MDW 2237: 10 cars?

Departs CUS at 1717, express to Schaumburg, train was double-headed with 10 cars. I've never seen 10-car trains on this route before, is this a new thing?

It was reported last week I believe that MD-W had a 10 car set... look under bilevel changes.

Found AMTK84's post on that subject in the bilevel changes thread (thought I saw that somewhere). Thanks for the reminder...

Saw this train again today, with it's normal F40 doubleheader (didn't get the unit numbers). But I wonder why this train doesn't rate an MP for power, especially since it's a 10-car rush hour express train. It's strange how the Rock and the Burlington run the newer power on the longer rush hour trains, even though fewer of them are assigned there, while they don't seem to be as common on rush hour trains on the Milwaukee lines, yet they're frequently seen on those routes pulling shorter, 5-6 car trains. Weird...

I believe its due fuel tank size and how the train is used. If it makes numerous trips, regardless of how long the train is, it gets a unit with a bigger fuel tank. The F40Cs were used the same way as they had huge fuel tanks. I think Bones explained this in another thread.

Or there's my personal favorite theory; they want the longer expresses to get to their destination w/o breaking down.

F40CFan wrote:I believe its due fuel tank size and how the train is used. If it makes numerous trips, regardless of how long the train is, it gets a unit with a bigger fuel tank. The F40Cs were used the same way as they had huge fuel tanks. I think Bones explained this in another thread

I keep forgetting about that; he sure did, and I dug through the archives to find it. Thanks for the reminder...

I can't speak in the case of 2237, but for RI's 10 car set, #409, the power will very from day to day, including F40's. The only exception is on Friday, when there will be an MP36 leading because the train is used multiple times on the weekend.