How we celebrate Christmas in Western Australia + CNW E8's and SW8's.

[Anonymous]

Greeting and Merry Christmas from Western Australia!

It's a beautiful 23 degrees celcius at the moment and the forecast for Christmas day is Fine and Hot - 35 degrees (that's 95 fahrenheit!).

My family will have a continental brekky with Croissants/coffee/fruit salad, followed by a few presents (dare I hope for a n scale Microtrains wagon?)

Then a Glass of Champagne whilst lazing in the pool (remembering the sunscreen (probably not a cloud in sight)).

Lunch will consist of a pre-cooked Cold Turkey and Macadamia roll and picniky/salad things. Then perhaps we'll go for a walk down by the beautiful Swan River or the beach by the Indian Ocean.

Now you're all jealous...

When did the Chicago and North Western start using (a) E8's (b) SW8's

I have the Life-like N scale models.

Thank you and again Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ! Oi! Oi! Oi!

[Anonymous]

My daughter spent last Christmas in Western Australia, and she had a wonderful time there. So, yes, I'm jealous!

Anyway -- to the model railroad inquiry. C&NW got its E8s in several batches. The first, Nos 5021A,B-5022A,B were delivered in July 1950. Nos. 5023A,B-5024A,B came in July 1951; Nos 5025A,B in August 1952; and Nos 5026A,B-5031A in May-June 1953.

C&NW had 2 SW600s (identical in appearance to SW8s) Nos 1280 and 1281, delivered in March 1954. They also had 5 SW8s: No126-129, delivered in September 1951; and No 801, delivered in September 1952.

Best wishes for your Holidays!

[Anonymous]

One of the guys at work was saying he dreams of having a white Christmas, oneday, somewhere. He's never seen snow, so that's fair enough, I guess!

Thankyou for the response. Very detailed! Am I reading that correctly that the CNW had E8 'B' units? And would the 'A' and 'B' units always be used together?

[Anonymous]

Tell your mate to try Wisconsin, USA some December. Snow is a little light this year, but it still looks like it'll be a white Christmas.

The C&NW E units (E3s, E6s and E8s) were all "A" or cab units, notwithstanding the "B" suffixes in some of their road numbers. That is until the road acquired a half-dozen former Union Pacific E8B and E9B units in late 1972. By early 1973 all of these "B" (cabless) units were rebuilt with homemade cabs of a fairly unattractive design. They were numbered 501-506, and served in Chicago commuter service for 10 years.

The North Western mixed up locomotive units pretty freely, so nearly any combination of road numbers might be expected together.

.

[raynbecky]

Those E-8's were called Crandall cab's. He was the superintendent of the railroad at the time and these were named after him. I was quite fond of the Crandall cab's. They were pretty common on the NW line out of Chicago.

You also probably have the E unit's with the black stripe. If you do then that would be correct for the early units. They lost their stripes by the 60's, 70's, and early 80's.