SP Overland Limited in early 1920s

From: KyleKWyatt@gmail.com

I'm looking for a typical consist for the Overland Limited on the Southern Pacific in the early 1920s - what would have been pulled by the SP 4-6-2 class P-8 locos across Nevada. The P-8s were built in 1921, and most of them saw initial service pulling trains between Sparks and Ogden.

—Kyle Wyatt

"Blind Tom," the UPRR horse

From: "Diane Wilson" dianeleewilson@grai.net

I have a book called "Animals Who Have Won Our Hearts" [by Jean Craighead George] that says a horse named Blind Tom "hauled every rail in the eleven hundred miles of Union Pacific roadbed. No other horse helped him." Is this true? Do you have any other information on this horse or the other horses that worked on the railroad? ...

—Diane Wilson

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Gasconade River Bridge Wreck

From: "Dot Duncan" DotD825@verizon.net

It was with great interest that I read your outstanding article about the Gasconade River Bridge Wreck outside St. Louis, MO in 1855. According to information I've obtained, my great grandfather, Franz Johann Georg Specht (Francis G. Specht), M.D., of St. Louis was a survivor of that train wreck. He was with the German newspaper, Anzeiger des Westens, prior to his graduation from Washington University School of Medicine (Class of 1858), so I don't know why he would have been selected to ride that inaugural train at the tender age of 23! I would be most interested to obtain any info you have regarding a list of passengers, list of injured and dead from the wreck, or any references you could cite where I might obtain this information. It would be nice to validate the info regarding my ancestor.

I am in the process of obtaining a copy of Dr. Specht's obit from an English-written newspaper in St. Louis where it was mentioned that he was a survivor of the Gasconade Train Disaster of 1855 ...

Dot (Wilson) Duncan
Tampa, Florida

Dorothy Wilson Duncan
d/o Dorothy Gibson Dawson and Gerald Franklin Wilson
d/o James Gibson Dawson and Doretta Caroline Specht
d/o Franz Johann Georg Specht and Doretta Caroline (Rosenthal) Specht

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Gasconade River, August, 2012

Southern Pacific/UP Flanger Operations

From: "Lewis Raymond C TSgt 355 AMXS/MXABS" Raymond.Lewis@dm.af.mil

I am contacting you in hopes of obtaining any/all information available regarding the evolution, operations or any pertinent facts regarding flanger's used on the SP system, most notably Donner Pass. I have spent many days photographing trains in the heavy snow on Donner and would like to do an article on them. I know several of the crew members, as well as the MOW employees in Truckee for that vantage point, but now I would like to get some "nuts and bolts" information. I appreciate any assistance that you can offer to me,

Raymond Lewis
TSgt Raymond Lewis
355 AMXS/357 AMU
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ
228-2254

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