Chicago & North Western’s Flambeau 400, 1958-1971

Fred Klein, 2010, 2016

The Chicago & North Western ran a weekend or vacation train called the Flambeau northward out of Chicago starting in 1935. It initially ran north on Friday and south on Sunday in the summer season. Two sections of the train ended at Watersmeet and Ironwood in the lake district near the Wisconsin border with the upper section of Michigan. Service was often more frequent between Chicago and Green Bay Wisconsin, with the northern towns having seasonal service only. Service all the way to the northern end of the route in Michigan started the travelling season as weekly service on Memorial Day, but daily trains ran during high summer. The train made stops at many lakes, villages and resorts in upper Winconsin’s lake district. The Lac du Flambeau, a lake within an Indian reservation through which the train passes, means “flaming torch” and was named because French explorers saw Indians catching fish by torchlight. The lake gave its name to the train, and the drumhead of the pre-World war II train has a flaming torch. The train, being only a vacationer’s train (although a very popular one), was suspended during World War II. Scribbins’ The 400 Story gives a detailed account of the train’s history. Being a vacation train for Chicagoans and seldom being written about in the modern model railroad press, the Flambeau was unknown to the author and probably unknown to many modelers living on America’s coasts. As I look at the map with hundreds of lakes at the train’s destination and the season of operation, the word “mosquito” comes to mind before “railfan”.

 

Starting in 1950, the train was renamed the Flambeau 400 and joined the 400 “family”. Double-decker gallery coaches joined the consist in 1958, hence the starting year for this model train. The train gradually diminished from lack of passenger demand until cancellation when Amtrak took control of C&NW’s intercity passenger trains in 1971.

 

A January 1955 Flambeau crossing the Milwaukee River with an E7 and an E8 before the gallery coaches were added to the train. Photo from Scribbins’ The 400 Story, page 127.

 

The Flambeau 400 near Shawano on July 27, 1962. This train is making money from an RPO-express car and two heavyweight storage mail cars, but does not offer passengers a diner or lounge.

 

This is a 1937 blotter (remember fountain pens?) advertising the Flambeau 400.

 

The consist for this Flambeau 400 was published in Wayner’s Passenger Train Consists 1923-1973 for a northbound train #153 at Green Bay Wisconsin on June 2, 1965. The consist varied over the years and by seasonal demand. Train photos in Scribbins’ book (see two below) show considerable variation. The number of cars varied between ten and two. Trains may have had a coach-lounge instead of a diner, and some trains had neither. Models of E6, E7 and E8 locomotives have been made and factory painted by Life like, and F7s were used in the train too. Prototypical models of the gallery coaches are from Con cor, and the 56-seat single level coach models are available from Centralia Car Shops/Intermountain. The gallery coaches are from C&NWs 1958 order for intercity gallery coaches; the commuter coaches were delivered in 1960 an have different seating inside but have the same window arrangement. See my page on C&NWs commuter train for more gallery coach info. Sometimes the 1958 Flambeau used the bi-level parlor and lounge cars also delivered in 1958, but I do not have models of these cars, and they are not in the June 2, 1965 consist.

 

I don’t think a prototypical model of the RPO-baggage car is available. I have two factory painted models of C&NW RPO-baggage cars: the Con cor car is based on a GN prototype and does not match the C&NW prototype well. The old Atlas car model (pictured below) comes closest: it has a 30’ RPO section and 3 baggage doors versus the prototypes’ 15’ RPO and 2 baggage doors. The diner used in the Flambeau is the 1949 ACF diner. These diners were formerly used on the City trains, which used C&NW and UP cars, until 1955 when UP combined with the Milwaukee Road to use their tracks and cars to reach Chicago. I have one of these 1949 ACF diners in UP’s armor yellow paint, which is how they appeared just after the C&NW and UP divorce. Eventually these diners were repainted in C&NW yellow and green, and my model has her old clothes.

 

 

 

Power, baggage-RPO, and diner

 

Power is from an E7 and an E6, both made by Life like and prototypical to the C&NW. The Flambeau often carried a baggage-RPO car (with an RPO door and 2 baggage doors), similar to the Atlas model with 1 RPO door and 3 baggage doors which is based on a rebuilt Monon prototype. If the Flambeau carried a diner, it would probably be this 1949 ACF diner originally built for use with UP/CNWs City trains. The model, made by Kato, has not yet been repainted in the prototypical yellow/green colors for the C&NWs native trains.

 

Coach section

 

The prototypical gallery coach models are from Con cor. The bilevel gallery coaches used in the Flambeau were from the 700-709 series. Models of the single level 56-seat coaches were released by Centralia Car Shops/Intermountain in 2010.

 

 

REFERENCES

Dorin, Patrick. Chicago and North Western Passenger Train Equipment, TLC Publishing, 2001.

Randall, David. From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

Scribbins, Jim. The 400 Story, PTJ Books, 1982.

 

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