It is Fall and time for Football Specials

An argument could be made that they’ve still not fully resumed [}:)]

LV passenger scheme was “Cornell red.”

The other year, a CBS reporter did a story on the Coast Starlighter riding it from Seattle to Oakland or maybe Berkeley (does it stop there?). Turns out he ended up with a Husky crowd riding down for the UW-Cal game.

He staggered off the train.

Knew a former ACL conductor who regaled everyone with tales of working the trains out of NY to Miami filled with ND fans out of NY going down for when the Irish played the 'Canes.

The booze was exhausted before we passed through Chester ¶ he told us. We wired ahead for restocking in Union Station. (DC). The train got filled with trash and the porters had no place to put it by the time the train reached SC. He told them to fills the traps with trash on the fireman’s side and when they passed through Jacksonville and the train was moving slow, push the trash out on the platforms.

Never mentioned how the trip back was.

They made (and lost) the Rose Bowl a few years ago! I hurt my ankle a few years back jumping around when Penn State picked off Kyle Orton for his first interception of the season, but we lost the game in the end. So I hate Purdue.

My favorite railroad book, Rails to Penn State, mentions football specials at some length. It just took me a few days to find the book in the piles around the house. As far as specials, they weren’t exactly common. For instance, it only mentions four specials (I expect that pre-war travel was made on regular trains and not specials). Three (two Pitt, one Army) actually happened and a fourth (West Virginia) was cancelled. These specials were rather large though. Or at least seem big to me.

The first was in November of 1955, for the Pitt-Penn State game. Both, fittingly, departed out of Pittsburgh via the PRR. The first was charted by a booster organization. Headed by three FP7s, it was sixteen cars including three diners. It departed Pittsburgh at 7:10AM with 572 passengers. The second was organized by a travel agency for the university itself. Also lead by three FP7s, it was seventeen cars: 10 coaches, three reserved coaches for university officials, three diners, and a special fourth diner for the use of the Pitt team on the return trip (the team had arrived by bus the day before). It departed at 7:30. Judging from a

Modelers need not necessarily restrict themselves to inter-city trains. In Iowa City, IA on each game day they run the “Hawkeye Express”, which consists of an FP40H and 6 bi-level commuter cars. The Express runs along the Iowa Interstate route from Coralville to Kinnick stadium, and brings in fans from the remote parking locations. It is in effect a commuter shuttle.

Thanks for posting the interesting photos and information, everybody.

Stebbycentral… Is the “Hawkeye Express” a train with equipment borrowed from Chicago?

I recall seeing photos of a train chartered by the Hawkeyes when they went to the Rose Bowl. I think it was about 1960. The train was all Santa Fe equipment, and it looked like the “Chief”.

Here are some photos I scanned from a book. The Book is entitled Burlington Route - Passenger Trains - Volume One. It was authored by John F Straus, Jr… It is a terrific book for CB&Q fans.

First is the U of Minn train I mentioned in the first post. It was operated in Novemebr, 1964. You can see I used “Model Railroader License” to make several changes. That way I could use my existing models and also add interest to my train.

Second photo is a 1951 train operated for the University of Nebraska to haul 1700 people. Only the Burlington could put together such a locomotive consist. The lead unit is an E5. The second unit is a pre-WWII shovel nose diesel that had been converted to an ugly-looking B unit. Third unit is an E7. There is another U of Nebrasks train for another year pin the book. That train has a CB&Q 4-6-4 steam loco.

The equipment is provided by the Iowa Northern RR. Here’s a link to their official site.

http://www.iowanorthern.com/hawkeye/

The first year they ran the Hawkeye Express they used cars from the ex D&RGW ski train. I think they used them for 2 years before getting the bi-levels. This is I believe the 5th year of the train.