“Harm’s Way to Harvest” ~ One of 154,204 G506 World War II era 235-ci, 83-hp, 1-1/2 ton, 4x4, standard cargo/troop transports built by Chevy in Pontiac, Michigan languishes in the spring sun at Hanson, Washington where it last saw duty as a railcar mover on the short elevator siding where a storehouse, two clusters of elevators and “station” sign remain as the only landmarks where rail and road bend. It is uncertain to me whether this G506 ever saw action in the PTO, ETO, or MTO. It’s quite possible it never saw action on the battlefront. Certain is, the military dumped insane amounts of war materiel, post-V-Day. Certain is, it’s historical and archeological; a time capsule. Certain is, the truck has, for decades, served its country well whether or not in harm's way, certainly in the harvest of this region’s bounty. Through its long-gone windshield, an eastbound Washington Eastern “Scoot Train” led by former UP SD40-2 3910 and two sisters brings in the last of last year’s booty from points west: Coulee City, Hartline, next Almira, though nothing from Hanson, today. Elevators are near empty anxiously awaiting the winter wheat harvest still so immature it can’t be seen from my vantage point thinly carpeting the undulating fertile fields in perfect equidistant lines of green and brown like stripes of an endless flag in the wind. It’ll be a few more months before those fields will be flush in waves of golden grain. And as I’ve done too many times to count at every station along the Central Washington branch, I wander around, fixed on the ground my eyes stumble on another historical, archeological piece I’d not seen before. A small short strip of rust with the initials N.P. Ry. (Northern Pacific Railway) pressed into it. A seal. Used to secure one of the thousands of Monad adorned 40’ boxcars loaded here or elsewhere, cast aside when the car was reloaded and resealed some 50 years past. (? 17Apr19)
The EMD SD (special duty) series are a strong and reliable kind of locomotive which still serve America's rails today. They have proved themselves reliable by clocking in several million miles of freight service over several decades.
