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Group, The following question was posed on the IlliniRail list and has generated some discussion there. "The Burlington isn't unique in this, but it seems like throughout much of the '60s it increasingly ran the E8s elephant-style in the streamliner consists. Was there an operational reason for running them more elephant style rather than back to back?" I know this was done increasingly for potential unit failures enroute, but the question of suburban service keeps coming back up. How much did the suburban rotation play into this? I seem to recall seeing a diagram of how units were cycled through suburban service in a Bulletin, but of course I can't locate it now. I also found a post by the late Ed DeRouin that I used to add to the discussion on IlliniRail, and once passage added more confusion as well. "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 elephantstyle 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. " Were the Denver Es not used in the suburban rotation and just went right back out with the next CZ? Were they turned with the rest of the CZ at Canal St? It seems that the increasing use of elephant style running started at about the same time the first batch of cab control cars arrived. Was this also a contributing factor? Thanks! Bryan J. Howell
__._,_.___ Posted by: tubaman21@yahoo.com __,_._,___ |