Ear on Chicago; Ridin' on a Rail: Burlington Road

Burlington Railroad twins efforts, a popular swift running pair making daily round trips between Chicago and Minneapolis St. Paul provide everyday demonstrations of the precision operation of today's passenger trains. The twins each run around trip over the 437 miles between Chicago and the Twin Cities, with daylight departures from each terminal, a routine that demands a brisk schedule both on the road and in the yard. The briskness is compounded in the case of the afternoons effort out of Chicago which is scrubbed, shined, swept, swept, serviced, and supplied in the one hour and twenty minutes between arrival from the Twin Cities and departure from Chicago. This festive dome zephyr's busy day on the road starts at 8 o 'clock in the morning when it rolls out of Minneapolis as the southbound morning zephyr. After a pause at St. Paul at head southeast, crosses the St. Croix River, and then skims in full flight along the Mississippi. At Savannah, it swings eastward for the stretch round across Illinois and into Chicago. Journey's end is Union Station at 2 .40 p .m. Today we

are doing the story of that morning zephyr and we will take you along the route from Aurora to Chicago. Our story opens in centralized traffic control in Aurora, Illinois. I'm standing right before the board which controls central traffic control at this moment. It's about 10 feet long, it's a large blackboard with the outlines of the railroad tracks running along it and red lights indicating the trains. Number 22 is the train we're going to take and number 22 is coming in along the track now and is indicated by a red light. Underneath the track, which is a single track from Savannah to Aurora, is a maze of buttons and lights and we're going to have that explain to us in just a few moments. You just heard a bell and we'll find out what that means too. We're going to talk first to Mr. A .R. Mcdonald, who is road foreman of engines for the Burlington Railroad. Mac, tell us about central traffic control. Our first stretch of CTC as we call it, centralized traffic control was put in between Denver, Colorado and Brush, Colorado

in 1936 and since then it's been installed on other divisions. We figure that it gives us about 80 % the efficiency of double track operation with, of course, a much reduced cost of operation. You have a dispatcher sitting over here. What's his name? That's right. That's Mr. John Stonebird. John, I explained, described briefly what is on your board here, but I can only explain what I can see. This track running along here indicates your track from Savannah to Aurora and as I understand it, the red lights indicate the trains coming in. The bracket on the diagram are the sightings and the show us where the sightings are. What are these buttons underneath, John? Well, the first buttons underneath the track layout are the switches. Now, John, this particular switch here, for example, number 57 has a white light to the left of it which says in. What does that mean? That indicates that the east switch at China is lined for a straight track.

That's number 57 is China, is that it? That's the east switch at China. I see. Well, now, do you mean to tell me you can punch a button here and change the switch at China? That is correct. Well, that's an amazing operation, isn't it? Oh, yes, it's very efficient. Now, Mack, there's one major question which I want to ask before we leave centralized traffic control. And that's what happens when John punches the wrong button? Why don't we let John show you here what would happen? Incidentally, it's impossible for the dispatcher even with all his buttons and toggle switches here to set up an improper lineup. In other words, you could not give a false block signal indication that would cause an accident. It's utterly impossible. John, suppose you do punch the wrong button and let's hear and see just exactly what will happen. Oh, I've cleared a signal for a train to come east out of Millageville. And now I will attempt to clear a signal going west out of Carter, which would be an opposing

move. All right, fine. Now, when you hear that buzz, what do you do then, John? Well, we check back the levers to see that something isn't wrong and straighten it out. We know that we've lined up the machine wrong and it's going to be necessary to have it straightened out. In other words, you just can't make a mistake on this board. That is correct. Well, now Mac, one other question before we leave. How does this actually operate? Is it by radar or electricity or what? No, no. It's done by relays and code carried over a cable. And each code, of course, I'm not an electrician, but each code handles a certain relay and each relay controls a certain piece of operation in this complex machine. Suppose we can hear it? Yes. If you will put your microphone, I think it's sensitive enough. If you will put your microphone over here to the machine, I believe you can hear it ticked just like a heartbeat. Now, that noise we just heard was a series of relays reacting.

That's right. That's right. And by the way, Hugh, if you look on the board here coming out of Carter, you can see our train number 22, the Twin Cities, after the train will be riding. Well, it'll be coming in before long and we better prepare to get on it. I think that would be a good idea. Right now we're in the cab of the Burlington Railroad's Morning Zephyr, which left Minneapolis around 8 o 'clock this morning. And we're picked it up in Aurora, Illinois, which is about 40 miles west of Chicago. We have just left Aurora and as we pass some of the crossings and some of the markings along the crossings, we're going to ask Mack to tell us a little bit about it. Now, Mack, about what speed are we traveling as we come into Eola? Well, let's look at the speed indicator here and see what we're making. Of course, we're just picking up speed now

while we're making about close to 70 miles an hour. 70 miles an hour. Is it going any faster than this between here in Chicago? Our top speed due to the suburban territory and proximity of crossings and so on is 75 miles an hour. Well now, Mack, I think we ought to describe what we're actually in. I want to impress the fact on the people who are listening in that we are not back in the back part of the train, but we're right up there in front. And this has been a long life ambition of mine to ride up in the cab of a train. All right, let's start over here in this corner, Mack. What is this equipment over here? Well, on the right side of the unit of the cab, you have the engineer's equipment consisting of brake valves, power controls, reverser, two speed indicators. And on the floor, you'll notice he has his foot on what we call the dead man's pedal, which in case anything should happen to the engineer would automatically stop the train. You have headlight switches and

all the various and sundry pieces of equipment necessary to handle the train. Over on the fireman's side, in front of Mr. Barton, you have your steam heat controls. You also have an emergency brake valve so that rather than call a warning to the engineer, he could make an emergency application from his side. Should he see anything? And of course, the necessary windshield wipers and so on. Now we're slowing down, Mack. Why is that? We're not slowing down due to the great condition, the engineer merely eased off on the throttle to keep within the speed limits. Well, I'd say it just felt as if we were slowing down. And now, Mack, we're going by a crossing here and here's a yellow and a green and a red light. The red on the left, the green in the middle, and the orange on the right. What do those mean? We're on track two. We're governed by the signal on track two, which is the green indication. You'll notice also up here in the center of the cab between the engineer and fireman is a green indication. That is our cab indication, which

duplicates the wayside signal. Now, my friend is a very, very handy thing in territory where you're liable to have a lot of fog and bad weather. We know, excuse me, Mack, but I wanted to mention that we're passing through the town of Lyle, a small community, which is approximately 10 miles east of Aurora. So we've traveled about 10 miles, I think, haven't we? That's right. Our engineer aboard the train is Stanley Warren. Stanley, how long have you been with the Burlington? 48 years. 48 years of rail roading. 48 years. Well, then you were here long before the diesel was. What's the big difference, Stanley, between driving one of the big diesels in the old steam locomotive? Oh, cleanliness and comfort. I noticed you're sitting back and sort of taking it easy here. It wasn't like that in the old days. Absolutely no. Okay, Stanley, thank you very much. We'll notice up ahead of us that we had a yellow indication on track

three and a head of us is a red indication. Just by the red indication, you see a freight train. That red indicator indicates, of course, that a train is there. Is that riding us in the block? That's right. And we won't pass the freight train in just a minute. I'm sorry I had to pause there because we were going through a small community of Belmont and they wanted to sound the horn, so we wanted to pause and listen to it for just a moment. Now, Mac, there he pulled a different cable on the horn. Why was that? Well, that is what's known as the city horn. It's not quite as loud and as disturbing as the large country horn and through these small communities we don't like to make any more noise and absolutely necessary for safety. We're now going through Claret and Hills and there again was a city horn and we'll be coming into Hinstale right away. We want to talk to Claret's Randle of Fireman just briefly. Claret's, how long have

you been railroading? On my 15th year. You've been with the Burlington all that time? Yes sir. I've been running 15 years. How do you like the diesels compared to the steam locomotive? Oh, I think they're wonderful. Mac, we just went through western springs in a series of signals and then the horn and then the sort of a whistle. Explain that for us will you? The warning horn showed or indicated that we went by a signal displaying a restrictive indication and as you see our next signal is yellow. We have a yellow over green indication on our cab signal and that horn that warning horn will blow until the engineering acknowledges the fact that he's passed a restrictive signal. Mac, just outside of the range we churned where in Hollywood now but just outside of the range we went over to track number three. Tell us about that. Well you notice that we had a yellow

approach signal to the congress park interlocking plant and at congress park we had a green indication underneath the red indication and that of course indicates a diverging route. Why did we divert? Well you see up ahead of us that yellow machine on track two that is a rail detector car. We run them periodically over our tracks in order to detect any fishers in first fishers or anything that is not visible in the rail condition which might result in a broken rail. You'll notice here that we have another yellow approach signal and another there's the warning. We passed Harlem Avenue. That's right. That's another diverging route signal. We're going to cross back over to track two. If we remained on track three in the Chicago we'd be late because we'd be delayed because track three is 35 mile an hour speed restriction. I see.

What speed can we travel on track two? Well on track two you have 75 miles an hour to an hour on the curve and then you're in the depot tracks and it's restricted speed going by signal indication. What about the horsepower of this tremendous giant? Well we're powered by two EMD that's electromotive diesel units each one capable of 2 ,000 horsepower. In other words that's two engines per unit of 1 ,000 horsepower each and gives us a total horsepower of 4 ,000. What maximum speed can you reach with this train? Well of course we're limited by speed restrictions or restrictions of seven of 90 miles an hour on our main line. However

speed of 125 miles an hour wouldn't be too difficult to attain if we could. Now we're passing over some sort of a viaduct. Well this is canal straight we're going under. We round the curve and we're on the Chicago Union depot tracks and that hiss you here is the sander. As engineer Warren applies the brakes he's also spewing some sand on the rail due to a little moisture in the air and the rail could be slippery. Now Mac that took about 40 minutes. Is that the correct time from Aurora to Chicago? Yes that's right. That's right. 40 minutes, 40 minutes. Now we're pulling into the yards and all around us we can see track after track after track and this is the indicator as you pull into Union Station a fly Chicago is called the railroad capital of the world. Now we're pulling right into

Union Station which of course skies high above us. It's something like I guess 14 or 15 stories above us but we're pulling underneath Union Station. We're moving right up to the lobby of the depot. Practically we'll be only about 25 or 30 feet away from the lobby. This apparently is track number 16 I suppose isn't it? Mac there's a sign says 16 up there. That's right track number 16. And so we have arrived safely and on time at Union Station in Chicago. Now that we have arrived at Union Depot I might repeat that we mentioned about the comfort and safety of the passengers and the man that is in charge of that is standing right next to me. His name is Jack Millroy and he's the conductor of this morning's effort that came out of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Jack how long have you been with the Burlington? I've been on the road for 15

years. Jack tell us about your duties as a conductor on this Zepper as it came in this morning. All the duties primarily is safety and comfort for the passengers. We try to assist the older person's on there and also take care of the little children possibly traveling alone and other duties that try to make people happy and as they travel. Jack I know that a lot of folks probably think that all of the conductor does is come along and collect the tickets and punch them but I know that you have many other things to do in regards to being in charge of that part of the train. What do you do other than just watch out for the passengers? Well we take care of the train orders it's another words the movement of the trains according to safety for the passengers and this equipment and see that the train is kept at a safe speed and in other words try to make the trip is comfortable and we can for the passengers and also

keeping with the railroad rules we like to go along in that respect also. Jack I might mention that you're probably the youngest conductor I ever saw. I thought you had to get to be about 65 or 70 years old before they made you a conductor. Well generally speaking yes but nowadays I suppose they move up a little faster however it'll be some time before I'll be able to hold this job regularly. Is that right? That's right. Well a lot of luck to you Jack and thank you very much for an excellent trip. As you can hear we have come to the rear of the train now into the parlor car and we're going to do the turnaround. We have picked up a new guide for this second part of our trip and we're going to talk to Gus Rollwagon who is a master mechanic with the Burlington Railroad. Gus we've talked about the roll around and we mentioned it briefly the turnaround rather. Suppose you tell us a little more in detail what it is. We start from the station going

around the Y to the washer where the train is washed completely back into the 14th street passenger yard where we service the train such as clean it, supply it with all supplies, dining car, bar car and fuel and service the locomotives and then return back to the union station. And you're ready to pick up more passengers and start the trip back is that it? Yes sir. Well now Gus we heard some horns sounding a little while ago and what sounds as if a passage of air? Well what does all that sound mean? That means a backup signal three sounds of the horn means that the train is going to back up. Well Gus if you don't mind I'm going to walk up here and talk to our pilot for just a moment. We're backing out of union station now and as before we were in the cab going

forward now we're in the rear of the car and we're still going forward as far as we can. As far as we're concerned looking out the window but actually the train is going backward. Our pilot is Mr. Ross who is at the controls here. Could you tell us exactly what we're doing now Mr. Ross? Well we're backing out the depot and approach in Taylor's street it'd be our first or Harrison's street it'd be our first approach. And what happens at Harrison's street? Well we get our first signal up the board that we may proceed which is an approach signal. Now let me ask you this Mr. Ross what about this mechanism which you have your hand on over there what does that do? Well this is the full control I control it from the rear all the engine does is supply the power I do the braking the stopping and I also send in the indication from the whether to move forward backward or stop and you have a little dial there which says air breaks. That's that indicates my air pressure and also my electric brake it's a

way. As we went out to the end of the Y Mr. Ross the pilot gave up the control of the train back to the engineer Mr. Warren. So Mr. Warren is pulling the train forward now going into the washer and when we conclude that operation once again Mr. Ross will take over at the rear of the train as the pilot and move us back out at the end of the Y and back us right into the station. We are approaching the washers right now the car just in front of us is being washed. This is a 10 car train plus three engines and all of the cars of course gets get washed. We're in the very last car car number 10. The two washers are of trestle construction and are located about 60 feet apart and as the train proceeds through the washers it's slightly less than one mile per hour. Each coach is sprayed with a mild solution of water and chemicals. A battery of brushes including power operated overhead brushes which can be adjusted to normal car roof height or the height of this Vista domes effort right here

scrub the surfaces of the cars and the sides and the tops. Each car is again sprayed by water jetting a 20 pound pressure and brush to second time. We're passing just underneath the brushes right now. There's a large rotary brush just above us. It's about two feet above us so I wonder if you can hear the brushes as we go by let's see if you well let's listen. That was the overhead brush and the two side brushes spraying the water and chemicals are over us and it leaves us sort of a soapy spray over the windows and now we're being brushed again. Gus how often do you wash the train? Every trip when the weather is above 27 degrees. Anytime it's above 27 degrees you wash the train on every trip. Right all right Gus now we're approaching the rinsing portion of this particular operation. Emerging from the first washer trussle which we just did the cars move on through the second unit where we'll be rinsed and brushed twice more.

Well we were just rinsed off and now we're going through the brushes again to be brushed down. Let's listen to those brushes. And now of course the zephyr is clean and sparkling and glistening. It's now 318 and we're right on schedule. The zephyr will start to back up into the coach yards where a small army of workers takes possession, swarming busily through it along the side and on the top and they will do the cleaning up job in all the cars. If you give you a picture of what goes on as the train pulls into the station and they go into their cleaning up operations we have moved into the diner. We're standing only a few feet from the kitchen and the reason we don't go directly into the kitchen is because they're mighty busy in there.

First of all they're dumping a lot of the garbage from the kitchen out on the trucks and taking that away and then they're going to resupply the kitchen. We're standing right inside the diner and there's a young gentleman over here sweeping up the floor and the rug and general sweeping up operations going on all around us. Also just off the kitchen is the radio equipment and an engineer came in just a few moments ago opened up the big doors, looked in at the radio equipment and is now checking all of the equipment over. Now Dick what's going on in some of the other cars? You there is a total of about 25 people who handle the cleaning up operation. There are three of these workers with carpet sweepers rolling through the coaches. 12 women dusting, cleaning asteris, wash basins, polishing up glass partitions and so on. Two women are assigned to collect papers, refuse, drinking cups and that about sums up the interior

cleaning operation. I might talk to one of the workers who is in here. Could we have could we have your name just a second sir? Lee, Edgar Lee. What are you doing sir with these packages? That's Lenin came over for the trip. We have to put Lenin on the stock for the whole round trip on here. And this Lenin is going to do the new Lenin that you'll have on the trip back to Minneapolis. That's correct. Here's a woman coming aboard the train. What's your name? Alice. What is your job Alice? I'm the magazine girl on here. I put magazines throughout the train and literature. All right Alice thank you very much. Here's another gentleman over here. What's your name sir? What do you do here Mr. Armstrong? I'm the porter. And what's your job as the train is here in the yard to seal the headrest on the seats all clean and ready to go back. What it looks to me like your boys are doing a mighty fine job. Now here's the chef aboard the Burlington's effort. Could we have your name? Yeah Leon Henners. Leon tell us a little bit about the food preparation. What kind of food do you have on the train? For example for breakfast. What

do you prepare? Breakfast we have biggin' eggs, ham and eggs, sauces, wheat capes. What about lunch? Lunch. We have a turkey say hot turkey sandwiches. It's stuffed breast or veal, mits pie, and bean soup. What about dinner? Dinner we serve roast turkey and and prime rib of beef, served on steaks, English mutton chop, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and plum pudding with hard salt. Well that sounds like a wonderful meal. It is a wonderful meal. Making me hungry. It is wonderful meal. And it's all all the pies prepared on the dining car. Is that right? Oh on the dining car. What about your ovens? How much room do you have there? Well we can cook four pies in there. Four pies in there. What about the rest of your facility? Stovies and pans and dishes and so on. Well we have we have two double levels. See if you want to use both of them because you cook eight pies with four in each oven. And we have all innumerable pans, all innumerable stainless steel, jars, and cooking utensils. How

much more of a problem is it to cook a board of train which is moving between here and many apples than it is to say cook in a restaurant? Well for me it says I've been doing it for 37 years. It's ain't no trouble. No problem at all. No problem at all. Which I can do it better on here than in the home. Is that right? Yes right. I can cook on here than in the home. Why is that? Well everything is hand -in and convenient and ain't got everything to work with too you know. Well as you can probably hear the train has started to pull out now. The cleaning up operations are concluded and the train is moving out. Gus we're going backward or forward. I'm kind of twisted around now. I'm going backward into the station. We have arrived now at Union Station and so the twins Zephyr from Minneapolis has completed its operation and is ready for the return trip to Minneapolis St. Paul. We have brought

you from Aurora to Chicago and we have taken you on the turnaround operations in which the train is cleaned and washed and resurfaced and provided with more food and supplies for the return trip back. This then has been the story of railroad passenger service in the Chicago area.