Tim,
1) the rebuilt suburban coaches had light grey roofs. I suspect the lighting had something to do with the white appearance of the roof. Must be freshly painted as time made them darker. See photo on pg 15 of the new Q facilities book for the variation. Yes it looks to be power car. They were not always on the west end.
2)coach seating,yes. Generally the power car was a dead head car in non rush trains so no revenue passenger allowed. During rush hour the power car would be used for paying customers. As a general rule the head end and rear cars on dinkies were smokers. However there was wide variation between trains and crews. It was up to the Condrs discretion how he set the train up. Generally the longer the train the more smoking cars. Keeping track of the variation on each job for an extra man was no easy task. I went to noting on my printed copy of dinky lineups how each job set up their trains.
It was no fun when you set up a train at Aurora or 14th st and when passengers started boarding they would let you know in no uncertain terms if you had the smokers set up correctly. Some jobs had 1 and 1/2 smokers on each end some had 2 or 1 and 1/2 on one end and then one on the other,etc,etc,etc. if any of the regular crew was working they'd tell you how the train was to be set up. If the crew was all extra men,good luck.
3) yard tracks:
Congress Park-5 on North side. Just the south wye on south side. Also on the north side was the "downstairs" or IHB yard which is to be a subject a future article I hope to write for BRHS.
Eola- I think there will be a full yard map in BB50 which is next to be published. Big yard on both sides of the main, 13 classification trks with sundry auxiliary trks. Also see pg 42 pf the facilities book for a 1969 engineering drawing. Really unchanged for many decades.
Aurora- see page 44 of the Q facilities book and upcoming BRHS Bulletin 50 for engineering maps. There were actually 3 seep rate suburban yards at Aurora. Depot,hole and Hill. All used every day.
Don't forget Downers Grove which was active until Sept 1952. I believe my article is in BRHS 59 on that yards operation. See the BRHS web site.
Leo Phillipp
Sent from my iPad
I've got a couple of questions about some of the images in the 2014 calendar:
1. In the July image, I notice the coach (7200?) has a white roof. Weren't most of the roofs gray? Was there a purpose to this? Is it a power/coach car?
2. In the December image, there is a power/baggage car and a #7200. Does the power/baggage car have some coach seating? Which one would be the smoker?
Not from the calendar: I'm thinking about modeling a compressed version of the suburban 3 rail portion. I'd like to include a small yard at Congress Park, Eola and Aurora. Google Maps shows some trackwork at those places and where the turntables/roundhouses would have been. Does anybody know where I could find diagrams or photos of those yards when they were more active?
Thanks in advance!
Tim