CB&Q NE7 13945, Naperville, IL, April 27, 1965, photo by Chuck Zeiler

Chicago Burlington & Quincy NE7 13945, built at the CB&Q's Aurora, Illinois shops during September 1914, seen here eastbound at Naperville, Illinois, April 27, 1965, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Also pictured is NE7 13973, and an unidentified NE12. They all survived the BN merger, 13945 becoming BN 11141, sold for scrap (sfs) to Marfax Steel & Railway equipment, date unknown. Number 13973, built October 1913 at Aurora, also survived into the BN merger, becoming BN 11149, retired 9/1972. Both NE7's were 30 foot Waycars, as cabooses were known on the Burlington.

A possible explanation for all these waycars is: one crew got separated from their waycar (13973) and it is being ferried into Chicago to be available for that crew. At this point in time, the CB&Q still had some older labor arrangements and some of the waycars were assigned to specific conductors. The rear waycar is for the crew assigned to this train, and 13945 and 13973 were probably attached to this train at Galesburg. The silver waycar (NE12 class) was probably the pool waycar assigned to the train at the beginning of its run.

Another explanation is that 13973 needed maintenance and was shopped, and is being moved to another location for reassignment. I don't know.

I can explain the numbers on the signal bridge. They read (left to right): 1274, 2274, 3274. The first number in each group is the track number, meaning the leftmost track is track #1. The next three digits are the miles from the bumping posts at Union Station in Chicago, the last number being a decimal. That means the signal bridge is located 27.4 miles from Union Station, where the Burlington started measuring mileposts and other markers.

From my perspective, I did not understand why they would build a signal bridge this wide, unless at some point, management contemplated a fourth track.