I found this picture, on Wikipedia, of a CNW train passing under the CTA bridge exiting track 7 of the terminal in July,1964. It sure would be neat if we could still see the old yellow and green trains in the railcam videos! Doug
That is cool! With the nose paint on that E and the special Bi-Level car second in the consist, this is likely a "400". The C&NW bought special purpose Bi-Level cars with raised roofs for their longer distance trains so as to match the coaches. I'm not sure how many variations existed, but there were RPOs and diner/lounges. Neat stuff. [Not my picture]
I finally realized what my problem was, the other day, with trains apparently headed to the terminal in the north view but not appearing to arrive in the south view. It was my own fault. I had obviously viewed an earlier period by moving the progress marker back, on one of the views, and had not moved it back to real time (all the way to the right), so the two views were not synced. Doh! Doug
I enjoy the audio stream too. I had a desktop railroad radio scanner in the latter '70s and I recall being able to understand just about every word that was said in the Chicago region and that clarity still prevails on the stream. As I've moved and travelled elsewhere in the east and southeast, local accents and speech habits can make it a challenge to understand what's being said on my pocket scanner. One time in visiting Altoona, the towerman at Alto keyed his mike and said in one word, "ConrailAltoWho'sCallin'?"
Hearing tone generators and hearing those guys "whistling up" a repeater takes me back to my 2 meter ham radio days, too. Doug
Was a Train Order Operator for the first five years of my career. When I was in training and was instructed to listen to the Train Dispatcher's telephone wire - my first thought was "What language are these people speaking?" It was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life until that point in time. Train order rules, no matter of the orders were being transmitted or repeated, required place names and numbers to be BOTH announced AND spelled. Listening to the experienced personnel - they would just FLY through the orders both announcing and spelling the elements when required - all of it sounding like a single word - until your ears and mind caught up to what you were actually listening to. I may be mistaken, but most of us English speakers, speak and hear at a relatively SLOW rate of speed. While I have no abilities in ANY foreign language, when I hear foreign languages being spoken among natives to those languages - I cannot hear or decipher the word breaks within their pronouncements as everything almost sounds to be a single word. One other thing - when one works a particular position for any period of time - when answering either telephone or radio, everyone develops their own 'spiel' to announce their location/position and name of the person responding. In saying that greeting countless times a day/week/month/year - it all tends to run together.
The Metra employees call the F40PHs that were rebuilt with the slanted, streamlined noses, "Winnebagos" Doug
I agree. It seems that some foreign languages are spoken 3 or 4 time faster than English! It's like the difference between 10WPM Morse and 30 WPM! Doug
The pictures of those Milwaukee Road trains must have been taken along that straight diagonal section of track after passing under the CNW tracks and right before heading south to Union Station, right? Also, I saw the UP locomotive depart, this morning, with a 14 car train on the west-bound CNW tracks. The usual maximum train length is 11 cars. Doug
Wow, that is a long one. The C&NW's Es did well with the longer trains. I found this 11 car train at the coach yard at Barrington, IL in March 1978.
And they still look pretty much the same, from the front, anyway. Except for the "Winnebagos", of course. I still haven't discovered what model those UPs (I think there's two of them) are yet. They look like tunnel motors because there is a radiator-type opening down near the walkway but I doubt that's what they are. Doug
Thinking of today's large centralized dispatching centers, do the railroads extensively tour Dispatchers in their territories, having them ride trains and talk to crews? Thinking of starting trains on grades and curves, blocking public grade crossings at meets, thieves breaking into containers on stopped trains in bad areas, etc., I'd think a detailed knowledge of territories would be essential to good dispatching. Back in the day, I'd guess that local dispatching made training a bit easier. Need to know the status of an impending storm, just look out the window.
The north and south views seem to be down, today. I discovered another view, accidentally, on YouTube - looking over the tracks to the east (actually seems to be northeast) south of the signal bridge: Doug
That's a neat view too, offering a better look at locomotives if one wants that. I'd like to see some of Metra's heritage units in action. Love those puzzle switches in that view, the ultimate in operating flexibility.
