Jim Singer gave a presentation on something that may relate to this at last
summer's GNRHS convention. Apparently about 1962 (I think perhaps in
conjunction with the Seattle World Fair) GN transferred more of its passenger
power to the west end, and contracted with CB&Q to let their E-units stay on
the Empire Builder and run west of the Twin Cities (I'm not sure how far they
went). Thus it was fairly common to see Burlington E-units on the Empire
Builder even west of the Twin Cities, and I'm told this lasted at least until
the merger. The mileage was equalized by operating GN freight units on the CB&Q
between the Twin Cities and Chicago. I'm not aware (but never say never) of any
GN passenger locomotives operating between the Twin Cities and Chicago.
Best regards,
Ken Middleton
Portage, MI
krmiddle@charter.net
----- Original Message -----
From: jameskoretsky@comcast.net
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 3:13 PM
Subject: [CBQ] GN Unit's East of Twin Cities
Hi All,
I had a question which came up as part of a train I was running on a Free-mo
Layout during January of 2014. I was running my Empire Builder with two CB&Q
E8's (Despite the fact that it probably should of had at least one if not two
more E8's because of it's length), I was told by a passer by, that it should
have Great Northern Units on the train.
When I asked the person to test their knowledge of the train, where the train
ran between the person responded "Between Chicago and the Pacific North West".
So they new that the train ran to Chicago, so I then explained that the GN
didn't operate East of the Twin Cities, so how did the train get into Chicago?
The gentleman looked at me and said "He had no Idea, as he never thought of
that".
Anyway, I went on to explain that it was hauled via the CB&Q in to Chicago
East of the Twin Cities, using E Units of some variety, depending upon the
year. He asked if the GN Units ever made East of the Twin Cities on the Empire
Builder, and I said I didn't know the answer.
So my question is, does anyone know of an occurrence of 1.) A GN unit going
East on the uncombined EB East of the Twin Cities and 2.) if specifically a GN
SDP45 went East of the Twin Cities substituting for a CB&Q E Unit on the EB
prior to the merger in 1970?
James
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