More from Sunday

Frank writes...

As previously noted, I worked as conductor on the CA&E wood train Sunday, helping with two revenue trips and then the abandonment commemoration. Everything went smoothly and the passengers seemed to enjoy the unusual experience. A couple of well-prepared visitors even came dressed up in period attire!

After CA&E cars were put away, I switched assignments and went into streetcar service as conductor on the Veracruz open car. The weather was beautiful and the car was packed pretty much every trip around the streetcar line! I didn't get a chance to take any photos but my father snapped a few.

Here's Bill Thiel, my motorman. Bill has worked for years helping Frank Sirinek with some of the streetcar restoration projects that the latter has headed up.

And here's the three-car North Shore train. The steam coach train ran all day but up until abandonment mainline traction was all CA&E, all the time. The two service trains in the morning were the four-car wood train and the two-car steel train (409 and 431) while the 460 ran shuttle trips between 50th Avenue and Jefferson Street. After abandonment the North Shore cars came out for mainline service, as did a six-car train of modern "L" cars (2000s, 2200s, and 2400s), while MD car 229 ran shuttle trips from 50th Avenue. At one point while we were bringing the wood cars back post-abandonment we passed the super "L" car train near the tower. That was pretty neat - ten electric cars in just two trains alongside each other. Only at Union!