Fireman and Engineer's Seat Box Contents

[NW Mailing List]

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.