Re: [CBQ] Numbering of Burlington passenger trains

["Fred Crissey" <fhc925@frontier.com>]

CB&Q Train Numbers:

I, too, have wondered about this for years.  There was a system of sorts.  Passenger trains, except commuter, were numbered 1-59 and Freight from 60 up.  The duplications were another matter.  When I worked for the BN one of the things I got to do was number/symbol freight trains.  My boss, Duane Schoberlien, did this task before me for not only BN but CB&Q as well.  I asked him about the "good, old days" but he did not know either.  Recently I did some research for Rupert and I was looking at some old Equipment Registers.  Equipment Registers have all kinds of information besides car numbers and type.  One of which is the name and location of the officers and where to send the bill.  Prior to 1900 most of the wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries such as the CB&N, H&StJoe, etc. were still in existence. My theory on all of this is that for a while after the1900 reorganization the former subsidiaries were consolidated into  "Districts".  The former subsidiary reported to a District who reported to Chicago.  As the business evolved, Division sizes grew. The Districts became redundant and consolidated into only two; Lines East and Lines West.  Each of subsidiaries had their own train numbers and after 1900 there was probably a general renumbering to eliminate the duplication on the districts but not necessarily system wide.  The Passenger Department probably wanted the DZ to be 1 and 2.  1 was probably available but there already was a 2 on the Chicago-Denver route and someone thought it would be prudent not to change numbers from a safety standpoint.  There may have been a labor issue as well.  10 may have been the first number available.  And then I might be totally wrong.  How did I find District?  Believe it or not one still existed until the BN merger.  it was in the Freight Sales Dept.  The Illinois-Iowa District was headquartered at 547 W. Jackson.  The General Freight Agent was H H Moench.  Reporting to him were the Sales Offices in Aurora, Peoria, Galesburg, Rock Island, Burlington and Des Moines.  That pretty well matches the Chicago, Aurora and Ottumwa Divisions.  One of the "mysteries" that I uncovered was that the CB&N had an office in St. Paul but no address.  I wonder what it was.

Fred Crissey

On Monday, May 18, 2020, 12:14:01 PM CDT, Randal O'Toole <rot@ti.org> wrote:

Hi,

Pardon me if this has been asked before, but does anyone know why Burlington had such an odd way of numbering its passenger trains? From the 1960 timetable:

Denver Zephyr: trains 1 & 10

Chicago-Galesburg coach train: 2 and 15

Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr: 3 & 30

The Coloradan: 6 & 19

Zephyr-Rocket: 8 & 15 (a different 15)

In that year, Burlington had no trains 4 or 5 (C&S had a train 4, but its trains were numbered separately).

Why not trains 1 & 2, 3 & 4, etc. like most other railroads?

Randal O’Toole

https://streamlinermemories.info

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