Russ and Wollffee,
The westbound NCL (No. 25) and westbound EB (No. 31) were not combined in
any season until later 1967, when there was an effective reduction to two
daytime trains in each direction on the Q's line to St. Paul. The
departure times were at least two hours apart. However, beginning with the
winter schedule in late 1967, 25&31 began running on a single schedule,
with departure from CUS at 1:15 PM and arrival at St. Paul at 8:00 PM. The
westbound Afternoon Zephyr ceased to exist as a separate train. The
westbound NCL and EB were run as separate sections, a few minutes apart
during the heavy seasons of 1967-68, but by 1969 were one very big train in
the summer, with three stops at smaller stations. Without getting into too
many details, I would remind the old hands about the Friday and Sunday
westbound-only Afternoon Zephyr which ran on a late afternoon departure
schedule from CUS, due to regulatory pressure from the State of
Illinois. There was no separate eastbound weekend schedule. The westbound
Morning Zephyr and its return as the eastbound Afternoon Zephyr ran as
(increasingly smaller) separate schedules right up to the end, on May 1,
1971, in the BN era.
The year-round combining of Nos. 26-32-22 eastbound from St. Paul also
began in late 1967, when the Morning Zephyr No. 22 effectively ceased to
exist. This "North Coast Zephyr Builder" as Jim Boyd coined it, ran in two
sections during summer and holiday periods, with the Zephyr's two or three
Budd cars usually at the head end of the first section, which was otherwise
the Empire Builder. The NCL followed right behind, often with foreign road
tour sleepers (especially SP) in the summer. By 1969, the monster train
was rarely split up, even in the summer, and multiple stops at the stations
made schedule keeping impossible, even with five E-9's. When the train was
over about 22 cars, it would have to wye into CUS in a backup move that
delayed its arrival even farther. I have correspondence with the
Burlington's passenger traffic manager in which he admits that " running
excessive-length trains has drawn justifiable criticism for the
deterioration in the timekeeping in our service."
I would recommend Fred Frailey's "Twilight of the Great Trains" for a good
discussion with consist and schedule examples of the Burlington's service
in its last decade, as well as interviews with some of those involved in
the service. I'm sure that there are many others on this list who can
provide additional first-hand experiences with photo and film evidence for
the examples cited. The Green Frog video "Chicago's Passenger Trains",
Vol. 1 is another good source, although there are some errors of
identification therein.
Dennis Henry
At 04:44 PM 11/18/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>In the 65-67 period 25-31 and 26-32 were usually combined
>during the late fall to late spring with the possible
>exception of around holidays. The heavy ridership was during
>the summer.
>
>These trains were easy to combine as they ran on almost the
>same schedule.
>
>Don't know the answer to other question.
>
>Russ
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: wollffee
> To: BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 November, 2003 15:11
> Subject: [BRHSlist] Different Empire Builder question
>
>
> I have seen photos of CB&Q E8/9's pulling a combined Empire
> Builder/North Coast Limited from Chicago to Minneapolis. Was this
> only done near the end, when those trains had shrunk in size? Was it
> only done occaisionally or did it become the regular consist? In the
> early '50s they were 2 seperate trains weren't they? Also, did CB&Q
> keep running their own trains to Minneapolis until 1970?
Dennis C. Henry, Owner and General Manager
Brass Car Sides Phone: (507) 931-2784
715 South 7th St. e-mail:
dchenry@gac.edu
St. Peter, MN 56082-1435 v-mail: (507) 933-7314
<http://www.mria.org/companies/brasscarsides.html>http://www.brasscarsides.<http://www.mria.org/companies/brasscarsides.html>com
Passenger Car Parts for the Streamliners - Serving the Hobby Since 1978
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/8ZCslB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|