UP/ Old C&NW operations

[Anonymous]

Having spent some of my youth in the Chicago area I've always been familiar with C&NW's operating practicer of running their trains on double track lines in the opposite direction from the norm of most US railroads, similiar to the difference between the way Americans drive on the right side of the road whereas the British drive on the left side of the road. The questions I have are:
1. Since UP's acquisition of C&NW, how come they continue this practice on at least some of the old C&NW lines? and
2. Does anyone know if UP will continue this practice indefinately, or are there plans to eliminate this practice and align traffic on these lines to correspond the rest of the railroad?

[Anonymous]

AS a point of intrest do you know why there is left hand and right hand drive?? it all goes back to the days of the wagon drivers with horse drawn waggons if it was a freight wagon the driver could sit to the left side of the bench and use his right hand to crack the wip over the center of the team but if he was driving a carrage with pasangers he would sit far to the right so the back lash of the wip was on the outside of the carrage and would not hit the pasangers... how about that for trivia ????>>>>glennbob

[Anonymous]

Well okay, now back to the subject of this thread!
UP is still running left-handed because that is what signaling and operations are set up for although UP has been installing bi-directional CTC on the east-west main for a few years now. As for changing it all to "normal" operations, I don't know, someone else will have to answer that although I certainly hope that UP never changes ex-C&NW territory over to the wrong way like the rest of the system!

[CShaveRR]

I think we've been through this before.

These lines will always be "left-handed" in the areas where Metra service is traditionally run (can't vouch for the new stations west of Geneva yet), because it makes sense to have the station buildings on the side of the tracks that serve the trains going toward Chicago (people don't wait around on the platforms too much between getting off the train and heading home from work). Even though the West Line is now CTC, trains will normally stay to the left in Suburban territory. CTC has permitted operations on the opposite track to take place when construction projects necessitate and schedules permit--and you no longer have to crawl along at Restricted Speed.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

On the portion of the Omaha main operated under CTC west of Geneva, operation was pretty much two bi-directional tracks as far back as the 1970's when I was attending NIU in DeKalb. While the "Kate Shelley" was still running, the station agent at DeKalb would announce on which track it would be stopping just prior to train time.

[Chris30]

The two new stations on the UP Geneva Sub west of Geneva, La Fox and Elburn, are being built on the south side of the tracks. This includes the new Metra storage facility located at Elburn. Also, a new third track is being installed from Peck Road west to Elburn. The new CP Peck interlocker replaces the CP Randall interlocker.

There will a platform on the south side (station side)/track 3 and a second platform between tracks 1 & 2 at La Fox. La Fox is a barely a speck on the map and the station will serve primarily as overflow for the western Geneva/Kane county area

There will only be one platform at Elburn that serves track 3. The station and Metra storage facility are being built about a 1/2 mile east of downtown Elburn. Elburn officials didn't want the extra train traffic tying up the busy street (Rt 47) through town so they built the station in the middle of a cornfield. Now, that's farm town thinking at it's best! They wanted the Metra service to feel closer to the suburbs and Chicago, but not the surban crawl that might come with it (it's coming anyway).

I'm not certain of this yet, but it looks like the setup will be for Metra to use track 3 between Peck Rd and Elburn leaving tracks 1 & 2 open for the UP freights. Metra service is scheduled to begin this December.

CC

[spbed]

This was covered some time ago & the CNW signals have not yet been fully converted to CTC which would allow trains to run the "normal" way. Have a look at my website & you see that trains operate in the Cajon pass exactly the same way as they run on the former CNW.

http://vgalleries.com/members/railfan1/The+Trainfan.vrg

[:p][:p]

Originally posted by rpwood
[

Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

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