Re: [CBQ] Re: Commuter push-pull

["Bill Hirt whirt@fastmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

At the spring meet two years ago, there was an excellent presentation on suburban service in the later years of the Burlington. I still appreciate the presenters passion in their presentation for running the best passenger operation possible.

The Burlington and then the BN operated the service into the early 1970s. The West Suburban Mass Transit District was formed in 1972 to secure funding for equipment and operations. The equipment and E units were then "sold" to the WSMTD. It was explained that the BN actually sold the equipment for a minimal cost so WSMTD could have sufficient capital to get matching transit grants. The E units were then rebuilt with head end power and the commuter cars were sent back to Budd for electrical upgrading.

Metra contracted with BN and now contracts with BNSF for the suburban service. There are still commuter cars in service that are owned by WSTMD (I found a document from 2014 which states 73 commuter cars and 18 cab cars were still owned by WSMTD).

The line is still privately owned. Metra just contracts BNSF to run the service for them.

There was nothing like being near a station and hearing the dual motors in the E unit roar leaving a station with a commuter train.

Bill Hirt

On 4/21/2016 6:54 PM, mactach@sbcglobal.net [CBQ] wrote:

I know this thread is 4 years old but how come the Burlington which was ahead of the other RRD's in their modernization of their commuter lines have push-pull service till later on?

C&NW and MD had that as soon as they modernized their fleet.

Also how did those green engine ended up remaining till the early 90's?

Must have been confusing to younger people who weren't around when the Burlington and the other lines were privately owned.

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Posted by: Bill Hirt <whirt@fastmail.com>

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