There was a test on the Mendota Sub between Aurora and Galesburg in which one of the main tracks was taken out of service while a couple of segments of double track were used as “sidings” or passing tracks. The driver of this plan was none other than an up and coming hotshot of an executive by the name of E. Hunter Harrison.
What reason was given for derailing single tracking the Mendota Sub.
What’s your point?
Conducting a test to see if single track operation would be feasible was a perfectly rational thing to do.
Hunter Harrison is in no way “up and coming”. He’s proven himself at the highest levels of railroading for decades.
When did this take place?
Sounds like maybe it took place years ago, prior to 1989 when he left the BN for the IC, when he actually was an “up and coming railroader.”
Sounds like it took place in the mid 80s. Trains had an article about the Chicago Division and mentions in Sept 1988, p51 that a couple of years earlier they spiked switches for several months to test single track operation.
And apparently BN had enough foresight to NOT single track that line. After he went to the IC, Harrison single-tracked the Homewood to Champaign double-tracked speedway.