Earlier tonight I saw 411 eastbound pushing Metra 2158(29Sep). Then just a little while ago, I heard the C&M dispatcher calling train 2155 and asking if they were running late due to being a double train. That sounded interesting, so I quickly walked down to the station.
What pulled in was a coupled 2153/2155(29Sep) with 2155 pushing 2153, which had apparently broken down enroute. The combined train had 426 in the lead (headlights on but engine at idle), several dark coaches (I forgot to count them), 411 (providing traction and HEP), and six lighted coaches full of what I would assume were the passengers from both trains.
Eastbound 2160 had already stopped short of the pedestrian crossing here (Deerfield) and westbound 2153/2155 did likewise. I think that some crew swapped between trains across the crosswalk, then 2153/2155 pulled forward and made its station stop and departed, and finally 2160 proceeded east.
Anyway, it looks as if 411 is working well if it was running 10-12 coaches and a coasting MP36 not *too* far behind schedule, even after the delay to couple the two trains.
I'm curious whether the engineer in 426 was controlling 411 from there. I would have thought that since there was electrical power to 426 to run the headlights and bell, the other controls would also have been operative, and it wouldn't really matter whether 411 was immediately behind it or mid-train since the MU cables run through all the coaches. But I also heard some radio conversation to the effect of "OK, when I see you release the air..." and I started to wonder whether someone was in 411 and throttling it up from its cab. Normally I would expect a speed restriction if a train was operated that way, except that maybe if the engineer in 426 had full control of the brakes, he could relay instructions to a "mid-train pusher" by radio and operate normally. [Don't put too much stock in what I'm saying in this last paragraph since I have very incomplete information.]
