Jim,
There are probably many experts on the list that can provide you with more
specific answers than I can. Here my observation over the past 33 years.
1. I remember one of the power cars still having shadow lines in 1969.
2. The power cars were all heavyweight equipment, therefore pretty solid,
with an insulated wall and door between the generator and the passenger
compartment. The sound level inside the car wasn't that bad, it never seem to
stop the deadhead crews from sleeping.
3. Many of the suburban trains threw off newspapers for the local news
agencies. That and an occasional coffin, was all I ever saw in the baggage
compartments.
4. We used suburban equipment, including the E-unit 9917?, one year at
railroad daze in Galesburg for the yard tours. the gallery cars were also
used for other weekend excursions like post prom trips and steam trips in the
60's. The year the company let us used suburban equipment was on the
condition that the crew that went up to Aurora and brought the equipment to
Galesburg and return it Sunday night would do it for free, we did. However
after that year we (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) decided that was a
bad precedent to set given the then labor management relationship.
Hope that helps
Ron Copher
Lacrosse, WI.
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