the entire building. Thanks again.
@@timetable5245 OK - Originally, that wing was a grand hallway with steps going DOWN to the platforms - before the tunnel was constructed under the tracks in, I think,1956, with ramps going up to the platforms. Access was by a wide stairway on the left side off the main terminal building lobby. When the tunnel was finished, the doorways to the platform steps were bricked up. You could see that discontinuity in the external architecture - even though the steps remained (at least for a while) - going into a blank wall. (The steps were pretty steep with no landings and a little intimidating.) It was after this that offices were constructed. I only went up there one or two times out of curiosity, as there was nothing there that appeared to be of particular interest. That wing was demolished in probably the early '70s, some time after private passenger train service collapsed - there was no longer a need for offices. (I went down there one day after it all had ended and it was very spooky to see no equipment or people at all - just vacant tracks & platforms - it was like a doomsday movie where suddenly everybody just picked-up and left...) As I recall, there were mostly railroad (express freight and passenger) offices up there (by that time, there were only six passenger railroads running into Dallas - the Cotton Belt gave up in '51 or '52) - but I could be wrong about the offices. As to terminal-only offices, I'm not sure what was up there. By the time the wing had been converted to offices, Terminal offices had already been established with the original construction of the Terminal. I know the Signal Supervisor's office was down around the Railway Express shed on Track 1 (south), as the Towermen were under the Signal Supervisor. The only other office I visited was the Telegraph Office on the opposite side of the building (North Tower end) on an upper floor. A little side story: An old Towerman told me that during tunnel construction, a deep and wide ditch was dug for the tunnel, cutting some of the platform tracks (so that they were temporarily no longer through tracks), so trains had to stop way short and later back-out for departure. Southbound Katy trains had their dining cars, generally towards the head-end of the trains, cut out at Denison for servicing. Well, one day, a train came rolling in and nearly took a header into the ditch because it couldn't stop. It obtained that a carman in Denison failed to cut the air back in to the rest of the train after cutting out the diner and re-making the train, so most of the train had no brakes... We'll leave alone why the engineer didn't perform a running brake test soon after departing Denison... You sure are good at conjuring up old memories - more than you ever wanted to know...
@@frankschultz4170 Frank - thanks so much for giving all of us a better understanding of DUTCo's operation. You have given us a wonderful description of the Terminal that I would imagine most people never would have known. Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts about the Terminal so we could all enjoy them. One of the things I thought about as I read your post is the many jobs and railroad empolyees that simply disappeared with the "collapse" (I like the word you used) of private railroad passenger service - and it seemed to have happened suddenly. The only similar event I can liken it to would be the end of operation of the Rock Island Railroad. As you know, railroads steadily lost jobs from about the 80's for the next two decades when deregulation swept the industry. Technology took a very big swipe out of jobs with the advent of internet capable communications - from voice (radio and telephone) to signaling. Crew reduction (began, I suppose in the early 60's with the elimination of the fireman's position) and subsequently, the removal of the caboose (I think the jury is still out on that decision - are crews safer without a caboose?). The position of head-end and rear-end brakeman was eliminated. I suppose there is no longer a need for anyone to step off a locomotive in through service to throw a switch. The clerk's positions have been swept asunder with the scrapping of depots. A conductor no longer carries waybills - all digital transfer, so no need for a waybill box. So much of railroad revenue comes from double-stack container trains that came with the off-shoring of American manufacturing. Are we really better off now?
@@timetable5245 I have to say that what the description said about steam engines being romantic is certainly true! Honestly in my opinion while I have grown Fond of Diesel engines since I have seen them every day since I was really young I have to say that only a few of them can equal the fascination that comes with a steam engine. To be honest other than the most colorful ones ever made as the Santa Fe red war bonnets and the Pioneer Zephyr I don’t think that most diesels are truly comparable to the wonder of a steam engine
Enjoyable video! DUT would only be an active passenger terminal for eight more years (later to be resurrected for Amtrak). I have read that No. 7 would travel to T&NO's Houston Shops for heavy maintenance if such maintenance could not be performed at the DUT Roundhouse. I wonder what power was substituted when No. 7 was away?
Thanks for watching and your comment. I've done some research, but can't find a photo of the replacement DUTCo switch engine. It was a small switch engine, No 8, and was painted black and lettered "Union Terminal Company" - perhaps an EMD.
Thank you, Another excellent view of history.
Many thanks!
I was an 11 year old kid in 1959, I asked the engineer if i could ride from the terminal to the Cadiz roundhouse at the end of the day.. He said " sure kid ". and up the ladder i went. What a great day. I have been crazy about 0-6-0 switchers ever since.
Thanks for visiting the channel and your comment. I have found railroad employees were very kind and understanding about a request like a cab ride. I had very much the same experience when I was growing up.
I'm jealous of you to the point of nausea! I was too shy to even get close to the locomotive, much less talk to the engineer or fireman (or switchman)...!.. ARGHH!!!
Thank goodness she still preserved today at the museum of American railroad in Frisco Texas
Thanks for stopping by and I agree. It is fortunate no. 7 was preserved. I wish it could be restored to operating condition some day.
American perception about proportion of rolling stock will never stop to fascinate me. This little switcher is bigger than our mainline locomotives
Thanks visiting the channel and your comment.
Some may recall that I commented that I was a Towerman in the '60s in DUTCo,s South and North towers, on a couple of videos, some time ago. Note the partially-demolished viaduct in several of the shots. It was east of the terminal and was the Texas Electric (TE) interurban and Dallas Railway & Terminal (DRT) streetcar viaduct over the Trinity River south to the DRT's shop and lines in Oak Cliff and the TE's shop and line to Waco. It was double-tracked. The South Tower is/was just south of the viaduct by maybe several hundred feet or so. (Haven't been in that area in decades.)
As a side-note: The traction lines were 600 Volts in town. The TE switched to 1,200 Volts outside of the city limits for mainline running. There was a Voltage changeover switch in the interurban cars and freight motors which the motormen operated at the boundaries. All the Dallas cars were straight 600 Volts.
I remember 7-Spot very well, as I hung-out around the Terminal starting in '59 and took a Kodachrome of her blowing-down her mud ring one day - very spectacular! The word on the street was that she had broken her frame several times and there was concern about it being able to be welded again. Plus the American Petrofina refinery in Paris, Texas had announced that it would no longer be refining/supplying Bunker-C, which the locomotive burned. Seven-Spot's time had come to an end.
I followed her the day she was moved to The Age of Steam exhibit in Fair Park, dead, in a short train. That was a depressing day and after, as she sat derelict and lifeless in the park. She was replaced by a 1,000 hp E-M-D switcher which was later painted, as I recall, with both the Katy herald (Deramus era) and the T&P (or maybe MP) herald - not sure, now - but I know that some photos yet exist of it.
Your videos sure bring back some bittersweet memories... I'm really glad that you reproduced some of the newspaper clippings, as they helped refresh my memory! Keep up the chronicles of my youth! Thinking back, those were hard but great days!
Thanks so much for watching and your very valuable comments. It is great that you, as a former DUTCo employee, found this channel and was able to give us all firsthand accounts of those days. There were so many changes from the final run of No 7 until the last passenger service prior to Amtrak. Would you be able to tell us what DUTCo offices were extended above the train sheds? That part was removed for some reason. I would think that would be the best offices in the entire building. Thanks again.
@@timetable5245 OK - Originally, that wing was a grand hallway with steps going DOWN to the platforms - before the tunnel was constructed under the tracks in, I think,1956, with ramps going up to the platforms. Access was by a wide stairway on the left side off the main terminal building lobby. When the tunnel was finished, the doorways to the platform steps were bricked up. You could see that discontinuity in the external architecture - even though the steps remained (at least for a while) - going into a blank wall. (The steps were pretty steep with no landings and a little intimidating.) It was after this that offices were constructed. I only went up there one or two times out of curiosity, as there was nothing there that appeared to be of particular interest. That wing was demolished in probably the early '70s, some time after private passenger train service collapsed - there was no longer a need for offices.
(I went down there one day after it all had ended and it was very spooky to see no equipment or people at all - just vacant tracks & platforms - it was like a doomsday movie where suddenly everybody just picked-up and left...)
As I recall, there were mostly railroad (express freight and passenger) offices up there (by that time, there were only six passenger railroads running into Dallas - the Cotton Belt gave up in '51 or '52) - but I could be wrong about the offices. As to terminal-only offices, I'm not sure what was up there. By the time the wing had been converted to offices, Terminal offices had already been established with the original construction of the Terminal. I know the Signal Supervisor's office was down around the Railway Express shed on Track 1 (south), as the Towermen were under the Signal Supervisor. The only other office I visited was the Telegraph Office on the opposite side of the building (North Tower end) on an upper floor.
A little side story: An old Towerman told me that during tunnel construction, a deep and wide ditch was dug for the tunnel, cutting some of the platform tracks (so that they were temporarily no longer through tracks), so trains had to stop way short and later back-out for departure.
Southbound Katy trains had their dining cars, generally towards the head-end of the trains, cut out at Denison for servicing. Well, one day, a train came rolling in and nearly took a header into the ditch because it couldn't stop. It obtained that a carman in Denison failed to cut the air back in to the rest of the train after cutting out the diner and re-making the train, so most of the train had no brakes... We'll leave alone why the engineer didn't perform a running brake test soon after departing Denison...
You sure are good at conjuring up old memories - more than you ever wanted to know...
@@frankschultz4170 Frank - thanks so much for giving all of us a better understanding of DUTCo's operation. You have given us a wonderful description of the Terminal that I would imagine most people never would have known. Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts about the Terminal so we could all enjoy them. One of the things I thought about as I read your post is the many jobs and railroad empolyees that simply disappeared with the "collapse" (I like the word you used) of private railroad passenger service - and it seemed to have happened suddenly. The only similar event I can liken it to would be the end of operation of the Rock Island Railroad. As you know, railroads steadily lost jobs from about the 80's for the next two decades when deregulation swept the industry. Technology took a very big swipe out of jobs with the advent of internet capable communications - from voice (radio and telephone) to signaling. Crew reduction (began, I suppose in the early 60's with the elimination of the fireman's position) and subsequently, the removal of the caboose (I think the jury is still out on that decision - are crews safer without a caboose?). The position of head-end and rear-end brakeman was eliminated. I suppose there is no longer a need for anyone to step off a locomotive in through service to throw a switch. The clerk's positions have been swept asunder with the scrapping of depots. A conductor no longer carries waybills - all digital transfer, so no need for a waybill box. So much of railroad revenue comes from double-stack container trains that came with the off-shoring of American manufacturing. Are we really better off now?
Great video
Thanks for the visit and your comment.
@@timetable5245 I have to say that what the description said about steam engines being romantic is certainly true! Honestly in my opinion while I have grown Fond of Diesel engines since I have seen them every day since I was really young I have to say that only a few of them can equal the fascination that comes with a steam engine. To be honest other than the most colorful ones ever made as the Santa Fe red war bonnets and the Pioneer Zephyr I don’t think that most diesels are truly comparable to the wonder of a steam engine
My grandfather worked as a Switchman on the #7.
Thanks for watching and sharing your story.
When?
#7 was saved from the scrapper's torch.
Enjoyable video! DUT would only be an active passenger terminal for eight more years (later to be resurrected for Amtrak). I have read that No. 7 would travel to T&NO's Houston Shops for heavy maintenance if such maintenance could not be performed at the DUT Roundhouse. I wonder what power was substituted when No. 7 was away?
Thanks for watching and your comment. I've done some research, but can't find a photo of the replacement DUTCo switch engine. It was a small switch engine, No 8, and was painted black and lettered "Union Terminal Company" - perhaps an EMD.
does the engine still exist or was it cut up ?
In fact, this locomotive is preserved and on display at the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, TX www.historictrains.org/
@@timetable5245 ah, thats good
Was the #7 one of a kind or were there other steamers on the roster?
Thanks for watching and your comment. There was only one No 7 - no other switcher was on the Union Terminal Company roster.