History of push/pull passenger operation?

The Reading company had Push pull trains in the 1950's and 60's(I dont think it was any earlier then the 50's) with a locomotive on each end of the Wall Street and Crusader trains.The train was usually an FP7 on both ends bracketing the Reading arch roof cars

The Reading push-pull set ran on Septa (in the horrible 'circus train' paint scheme ) in to the early 1980's on the Pottsville run. When all diesel operation stopped they were put out to pasture . At least two of the FP-7s have been repainted to RDG colors. Today Septa runs push-pull opreations with AEM-7s and Comet clones on many of its lines.

Are you sure the Reading push-pull went to Pottsville? I thought it only went as far as Reading. I also didn't think the SEPTA paint scheme was horrible, so maybe that makes all my thoughts questionable in polite company.

I believe the Pottsville run was covered by RDCs. Many folks thought the repainting of the push-pull was awful, as well as repainting the 'blue cars' and 'red cars'. It was Septa's way of creating an identity for the RHSL that was distinct from Reading or PRR/PC. I personally think it ranks with AMTRAK's 'circus train' or 'bloody nose' GG-1s. I'm sure many people wil say they loved those paint schemes and thats fine with me, as they say,"thats why we have chocolate and vanilla ice cream"

I'm not sure Reading did operate the Crusader or Wall Street in push/pull configuration in the 1950s. I saw the Wall Street several times in the Fall of 1964 at Jersey City yard and it was still a conventional train with two FP7s on the head end. Also still using the original streamlined coaches before they were sold to CN in 1966 or early 1967. When I saw the Crusader and Wall Street that summer (1967) they were RDC trains and running to Newark. Jersey City was closed.

Jersey Central started using cab cars, which were built by the railroad, around 1966-67.

In 1962 NYC outfitted a standard heavyweight coach as a cab car, using it on an electric-powered (P-2b) train. The train ran mostly on the Hudson Division I think. It wasn't very successful and was not operated very long.

I thought the C&NW pioneered push-pull operation in the late '50s with it's then-new Pullman-Standard fleet of gallery-type coaches. This enabled the railroad to move it's road-switcher type locomotives previously used on commuter trains into freight associated duties where there versatility would be more useful. A set of F-7 locomotives equipped with HEP generators took over the commuter service with the new push-pull trains.

That would be correct. The first cab car built, CNW 151, is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. I thought I remembered it dating from 1957, but according to the museum's website, it was built in 1959.

http://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi? ... estern=151