If I remember correctly after the merger in 1970 Q E units ran as far west as
Havre on the old GN. I do not know about GN or NP units east of St. Paul or Q
units west on the NP from St. Paul. I think that the availability of so many Q
E units at merger time would have caused BN to transfer GN and NP passenger Fs
into freight service.
Fred Crissey
On Thursday, March 20, 2014 2:32 PM, Kenneth Middleton <krmiddle@charter.net>
wrote:
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
>
|