Rock Island had about 20 smooth-sided Pullman gallery cars that may have been a follow-up to either a C&NW or SP (San Francisco) order.
Bill Vandervoort's Chicago Transit & Railfan site used to have current and historical equipment rosters. Sadly, these appear to have fallen victim to the new and limited web host.
(Can someone tell me how to post a photo? The message toolbar has icons for "insert/edit image" and "content selector." Is one of these part of the process?)
The Butler al-in-chgo The Butler Thanks, guys. Was the CNW the only route with smooth sided cars? I know today the NW Line runs fluted side cars. Wasn't the Rock Island commuter fleet smooth-sided? - a.s. A.S., I was thinking gallery cars. Did the Rock have those?
al-in-chgo The Butler Thanks, guys. Was the CNW the only route with smooth sided cars? I know today the NW Line runs fluted side cars. Wasn't the Rock Island commuter fleet smooth-sided? - a.s.
The Butler Thanks, guys. Was the CNW the only route with smooth sided cars? I know today the NW Line runs fluted side cars.
Thanks, guys. Was the CNW the only route with smooth sided cars? I know today the NW Line runs fluted side cars.
Wasn't the Rock Island commuter fleet smooth-sided? - a.s.
IIRC from reading these boards, the Rock Island got bilevel gallery style cars even before CNW. This would be around 1954. - al
al-in-chgoThe Butler Thanks, guys. Was the CNW the only route with smooth sided cars? I know today the NW Line runs fluted side cars. Wasn't the Rock Island commuter fleet smooth-sided? - a.s.
James
The two ex C&NW F units are now at the Illinois Railway Museum; one of them is now in C&NW yellow and green.
You're correct about it being the NW Line. Es and Fs in CNW colors ran there, alongside the Metra F40PHs. Some of the Es got repainted into the RTA light blue, brown and orange scheme and a couple of the Es (514 among them) also made it into the Metra dark blue and red. One of those was used on the Milwaukee district for a while, BTW (515, I think....). A couple of ex-CNW Fs made into the dark blue and red scheme, but normally were only used on work trains by that time. Art
The locomotives you saw were C&NW E8s repainted in RTA blue and brown similar to the then-new F40s.
I have a few of photos; but can't figure out how to paste them into this message.
In 1980 my family moved to the Northwest side of Chicago. From my bedroom window, I could see CNW commuter trains cross Pulaski Ave. just East of the Irving Park station. I believe this is the Northwest Line. I remember seeing, once maybe twice, a light blue RTA EMD covered wagon. My father never saw it. He did see the RTA F40's painted that color. Within a year we moved to Mount Prospect, Ill. All the time I spent waiting at the station, there, for my mom, I saw CNW E units in green and yellow or the F40's.
The question is, does my childhood memory serve me correctly? If it does, which locos got the blue paint?
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