Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad E8 9945A westbound at Naperville, Illinois on January 25, 1965, Ektachrome by Chuck Zeiler. This locomotive was built in May 1950 (c/n 9689) on EMD Order 2012A, became BN 9945, was sold to Amtrak August 1, 1972 becoming 339, finally retired May 28, 1975 and sold for scrap to Precision National. It is seen making a station stop to discharge passengers and conduct a bit of head end business. The power car behind the locomotive has a baggage section, and a CB&Q employee is handing out something to the man on the ground with the baggage cart. The gentleman on the left side platform has paused in his shoveling duties to watch me snap this photo.This is most likely Train Number 103, a daily except Saturday and Sunday almost all-stop Dinky departing Union Station at 7:35 AM, arriving at Naperville at 8:35 AM. A note in CB&Q Employees Timetable #9 (in effect on this date) states: NO. 103 MUST NOT EXCEED 35 M.P.H. TO DISPATCH NEWSPAPERS AT EOLA. This train is not scheduled to make a stop at Eola (five miles west of Naperville), and I can tell you from first hand experience (I was a newspaper boy in Naperville) that dispatching newspapers at 35 mph was not good for the papers. You generally would throw away the first couple of papers on the outside of the bundle. This train is on the middle track because the eastbound East End Way Freight was occupying the far left (typically westbound) track on its journey from Eola to Naperville this Monday morning. |