Dave, It was my understanding that the consist was not turned, just the locomotive and that the power car was always on the West. And yes that means you are correct, Westbound, the power car was behind the locomotive and Eastbound, it was at the back of the train. Now, with push-pull, the entire consist can stay together and the only thing changing is the Engineer who has to move to be at the front of the train. I see sometimes when the inbound is late, they can discharge, load and go in five minutes.
They normally allow about 22 minutes at rush hour and they transfer the HEP to shore power due to polution issues for that time but if they are on a quick flip (late inbound), they will skip that.
Now for others to answer: I thought Caltrans (SP) bilevels originally had waukesau enginator airconditioners which I believe were converted to HEP airconditioners. Did the C&NW bilevels originally have the selfpowered airconditioning?
C&NW’s 16 bilevels from 1955 (St Louis) were probably equipped with Waukesha AC as well, since C&NW used it on lots of its other equipment. Train lighting used the same generators as the older commuter cars, whether on steam locomotives or diesels. The 1958 and later cars from Pullman-Standard were all equipped with HEP from the builder, and the St Louis cars were quickly converted.
After earlier stating that CB&Q did not use E5’s in commuter service, I recently saw a picture of one leading bilevels and a power car.
The SD9 between the two TrainMasters is either 4450 or 4451, which were rebuilt as reserve passenger units in 1973 or 1974, retaining their as-built boilers. SP had used SD7s and SD9s (and an occasional FP7) in the commute pool in the 1950s and 1960s, but these two were the only ones permanently assigned.
Quick turnarounds are the norm during rush hour with push-pulls. Metra Southwest Service train 834 is scheduled to arrive at Chicago Union Station at 5:04PM and the same equipment departs as train 827 at 5:18PM. The inbound run is occasionally up to about 5-6 minutes late but a late departure on the outbound run is rare.
I moved to a suburban house facing the CB&Q race track to Aurora from Chicago. When I moveded there I remember well that occasionally CB&Q used steam to pull those Budd High level commutor coaches along with a steam /generator/baggage car and one or two green heavy duty cars on the end. I’m Looking for a photo from those times. I hope You can assist
There are photos out there of CNW Pacifics pulling their green and gold bilevels around Chicagoland, and SP Northerns, Mountains and Pacifics pulling their gray bilevels on the San Francisco Peninsula commute trains. But so far, photos of CB&Q steam pulling their stainless steel bilevels around Chicagoland have proven elusive.
There are lots of photos in books of SP GP9s pulling bilevels in the “Bloody nose” scheme, including many where the GP9 is running long hood first. Of course, the Trainmasters were the favorites…
GP7/GP9’s were part of the suburban power pool on C&NW prior to the re-equipping with HEP-equipped bi-levels in 1959-1960 so you might be able to find pictures on C&NW Geeps pulling the first 16 bi-levels which predated HEP. I do not think that GP7/GP9’s were a regular part of Burlington’s passenger pool so Burlington GP’s pulling bi-levels would probably be on an emergency basis only with any pictures being correspondingly rare.
I think you will find in the CB&Q power-car pre-head-end-power days that GP-7s were the preferred power for off-peak two-car and three-car bilevel trains because they were more economical to operate than the E-units. Only when available, however, which depended on freight traffic levels. And my experience was in summer when steam heat was not necessary.