06/05/2024
Martin Hansen
Group expert
#102- Alco S-3 diesel electric switcher, c/n 79774, built 5/1952. 660 horsepower, 40" drivers, 6-cylinder model 539 engine, Weight 199,000 lbs. Purchased new. To Oregon & Northwestern #102 1956; to City of Prineville #103; to Kewash Railroad #103, Keota, iowa; to Dakota Southern Railroad. Scrapped December 2021/January 2022.
Hunting a locomotive in elephant high grass.
Martin Hansen I was involved with that engine when the Kewash RR went bust. My boss, Rich Taylor asked if I wanted to go with him to hunt down a locomotive that was trapped near Keota, Iowa.
Sure, let’s go. We hunted for traces of the locomotive passage and found newly cut asphalt on a paved over crossing. As we had a hi-rail Suburban we put onto the rails and gave chase. We ran over track that was 6-7 inches out of cross level and plenty of places where the grass was as high as an elephant’s eye. I have no idea how they moved cars of corn over that.
After a while we came to a swampy area with no roads nearby and a steel bridge over a river. Rich sighted the loco a mile away and sped up. Suddenly he slammed on the brakes and stopped short of a missing rail. Somebody had stolen a stick of rail out in the middle of nowhere. We used blocking to creep the hi-rail across the gap and caught up with crew just finishing up the spiking of the rail they put in front of the engine.
I rode in the engine and talked with a one-armed man who was running the engine. He was from the Dakotas and worked one-man trains among other things. He had plenty of time to tell the tales as the engine would not run above notch 1 without tripping the ground fault. He said he would run grain cars to elevators along the line, stop when he thought he was clear of the switch, walk to the switch, throw it for the elevator, walk back to the loco, shove the cut of cars to the spot in the elevator. Sometime an elevator employee would take pity upon him and throw the elevator switch for him.
We finally made it to Washington, Iowa but stalled on the grade. With no sand in the boxes and no way to make a run we resorted to dumping shovels of dirt on the rail.
We spotted the engine so the Soo Line could pick it up and then we adjourned to a nearby restaurant for a huge Iowa steak with fixings and cold beer.
The Kewash RR had leased a lot of items like trucks, jacks, track tools from the Keokuk Junction Railway (KJRY). When the farmers who ran the Kewash went bust they owed us, KJRY, a lot of money.
What I heard is they thought they were making a lot of money after ordering and loading a lot of grain cars that belonged to other outfits. About 6 months later bills for demurrage came in. One farmer asked what demurrage was, when told it was a type of rent on the cars. He exclaimed "Then we're not making any money at all!" That is their epitaph.
