The design of the E- and F-units was good for the 1930s. Fast-forward to the 1990s when UP upgraded the prime movers, electricals, and creature comforts on their heritage fleet. The upgrade couldn't address the poor rearward visibility from the cab when backing, nor the inability to run blunt-end forward. The same problems with steam carried over to the E-, F-, PA-, FA-, Sharks, and similar designs--to run in the opposite direction, the engine had to be either wyed or spun on a turntable.

In the days of my youth in LaGrange, Illinois, along the Burlington, there were no cab cars. When the consists from Aurora got to Union Station, they were wyed, which removed them from active service for the time it took to turn the consists around. That required extra bodies on the ground for switching and backing, some expensive downtown real estate for the wye, and dispatching to clear the way through traffic from Union Station on the CB&Q, Pennsy, GM&O, and other roads to the wye or balloon tracks.

A Geep or SD- unit could be run around the consist and put on the other end, then run in that position without having to wye all of the consist. Made perfect sense. Long hood forward in one direction; short hood forward in the other.

Today, cab cars avoid having to use the wye or a balloon track; as soon as they arrive at the destination the consist can be ready to return in a matter of just a few minutes. Metra used the CB&Q/BN E-units in cab-car consists, but that arrived long after we left Illinois for the sunny climes of California.

Tom Krummell
Roseville, CA