Nostalgia & History > Noon at Naperville -- Part 4

INTRODUCTION:  A. C. Kalmbach spent hours one mid-day at Naperville shooting trains on the CB&Q 3-track mainline (aka., racetrack).  Sets of 35mm slides were produced from them and sold by Blackhawk Films and called "Noon at Naperville".  No date is given.  My guess is circa 1960.  As you will see the captions, which I'll put in quotes, are not railfan type captions.  I'll add roster and other information where I can.

The quality of the Blackhawk duplicates and the years gone by have left the slides quite blue.  Eliminating the blue has not left much color, but I did my best.  The slides would not sharpen up much.

Published with permission.

NOTE: Several commenters have said the series was taken before 1955.

1.  "Eastbound North Coast Limited after more than 2,000 miles and four mountain ranges."  You can see that the next intermediate signals are cleared for the NCL but not the other two tracks.  Circa 1960, A. C. Kalmbach photo.

2.  "Suburban trains mid-day are at minimum od one standard coach and one double-decker."  9946A was an E8A.  Circa 1960, A. C. Kalmbach photo.

3.  "The Coloradoan is Devner-bound."  This must be captioned wrong. It is clearly a Dinky.  9937B was an E8A.  Circa 1960, A. C. Kalmbach photo.
 



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/20 19:21 by MartyBernard.

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4.   "Another freight.  These rails are never still."  132-D was the lead unit in the ABBA set of F3s numbered 132-ABCD.  Circa 1960, A. C. Kalmbach photo.


Enjoy,
Marty Bernard
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/20 11:18 by MartyBernard.

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Loved the NP passenger scheme. What a great area that used to be.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Loved the NP passenger scheme.
> JB

Couldn't have said it any better JB.  One of the most beautiful schemes of any passenger train.  Thanks for sharing Marty.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Love the look of the NP trains too, thanks Marty for sharing.
In the shot of the NCL in your first post we see the whole train and see most of it in this one, since there isn't a Slumbercoach the date may be a little earlier than 1960, I think the NP got them in 1959.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/20 13:41 by NYC303.

DynamicBrake Wrote:
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> 3rdswitch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Loved the NP passenger scheme.
> > JB
>
> Couldn't have said it any better JB.  One of the
> most beautiful schemes of any passenger train. 
> Thanks for sharing Marty.
>
> Kent in CArmel Valley

This from a guy who grew up along the SP main.....geeesh!   
Disclaimer, this SP guy also admires that NP scheme, but not over the fabled Daylight red/orange/black, never that!

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Loved the NP passenger scheme. What a great area
> that used to be.
> JB

Amen. Just really classy. And this image....matched consist, four domes, boat-tail observation car with tailsign. It doesn't get much better than that.

Thanks for another wonderful series, Marty. Wish I could have been in Al Kalmbach's place that day (or any other) to have seen that for myself.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/20 16:26 by ironmtn.

Yes, special bonus points to all passenger trains punctuated by an observation car.  Pardon my prejudice, but theatre cars need not apply.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

The two rearmost domes are sleepers.

-John

And the rooms directly beneath the domes are single bedrooms.   Rode in one from Chicago to Seattle in Sept 1969.