CBQ 9986 (with green class lamps?!)

Name	Type	Comments	Date

J. Williams	General	Cool shot, Thanks for the info!. must have been vary busy.	9/16/2007 8:17:57 PM

Greg Smith	General	Steve, what a great shot!!! Memory lane. Send me an email sometime. Greg Smith MN magichammer2@yahoo.com	10/22/2007 8:06:08 PM

Kim Piersol	General	Nice!	2/10/2008 2:00:23 AM

Marty Bernard	General	Steve, the green marker lights mean second section following. White, for example meant it was an extra train. The joint track from Division St. Tower to St. Croix Tower had five towers including the ones I just mentioned owned by one or the other railroad. Oakland Tower, which I worked, was a Q tower. Trains did not switch railroads as they proceeded from tower to tower (unless they changed tracks). Trains ran left handed so northbound freights could avoid the steeper grades on the Q track which ran a good part of the way up on the bluff while the Milwaukee track ran on river bank. The train you shot ran all the way to Savanna, IL before heading easterly from the River toward Chicago. St. Paul Union Station is not a parking lot though most of the track area is. The headhouse has been restored, looks a heck of a lot better that it did in 1968, and is quite active with two restaurants. Anyhow, it's a great picture. Thanks for posting it.	7/22/2008 1:09:01 AM

The Slidebroker image by John Hill	General	Fantastic picture! Comment: The very-long train actually looks to me like a combined Zephyr/Builder/North Coast Limited with no 2nd section following. This was common in the later 1960s, especially fall/winter/spring when all the consists were truncated.	12/3/2008 9:13:11 PM

Robert Ball	General	Thanks for posting this Steve. Brings back a lot of great memories. I took this train 3 times in 1968 and it was really something to walk through the cars and see all the different dome and diner cars. I remember the GN Dome had a "ranch" theme that really epitomized the train adventure. Thanks again for reminding me of a really fun time!	5/9/2009 8:08:33 PM

Jim Gavin	General	Great shot !!	6/10/2009 11:45:00 PM

Steve J Rush	General	So maybe there was NOT a second section following after all... but the idea that there could have been is still very exciting to me!!! I remember when I was working in the dispatchers office on the Burlington Northern at Northtown in train order days many years later, the time when we ran train 8 "the GN Empire Builder" from Grand Forks and train 18 "the NP North Coast Limited" from Jamestown as sections across Minnesota with the lead one carrying green class lights from Dilworth to Northtown!!! But as for this picture, I was still somewhat a new and young (19 years old) operator townman on the Milwaukee Road working afternoons and midnights at Hoffman Avenue, St Paul Yard and Chestnut Street!!! Years later I dispatched the "joint double track" and worked vacations at Newport using train orders--- long before it was ctc as it is now!!! I guess that I knew a little bit about something as I also worked at Oakland when it was BN!!! That means that I worked at different times 3 of the 5 to	9/30/2009 2:15:49 AM

Steve J Rush	General	But as for this picture, I was still somewhat a new and young (19 years old) operator towerman on the Milwaukee Road working afternoons and midnights at Hoffman Avenue, St Paul Yard and Chestnut Street!!! Years later I dispatched the "joint double track" and worked vacations at Newport using train orders--- long before it was ctc as it is now!!! I guess that I knew a little bit about something as I also worked at Oakland when it was BN!!! That means that I worked at different times 3 of the 5 tower jobs on the joint double track!!! As for tracks that made up the Union Depot, it is all very sad to know and to see that the glory of it is NO MORE!!! As for anything else--- all that I can say is that I think that we sure had fun with this one didn't we?!	9/30/2009 2:20:03 AM

Steve J Rush	General	But as for this picture, I was still somewhat a new and young (19 years old) operator towerman on the Milwaukee Road working afternoons and midnights at Hoffman Avenue, St Paul Yard and Chestnut Street!!! Years later I dispatched the "joint double track" and worked vacations at Newport using train orders--- long before it was ctc as it is now!!! I guess that I knew a little bit about something as I also worked at Oakland when it was BN!!! That means that I worked at different times 3 of the 5 tower jobs on the joint double track!!! As for tracks that made up the Union Depot, it is all very sad to know and to see that the glory of it is NO MORE!!! As for anything else--- all that I can say is that I think that we sure had fun with this one didn't we?!	9/30/2009 2:20:04 AM

Loren Johnson	General	A great picture! Does anyone know whether BNSF got control of the riverside track and Soo Line/now CP owns the over-the-hill track? When I worked for the CBQ I thought the Q owned the over-the-hill track as Marty Bernard said. Loren Johnson	12/26/2009 7:50:50 PM

Robert Anderson	General	The over the hill track from Newport to St Croix Tower EB 251(keep left) was Milw. River grade was Q. At Newport the ownership,but not the keep left operation changed sides. Easy way to remember is Q Dayton Bluff Yd is on the Bluff side. Milw Pig's Yd is on the river side there. Also notice the semaphores on the EB hill. Searchlight type on Q WB river. The Milw sent the Hastings/Chemolite Patrol over the hill with an against the current form D-R train order at St Croix Tower to the 3M Chemolite plant ay the top of the hill. When the Q had headend cattle car for Werthiemer stock spur,had to run Newport to St Croix against the current on river track. 88 or 82 or even Q local 608 may do this. At Hastings on Q side of St Croix plant spur had to be accessed this way too. Either against the current from Newport or thru Xovers at St Croix. That would tie up both mains. Good old days of trainorder RR.	3/6/2018 2:39:09 PM

Brian Sigstad	General	19 copy 3......Sometimes the Chemolite job from Hastings would also handle the Stillwater patrol. My 1st "paid" assignment was 2nd trick at Hastings during a snowstorm in Feb. '62, handing up orders to #15. The head end missed them and had to back up!	11/7/2019 4:26:17 PM

CBQ 9986 (with green class lamps?!)
Just out of the St Paul Union Depot which served 8 different railroads & had 23 tracks--- leaving Division Street on the CB&Q & approaching Hoffman Avenue on the Milwaukee--- four CB&Q E8/ E9 passenger engines have the combined Morning Zephyr & the GN Empire Builder with NP North Coast Limited as a second section of the same schedule soon to follow, headed on its way down the upper Mississippi River valley to LaCrosse & Chicago!!! The Burlington ran on the Wisconsin side of the river & the Milwaukee Road ran on Minnesota side, with the Milwaukee Hiawathas & Burlington Zephyrs racing & chasing each other up & down the river valley between St Croix Tower, Minnesota & La Crosse, Wisconsin. The joint track passenger mains were left hand running and the Milwaukee Road freight mains were right hand running!!! Today it is all CTC, the interlocking towers where I once worked & the roundhouse @ Dayton's Bluff are long gone & the glory that was the St. Paul Union Depot is now a parking lot!!! Most people today have no idea of what was once here & the different railroads that ran & interchanged cars between themselves!!!
Date: 12/31/1968	Location: Saint Paul, MN Map	Views: 2195	Collection Of: Steve J Rush
Locomotives: CBQ 9986A(E9A)			Author: Steven Rush

Picture Categories: Passenger,Action		This picture is part of album: CB&Q

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