Nostalgia & History > WABASH Train 111 - "The Banner Blue"

Every Morning at 11:00 AM sharp, WABASH Train Number 111, the westbound "BANNER BLUE" would depart Chicago's Dearborn Street Station, for St. Louis. Its first stop would be the station at 551 W. 63rd Street, at 11:16 AM. Arrival in St. Louis' Union Station was slated for 4:35 PM. The train covered the 285.7 miles with 9 intermediate stops (inclusive of a 13 minute layover in Decatur), in 5 hours and 35 minutes, averaging out to a little better than 46 m.p.h.

Thanks for looking,

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/15 09:32 by ATSF100WEST.

Wow, a PA!

Thanks for posting.

Dave

Note the EMD E-7 with the PA. I'm told they did this in later years because the PA's weren't as reliable as the EMD's. Also, the PA only had one prime mover versus two in the EMD car body. Therefore if you had two PA's on a train you were taking more of chance.

Thanks for posting a cool picture. I grew up near Ashburn Crossing (the Wabash crossed the GTW) and would see the Banner Blue occasionally. On Sundays, I tried to attend noon Mass at St. Denis Church which was near the Wabash mainline so I could see the Banner Blue pass by around 11:30am heading to St. Louis. Even at five years old I was scheduling stuff around trainwatching!