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[CBQ] MU Capabilities, Elephant Style, and Urban Legends

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Subject: [CBQ] MU Capabilities, Elephant Style, and Urban Legends
From: "Ed DeRouin" <Ed@pixelspublishing.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:12:07 -0000
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This issue surfaces frequently and often comments contribute to 
the legend. The Q did not run E units in elephant style for the 
esthetics. It ran the units in that fashion to reduce costs. 
Elephant style running was not common until cab cars were 
placed in service in suburban service in 1965 and a host of jobs 
were eliminated. 

The first use of elephant style operation occurred in 1958 on the 
American Royal Zephyr. Before the change, two E units ran from 
Brookfield to Kansas City with usually four cars. A boiler 
equipped Geep was assigned to St. Joseph just to run the ARZ 
connecting cars to and from Brookfield. An officer questioned the 
need for two E units and four cars on that last lap. The result was 
nose mu added to some E units, then all, and the GP was 
released for other work. That cost savings occurred as business 
to and from St. Joe was declining, so cost was an issue. BTW, 
that meant that only the two E units operating between 
Galesburg and KC needed to be set up as elephants. 

The Q did install front end mu capability on some F3A's about 
the same time. Keep in mind that in that era, the fifties, mu 
engineering was still developing. It was not standardized. Early 
experiments (1953 - 1955 ) splicing GP and SD 7 or 9s between 
F units was just that, an experiment. If I recall, some of the 
questions had to do with sharing the load and transistion. Much 
was to be learned. But this was 1958 or 1959 and the era of the 
cab unit was beginning to wind down. With SD24, GP20, etc. on 
the horizon, it would not make good sense to retrofit many trade 
in candidates. 

A very reliable source once told me of a letter issued in the fifties 
about how E units were to be prepared for service, and elephant 
style was not discussed. In short: two units - back to back, three 
units - front and rear back to back, middle either way, four units - 
front two facing forward and rear two facing rearwards. If you look 
at photos, say pre-1964 of Zephyrs except the overnight KC and 
Omaha trains and the CZ, you will find that most all fit the above 
letter. The CZ became an exception about 1964. Its units were 
assigned to Denver for maintenance. I suspect that Chicago 
would not pay to turn the Denver units and so they ran that way. 

As the economic benefit, read cost savings as revenues fell, 
became clear, jobs were cut, and E units were seen in elephant 
style with increasing regularity.

While some of you may delight in that type of operation, I take a 
diiferent view. The years of elephant style E unit operation were 
not healthy years for the passenger department. I once thought 
that a 20 plus car combined KC Zephyr - Nebraska Zephyr was 
neat, and in some ways it still is, but that train also mirrored 
failing financial health. It existed because three trains were 
combined. That means two schedules each way were annulled, 
many jobs cut, and those operating that train now had to handle 
a monster passenger train making two stops at most 
intermediate stations. Most passengers do not like any stop 
beside their own. Can you imagine what they must have thought 
after a few doubles or triples? Or, stepping of their car beyond 
the platform and having to haul their luggage two blocks to the 
depot? 

That is enough ranting for now. Rupert, I promise to dig into the 
Equipment Registers soon.

Regards,

Ed DeRouin





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