| Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad E9 9988B westbound at Naperville, Illinois on July 25, 1965, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in January 1956 (c/n 20540) on EMD Order 2071A, this was one of ten E9's (#'s 9985A,B - 9989A,B) ordered by the CB&Q in 1955, which turned out to be the Q's last order of E-units. This unit became BN 9983, was rebuilt to E9Am 9913, was retired in 1992, and moved on to other careers.It is seen here on what may be Train #229, a Saturday and Sunday Only Every Stop train, bringing a westbound two car Dinky into Naperville at around 7:25 PM on a Sunday evening with the help of two more E's, and leaving a trail of fresh brake shoe smoke. The practice at the time was to run the E's back to Chicago after rush hour on Friday evening, service and rotate them into Zephyr service, take the E's in Zephyr service and rotate them into suburban service, and on Sunday evening run the E's out to Aurora for Monday morning's rush hour. This particular unit was reputed to have taken a two car Dinky up to 100 mph after leaving Naperville before ducking under the EJ&E bridge at Eola, a distance of roughly five miles. This, of course, was a bit over the 75 mph speed limit in that territory. Chasing the Dinky into town this day is a freight, seen in the smoky background. |