Riding "The City Of Harvard"

Over the weekend, I took two of my kids out to the Illinois Railway Museum (we're members).  As we were over in a far flung corner, my son shouted "The Union Pacific!", and thinking it was just a freight run to the Chrysler plant in Belvedere, I was a bit surprised to see the UP's business train was going by on the line which runs parallel to the IRM's main track.

My view of the head end (front for all you who don't speak train) was already blocked by the station building, and the only car I could identify was the "City of Portland" diner-dome, followed by an old style business car (with back porch), and the Boy Scouts livery C45ACCTE commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Scouting in the US...

We walked back to the station, hoping it was going to come into the museum's track for display, but it kept going to Belvedere... Oh well.  At least we saw a fleeting glimpse of it.  I'd seen it before, but my son hadn't.

This morning, fate and my morning commute intersected...

As my normal train pulled into Track 4 at CPT (Olgilvie), I saw the business train sitting on Track 6.  She had a standard road locomotive on the head, followed byCNW liveried UP1995 SD70ACe, chair dome "Colombine", chair car "Salina", diner dome "City of Portland", business car "Cheyenne" , then BSA liveried UP2010 and another standard road locomotive on the end.

Yes, for those of you counting, that was four locomotives for four passenger cars, and otherwise a bit excessive, but I'll explain that in a second....

Full bio's on the various cars are at http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/histequip/index.shtml

After getting off my train, I started taking pictures, but as I approached the last car, an inbound scoot (suburban commuter) pulled onto Track 5 blocking my view, so I walked down, over, and up to Track 4's platform... As I was up there, I walked towards the head end towards a group of UP employees in Operation Lifesaver polos.  I asked what the event was, and they said it was an OLS special heading out to Harvard.  I said that might explain why we saw it passing by on Saturday, and said was a little surprised it didn't stop at the museum.  One of the conductors said that they actually had pulled into IRM on Friday, but because of a special event on Saturday ("Day Out With Thomas") at the museum, there wasn't enough room.

Then the unthinkable happened -- "Want to go to Harvard?"

The decision thought process took about 3 seconds... No, it wasn't an invitation to get my MBA.  My Blackberry was fully charged, and I'd already been on phone calls with the foreign office for almost two hours.  I've lived along the Harvard Subdivision for over half my life, but had never actually been to Harvard on the train, much less in a classic dome car from the 1950's...

"Why not?..."

I won't go into the Operation Lifesaver pitch, aside from saying it is intended to build awareness around the dangers of railroad crossings and trespassing.  Today's run was for mostly police officers and a few reporters, making stops in Park Ridge, Barrington, and Crystal Lake on the way to Harvard, & then returning to Chicago with the same three stops.  Runs over the weekend had included Scout units (presumably one of those going out to Union as I found out later), and only about half the seats onboard were filled.

Since the train came out as a unit from Cheyenne, they were leaving the two engines and four coaches together.

But why the extra engines?  History, and the CNW being somewhat unique...

There are three subdivisions on the UP which host commuter service -- Harvard, Kenosha, and Geneva.  For whatever reason, the Harvard and Kenosha subdivisions use a system called ATS (Automatic Train Stop), and the Geneva sub doesn't.  This requires specially equipped leading and trailing cars (a primary reason why locomotives on the UPRR aren't swapped out with those on other Metra lines).  While ATS equipped locomotives can go just about anywhere, the reverse is not true, and neither the BSA or CNW liveried engines had ATS equipment. So, for this day's operation, two locomotives from the local pool equipped with ATS were required.


With that much power, we had no problems getting up to 70 mph and staying there for most of the trip, slowing only for Mayfair, Deval, and the station stops.  Not too surprisingly, it was a much smoother ride than Metra.  The UPRR has a fleet of about 40 passenger cars that they maintain for PR and company business, and they're kept in top notch condition. Even the upholstery used on the seats was vintage.

As the train pulled out, I called my wife and told her the business train our son partially saw on Saturday would be going thru our town in about 30 minutes.  I then let it slip that I was onboard... (bad idea).  She agreed to bring him anyway.

When we pulled into the station, they were on the platform towards the back end, and saw me thru the window as we passed.  Unlike Metra with tinted green plexiglass, the glass on these cars is as crystal clear as it can be under FRA specs, and you can see in....

Earlier, one of the conductors said he could have come along if he were over 18, but he isn't.  He's 9.  So, once we stopped, I walked back to an open door, and tossed him an Operation Lifesaver hat the crew was passing out on the train, which he thought was cool.

Then another one of the conductors did the second unthinkable act of the day... "We're not that full -- want to come along?"

My son took a few moments longer to decide than I had  -- asking "do I go on the train, or to 'meet the teacher' day at school?" -- the conductor helped him decide by saying "you'll see your teacher all year."

He agreed, and the Queen said to text her to tell her when to pick him up on the return. We quickly took our seats in "Colombine's" dome.

My son was in railroad geek heaven for the second time in a month -- at the railway museum a few weeks earlier, we'd ridden in the Nebraska Zephyr's observation car "Juno"

I must admit, riding in a real dome car is a great way to watch McHenry County fly by.  We rode back from Harvard on the main level of the "City of Portland", eating Jimmy John's box lunches that the UPRR was providing.  Not the gourmet menu that was posted on the wall, but still a fine way to watch the world go by...



It was really fun pulling into stations along the way -- you could see some serious looks of confusion amongst those in their 20's, looks of delight from the kids and those in their 50's and older. Somehow, word was out about the run because I saw a lot of tripods set up along the route as well.

Before we knew it, we were rolling into our (new) home town, and I decided that it was probably best to go ahead and work the rest of the day from home (it's not very green to commute twice in one day...).

On the way off the train, the conductor manning the stairs, knowing I'd boarded by happenstance, said "90% of life is simply showing up."

I agree.  And it was a fitting way to end the ride.