Fireman and Engineer's Seat Box Contents

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Mon Jun 11 19:57:48 EDT 2007


I cannot speak for the N&W. BUt from personal experience on the ACL
the number one item was cotton waste, along with fusees, torpedoes,
a couple of unlighted lanterns, spare bulbs for the overhead lights in the
cab,
and the fireman's and engineer's hand bags with personal items. Also if a
thermos was not handy, we could pour coffee into a quart fruit jar and place
it up on some steam pipes on the backhead, and it would stay piping hot.
In those days fusees had a netal spike on the end about a couple of inches
long. If we were "in the hole" and decided to take our minutes to eat, the
fusee did double duty. I would clean off that spike on a usee , place a
sandwich on the spike, crack the fire door a little, hold the sandwich just
inside the firebox, and it would toast to a golden brown. Hot coffee
along with a hot sandwich. Tasted mighty good out in the middle of
nowhere. Bill Sellers.



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