Nostalgia & History > IC and L&N Flashback

I'm taking my mind off how hot it is here by remembering how miserably cold it was around Thanksgiving 1958 in the St. Louis area.  I was there with my parents visiting relatives but had one day organized a trip over to Centralia with, I think, Dave Ingles, Dick Wallin and possibly Louis Marre.  Memories fade.  Anyway, here is the output from my poor old 8mm wind-up Kodak movie camera.  The quality is poor, but it may stir memories nonetheless.  The first part is at the engine terminal at Centralia, the second part is at Ashley, Illinois, the crossing of the IC and the L&N's St. Louis line.

Gordon 

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GORDON:
Thanks for posting this great video. I actually think the quality is great considering the camera you were working with. I really like all of the trains in the video. Hard to believe, I was still in elementary school when you took these movies.

ALLEN

Hey, this is a great post and a really great film.  (I almost said video!)  I really enjoyed it.  Don't see much of the L&N from back then, but that steam on the IC was really great to see.  Thanks for turning this into a video and sharing!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

NICE!!!

Good stuff Gordon.  I had family down in Grand Tower, IL and went down there, picked them up and drove to DuQuion for the fair around Labor Day in 58.  Carbondale was busy with steam and we paced a nice freight for a way between there and DuQuion.   No camera!  Sure remember how nice it was to see and smell steam again.
Thanks for posting this.

Outstanding, its good to see subject material from era that I only got watch.  Got more??

There's some MoPac, but I'm afraid that it is all diesels so have not bothered with it.

Gordon

Thank you so much for posting this gem! 

Steve Zahn
Glenview, IL

 

That's a definite TO Ka-ching!
That one car on the IC passenger train with all the snow on top, could that have been a pick up sleeper?

Thanks, Gordon for posting this film. I started railroading fifty years ago on the IC and remember the Centralia roundhouse well although by my time, ten years later it was E units and GPs.

exprail 

Very nice!  I have film shot with the same kind of camera of the IC in the 1960's.  Need to dig it out....

Poor quality is in the eye of the beholder... almost brought tears to my eyes.

Part of the Centralia roundhouse is still there, though all but about 8 stalls have been torn down.  The turntable is still in daily use, and the remaining fan tracks are packed with diesels in C.N. paint.

The L&N tracks are still there, though the line no longer reaches St. Louis and what remains is now operated by the Evansville & Western.  The tower is gone, as is the L&N depot.  The interchange tracks between the two railroads are gone as well.

The shots of 2550 sure look familiar.  I would not be surprised at all to learn still taken at the same time as this film have been published.

A silly story about Ashley:  Someone, I assume a kid who was bored with the quiet little town, spray painted the words "ASHLEY SUCKS" in black on the side of one of the buildings facing the track.  It was hard to see on the night trains, but stuck out like a sore thumb during the day.  They have since repainted the building a nice shining white.  Every time we are heading north, I look at my assistant conductor and say "Ashley!"  He replies "Sucks!"  The memory of the graffiti lives on.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Ashley today.  This is looking west as southbound Amtrak 391 is in the home stretch on its daily run from Chicago to Carbondale.  I took this shot last fall.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Thanks much. Judging by the exhaust from the steam locos, it must have been very cold.

Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

It was bitterly cold.  And if you notice on the steam action piece, the exhaust is going mostly sideways which gives an idea how windy it was to boot! 

Gordon

I remember those cold winters, growing up along the IC Charter line, in Normal, IL.      We never got to see the 4-8-2's unless we went to Champaign or Clinton, but the big 2100 series 2-8-2's were still impressive locos.    Thanks for bringing back a lot of great memories.