I'm glad that Tom (Mann) posted the video of the first day of operations on the Chicago Terminal. He took my raw video (shot with a Sony digital camcorder) and edited it into the presentable format you see now.
I joined the crew in the morning at the North Avenue Yard office of UP where the crew picked up their FAXed train orders. A contractor was on hand to make sure the engine operated properly.
In a way I acted as a pilot for the CTR crew which had never gone on these tracks before, answering questions as to how CP Rail did things. CP apparently did not bother to provide them with any operating information.
I was with the crew during their first two days of operation at the invitation of Ed Ellis, the president of the parent company of CTR, Iowa Pacific, to help document the first operations. Ed originally invited Tom until he realized that Tom lived in MD.
The temperature dropped throughout the day until it was starting to snow by the time the train headed back from Peerless. I hopped off the locomotive at Cortland and Kingsbury and walked to my parked car on Elston at Magnolia since the crew was going to continue onto Goose Island. It was getting late, my camcorder battery had died, and it was getting too dark for still photos.
I sent Tom (Mann) additional footage from Day Two down to Goose Island as well as from a few years earlier on ground level of a CP Rail crew making the run to Peerless then switching it out. Hopefully he will be able to edit it and upload those videos too.
And yes, I did take official vacation time from work to ride with the CTR crew! I always wondered what people would think if they saw me leaning out of the side of a locomotive from work as I passed over side streets!
Tom
