Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: CNW Left Handed Running
Message-ID: <1108@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 19:40:27 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1108
Posted: Mon Feb 10 19:40:27 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Feb-86 20:15:26 EST
References: <2056@brl-tgr.ARPA> <673@hlwpc.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 18
Summary: 

> > I'm told that the real reason that the C&NW runs left handed [is]...
> > that when the line was
> > single track in the suburban Chicago area, many (most?) of the stations were
> > built on the right (heading away from Chicago.) ...

> Yes, but the North Western did left-handed running everywhere they had
> double track -- not just in Chicago suburban commuter territory.
> For example, the line from Chicago to Milwaukee to Minneapolis was
> once double-tracked all the way, and left-handed running was the norm. ...


Yes, but if the first piece of double-track on the railway is left-hand
running, you'll naturally make all the rest the same.  Easier on the
drivers, for instance.  So the question becomes: which was the first
piece of their system to be double-tracked?  Or, does anyone feel like
contacting the railway (or their successor) and finding out?

Mark Brader