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Midwest passenger train consists, July 23-25, 1964
I remember in 1962, late June, taking my 2 brothers to the Waupaca Wisconsin depot to get on The Soo Line Laker to go to a summer camp on Lake Owen near Drummond WI. Some campers would get off at Stone Lake, WI. Others campers got off at Gordon, WI and Solon Springs. The train was scheduled to arrive around 1:40 A.M. from Chicago. When we arrived at the depot the operator was frantic trying to copy train orders over the telegraph as there was going to be a 4 train meet at Waupaca that early morning. Normally the opposing Lakers were scheduled to meet at Stevens Point but the westbound Laker was running late.The Waupaca siding was only 1/2 mile long and things would get interesting. Two saw-by’s were involved to do this. An eastbound time freight with 2 brand new GP-30’s was first down the main with the WB laker in the siding. The EB Laker was held west of town so that the WB could pull out of the siding with enough headroom to clear the west switch and then back down the main to the depot. This also allowed the WB freight to enter the siding allowing the time freight to leave. The WB laker backed down the main then to load baggage, mail, and the two passegers (my brothers). At this time the WB freight backed east out of the siding allowing the EB Laker to enter the siding to allow the WB Laker to depart followed by the WB freight. This was quite the unusual move especially considering the equipment consisted of the 2 Lakers involved. Due to the addition of “camper special” cars, the trains were unusually large. The EB Laker had 3 geeps and 15 cars. The WB Laker had 5 geeps and 25 cars, a dozen of which were leased pullmans of various class 1’s. Many were fancy stainless steel Budd cars and made for a very interesting looking Laker, probably not seen the likes of before. I ended up working in train service for the Soo and WC and cannot recall such a meet either as a conductor or a dispatcher even during the very congested late WC period prior to CN acquisition. It would be interesting to
The C&NW freight and Pax tracks merged in Lake bluff IL. The freight track paralleled the pax tracks out of Chicago slightly more west. The Bi-Level Penisular Stopped (NB) in Lake Forest IL and had two E-8s A and B. The 400 ran until about 69-70. What is now the Metra, the C&NW had a super commuter service from Waukgegan to Chicago until 69-70 as well.