Michael Shintani wrote:
> The dispatcher was apologetic to the two trains. She might of let 392
> clear Tolono because 391 was far enough (so she thought) so they could
> meet at the Champaign yard (without any backing up). But, speedy Jim in
> 391 made it to Champaign quicker than she thought.
How big were the trains this Thanksgiving? I remember riding 391 back to
school in 1988-- it was a 14 car behemoth (mix of Amfleet and Heritage)
pulled by two F40PH's. Back when there were two main tracks at Champaign,
they cut the last 5 empty cars off 391 (all Champaign riders had detrained)
and highballed south. An SW14 was spotted in a small runaround track south
of the depot (Terry, wasn't it called "23's track"?), tacked onto the cut,
and pulled south of Green St. When 392 arrived, the switcher shoved through
the hand-throw crossovers and coupled the cars onto 392 for the deadhead
trip back to Chicago. Quite a nifty operation for 1988, though it did delay
both trains by many minutes.
Erik Coleman
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