Yesterday I had the chance to chase a Wisconsin & Southern business train with the railroads great looking A-B-A set of E-units on the point pulling 5 matching passenger cars. The train ran from Cambria, WI to Milwaukee, WI. Not sure why it ran, but it sure looked good. But it was a strange day to chase a train.
Started out with partly cloudy skies and temps in the upper 20’s. Then in early afternoon bands of snow showers/squalls would come through and at times it was like a blizzard. Snow did stick to grassy areas and some roadways especially bridges and overpasses. As the sun went down the bridges started to ice over with “black ice” and things got bad real fast.
Standing on the Hwy 164 bridge over the WSOR/CN in Ackerville we watched several cars spin out as they crossed the bridge and eventually a Ford Escape rolled over after spinning out. Luckily there was a Sheriff van right there when it happened. All in all a strange chase day.
Really nice shots Keith! Wish I could have chased it to, but that darn school thing gets in the way all the time…
The Stone Gardner theater car was modified/built by the folks at the WSOR’s Horicon (WI) shop. They took a 44 seat Pullman-Standard coach, and pretty much gutted the inside to create the theater car, which included modifying the back end for the big window and theater-style seating. The WSOR used to have a bunch of pictures and story on the process on their website when the car first was done a few years ago, but it’s no longer there. Like Zardo said, I’m sure part of the inspiration was the CNW’s theater car, and other cars like it (the former CNW car is currently a part of UP’s fleet, and the BN used to have a theater car that the WSOR actually leased at one point in the past).
The shop forces at Horicon do nice work. They are the same place where the UP heritage units were painted, for example.
The original E units had 2 of the 567 series prime movers inside, plus an auxiliary system for passenger service needs. Each motor fed one truck (2 powered, 1 idler axles). Early E units had steam generators; however, the units rebuilt for Metra had HEP generators (Cummins, Detroit, etc).
My understanding is that the E units we see these days have had the twin 567’s replaced by a 16-cylinder 645 series (essentially a GP38-2 in a carbody).
Thanks for the nice comments. It was a great day to chase. I believe one of the E units is an ex-Milw, another one of them might be from Alaska RR. Not sure about other heritage or the correctness of what I just typed.
The UP E-units are equipped like that. The WSOR E-units are properly equipped with 2 12-cylinder prime movers each. I’m pretty sure they have 645 power assemblies in them. WSOR 102 is apparently the only E B-unit properly equipped and running at this time.
WSOR 101 is ex-MILW, with a side trip to Alaska. WSOR 103 is ex-UP, also went to Alaska for a spell. WSOR 102 is ex-UP, then to Amtrak, then to the Michigan Northern as a power car. Retrofitted with engines from the MARC (ex-BN) E9 sitting in Horicon.
