Steam & Excursion > Getting Ready to Depart in April, 1927

Company photographer J.K. Melton was in Chicago on a day in April, 1927, and captured the scene as Illinois Central Mikado number 1568 was preparing to depart with a freight.  It would seem likely that this was a transfer run, as the railroad tended to apply footboard pilots to locomotives assigned to transfer and switching duties.

That would also explain the lanterns hanging on the smokebox handrails; a convenient place to get at them later when some switching needed to be done.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Must have been a shipment of something to warrant the signs on each car. May be why the company photographer was there.

Could well be.  Perhaps this shot may have been used in the company magazine with an accompanying story.  Lacking that, I doubt we'll learn the story.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions