This question sort of arises out of something that I saw at
the Prototype Modelers Seminar at Naperville earlier this
month. Jim Miller did a presentation on RPO operations on
the CB&Q, and one of the things that I noticed on one of the
overhead displays was trains 45 and 52, which were listed as
"Savanna Locals". The overhead was taken from a copy of a
handwritten report that listed all of the Q's trains into
Chicago Union Station, but there was no date to be found on
the sheet. It listed the consist of 45 as 1 locomotive, 3
headend cars, and 1 passenger car, the consist of 52 was 1
locomotive, 3 headend cars, and 2 passenger cars.
I discussed these trains with our resident "passenger train
guru", Rich Gortowski, and he informs me that these trains
at one time where the all stops Chicago to Minneapolis
locals. They were listed in a 1958 timetable as going all
the way to the Minneapolis, but a mid year 1959 timetable
shows them as the Savanna Locals at that time. A February
1960 Official Guide does not show either train.
The consists in the first paragraph obviously suggest that
there was enough express or mail out of Savanna, Illinois to
warrant operations of these trains for a time after they
were taken off west of Savanna. The big question is, was it
express, or was it storage mail? Rich and I speculate that
Savanna may have been something of a mail "hub" for the
northwestern section of Illinois at the time. It was even
suggested that it might bulk mail that traveled east to
Chicago before heading west. Does anyone on the list have
the definitive answer?
Ed Pavlovic
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