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classictrains β E-unit Oddity
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Published: 2007-02-24 22:47:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 2151; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 41
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Description
When the Rock Island initiated "Rocket" diesel service on the route to Colorado Springs and Pueblo Colorado they came up with a new take on an old idea. The train arrived from the Midwest in Limon with a conventional consist pulled by what looked like an A-B pair of E-units... except that the B-unit had a cab. The train was divided and proceeded to it's destinations from there with the A-unit on one section and the B-unit on the other.I never saw the Rockets but I did see the bizzare B-units with a cab many times in later years in Chicago commuter service... #750 crossing the diamonds with the GM&O and AT&SF in Joliet in 1967.... and here is #751 exiting LaSalle Street station.
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Comments: 17
No one did it like R.I. maybe the Katy came close with its "Beep" but the Rock was a master. A Baggage-Observation, these loco's, and Baggage car loco's. Streamlined Baggage cars carrying grain, Davenport 0-6-0's, the Rock was more than a museum, it was business everyday. Still this line back in the forties was a real star. The Rock was a mighty fine line....
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You nailed it. Β If you browse through my journal you'll find a lot of Rock oddities. Β It was hard to find anything normal. Β They were one of Β last to go bi-level on their commuter runs.
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Thank you for sharing these. We forget how it was and sometimes why it is now. Our industrial history is overlooked now a days, very sadly, but in it's prime, Rock Island and theΒ others helped to win the Second World War and that seems to be lost on my generation and the ones afterwards as well. What happened afterwards was not the fault of the railroad for it did what it was supposed to but the fault lies with those who knew nothing about running a enterprise and being successful in it and yes, the Interstate contributed to it as well, but back in the 60's a Railroad was not a "Cool" thing to be. Thanks again for sharing.
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...and thanks for all your comments.Β One of my motivations for posting these pictures was to draw out opinions and facts from others who lived in that era.Β Sometimes what comes back has been quite interesting.
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The super-rare EMC AB6. See this Wkik article: [link] .
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There's only one track left on the west side of Joliet station now.
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One of these days I have to go back there. I assume it hosts Metra, Amtrak, BNSF, and UP?
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The single track on the west side hosts some freight, but I'm not sure which railroads use it. Metra owns the ROW now and runs Rock Island district trains on it with MP36 engines and the same Budd cars you photographed. The four tracks along the south side are split into pairs, with BNSF freights running on the two north tracks, and UP, Metra, and Amtrak sharing the two south tracks. It's a pain for Amtrak especially, because their trains can't pull up to a platform. The engineer must spot precisely to line up the trains' doors with the narrow, wooden-slat pedestrian crossings built across the BNSF tracks...and BNSF must stop all traffic whenever a passenger train stops there.
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That is really odd... thanks for the update Hoyt.
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Almost looks like a poor attempt to match the boxcabs produced by GE, ALCo & Ingersoll-Rand.
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Well, the EMC's forerunners to the E-units were boxcabs.
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Actually it was an interesting attempt to maintain the streamlined look of the Rocky Mountain Rocket with a second unit that didn't have the normal E unit cab to mess up the aesthetics of the straight line on the prairie.
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I've been updating, re-color correcting, and adding my name on the face of all my photos a little at a time.
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That really is a bizarre looking thing. I'd never even heard of such an idea being practiced, but that's why I love previous eras. People seemed so much more creative and resourceful.
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yup.... lot's more experimentation back then.
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looks like a big brick. cnw did a better job converting them.
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