Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

Moderators: metraRI, JamesT4

  by Tadman
 
I recently read in "Classic Trains" that 14 of Chicago's 18 intercity passenger railroads ran E-units. What were the four that didn't?

The way I see it: Soo, GTW, Monon, and either CGW or NKP. Did CGW operate passenger trains after the war? I think the author doesn't count the Insull interurbans, even though two of three operate passenger trains as long as/longer than the Hiawatha or Downeaster, the shortest intercity runs today.

Of the actual Metra predecessor roads, this question changes a bit - ICG electric never had diesels (IC used mostly beautiful brown/orange E's on intercity), Wabash never used E's on commuter (geeps only), GM&O's plug only used chickenwire F3's, and NCS is not a direct Metra predecessor, despite the fact that legacy track owner Soo only used geeps and F's.