Anyone have knowledge/educated guess as to how many coacheswould a single E unit would generally haul in in daily commuter service in the Northeast in the late 1940s through the 1950s?
Is this the answer you require?
The History of Burlington Northern E’s in Commuter Service - HubPages
At first eight coaches because of platform length. Increasing vto 9,10, 11 by 1950s.
David
That may not be of much help since the BN never ran east of Chicago. He is looking for commuter trains that ran in the Northeast.
Rich
I wonder what commuter lines even used E Units in the north east, about all I can think of is the PRR’s NYLB lines and maybe NJDOT.
Yeah, there is an answer out there somewhere, but the question is pretty narrow and specific.
A commuter railroad in the Northeast in the 1940s and 1950s that used E-units to haul coaches, and how many coaches were in the consist?
Rich
I can see the problem. After digging a little bit I see that most ran Fs, GPs and other smaller engines on their commuter trains.
I guess a better way to ask would be how many passenger cars would a single E unit haul before a rail road would deem it necessary to add a second because of weight?
I’ve read where a lot of times they would add a second with cab style engines if there was no way to turn them so they could run around their cars to hook up on the opposite end to reverse direction.
Well, then I would go back to North Brit’s link. The BN E-unit was pulling 8 coaches. Modern day commuter services typically haul 8 coaches as well, particularly during busy hours.
Rich
I also said - in the 1950s when the platforms were longer the trains were of 9, 10 and 11 coaches in length.
It would be interesting the length of the platforms the OP has?
David
The OP is concerned about the number of coach cars that an E-unit can pull before adding a second loco due to weight considerations. He still needs an answer to that question.
Platform length is an interesting consideration. Back in the day, the Santa Fe Super Chief, for example, was an ABBA consist of four F7 locomotives pulling as many as 17 passenger cars.
The platforms at Dearborn Station in Chicago were much too short to accommodate 17 cars, some passengers had to walk forward through a series of cars more toward the front of the train. Sometimes, the passenger car consist would be broken into groups on two separate tracks.
Rich
Rich. My mistake and apologise.
As for length of platforms we have the same challenge here in the U.K… Having to walk through carriages before being able to get off.
David
Hi David, no need for any apology. Your link has been the closest thing to an answer so far. Both considerations, length and weight, are valid. My guess is that an E-unit could easily pull at least 12 fully loaded passenger cars.
Rich
They were a standard on the New York Central river line in the early 1970s. It was amazing what a white, acrid smokescreen they could lay down with even a coughing casual acceleration out of Harmon… the last car end would be the only thing visible in a wreath of unburnt hydrocarbons…
I presume that Boston is in the NE US.
And yes, I realise that the photo is dated 1960 not the late 40s, early 50s.
https://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/nyc4053.htm
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Boston is, indeed, in the Northeast. Well done, Bear. It appears to be hauling 8 passenger car coaches, tho hard to say for sure.
Rich
Just out of curiosity, how many coaches would you like to run?
Rich
Remember that most of the commuter services that used E units only got them ‘secondhand’ as the long-distance passenger trains came off. One unfortunately frequent issue with these was that they weren’t in the best shape, and prior to Government money they were likely to be far down on the maintenance priority list.
I was too late to see short NYC (or PRR) trains longer than 5 cars with a single E. I had the impression (probably from reading Trains) that many railroads operated E units in pairs because of the risk of road failure (not all problems being from one deflicted prime mover or generator…)
"Standard’ power on the Long Branch (at the change in Perth Amboy) was back-to-back E units. I regret that I can’t remember if some of the off-peak trains through Manasquan in the early '60s (when E7s could be seen as well as Baldwin BP units) were short enough for just one engine.
Erie-Lackawanna in the early '70s famously ran first-generation ex-ATSF Budd coaches (1937 irrc!) behind E8s, on the Pascack Valley line, but I never remember seeing anything but doubleheaded engines in that service.
I remember, vaguely, some discussions about short-term rating of E7 and E8 where fast repeated acceleration was expected, with the figure of 6 cars per locomotive mentioned. This might be compared with Amtrak’s rating for adding cars to trains, for four-motor locomotives with far more traction hp nominally available.
Here in the Chicago area the cnw ran quite a few passenger(commuter) trains with a e unit either a 7 or 8 with quite a few cars not sure but maybe 8 cars They also ran funits also.
Mike
I doubt E units would have been used on commuter runs that early. They were road power and still relatively new in that time frame. Funits would have been better for keeping a schedule as the weight per axle was higher with four wheel trucks. The center axle on Eunits was unpowered and gave better tracking and riding qualities at speed.
Doubt all you want but it does not change the fact that I saw them.
Mike
In my reading of the original post, the OP isn’t asking how many cars a particular railroad’s E units pulled in commuter service in the Northeast, but more like how many cars could an E unit pull in commuter service. So referencing BN’s commuter service is appropriate. Unless the eastern area is hilly or semi-mountainous where grades would affect pulling ability, any E unit would be able to pull the same number of cars as any others, east, west or midwest.