The interesting comments piqued my interest so I did a little digging...
Q Commuter Run With Steam...
Q Commuter Run With One E, Single Level And Bi-Levels...
E On Not Exactly A Commuter Run...
Not A Commuter Run, But Just A Great Picture Of Aeolus...
Meanwhile, On The Northwestern Side Of Town...This One's For You, Mr. Schlimm...
Northwestern At Rush Hour...
Northwestern Steam Commuter Power...
The NorthWestern did some great things back then. There is even a pic of a scoot coming into Wheaton with an SD9 pulling four of the old 60' cars in 1956.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Thanks guys
Why did their GP7's and GP9's have steam generators for on the Burlington then? All of them seemed to be so equipped on a roster I found after posting this topic. They also had 75 SD7's and SD9's with steam generators.
Was it for branch line power and passenger extras, since the E unit fleet was busy on intercity and commuter runs (And I believe their small group of steam generator equipped F3's were assigned to the California Zephyr)?
What C&NW did originate was the use of HEP and Push-Pull operation with cab cars. C&NW's original bilevels also operated behind steam locomotives (and GP7s and H-16-66s). HEP came with the 1958 P-S order. C&NW converted some E8s to HEP, and swiped a bunch of F7s out of freight service, also installing HEP generators. MILW and RI got cab cars with their first bilevel orders.
CB&Q didn't get cab cars until 1965, and continued to use power cars until the E8/E9 fleet was rebuilt in the 1970s.
Contrary to some posts on another thread, the C&NW did not originate bilevel gallery cars in 1955 with cars 1-16 from St. Louis Car. The CB&Q's first 30 such cars were delivered from Budd in 1950-51.
CB&Q rotated their E-Units (all but E5s) into and out of the commuter pool. CB&Q's bilevel cars were originally steam-heated, and power cars rebuilt from older commuter coaches or mainline cars took care of lighting on longer consists, with small tap generators working for two car trains. So the predecessors of the E-Units were CB&Q ten-wheelers and pacifics. And yes, the steam locomotives pulled bilevels from 1950 to 1952.
What locomotives were used after dieselization, before survivors of their E8/E9 fleet were assigned to the service due to being bumped from intercity runs after the merger and the creation of Amtrak?
They didn't own any Alco RS3's and F units were nearly extinct on the roster by the time Burlington Northern was created, for two likely candidates that lept to mind as possibilities.
Did Geeps with steam generators handle the service?
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