Nostalgia & History > Down at the Diamond: Two trains at Effingham

Back in the mid 1980s, I wound up driving from the east coast back and forth to Denver about once a year.  It's a long boring drive, but one of the high points was the opportunity to stop at Effingham IL for an hour or two.  CR's line ot St Loukis crossed the ICG north south main on a diamond right at the station, so it was a cool place to watch trains.  Occasionally, you'd get the operator hooping up orders.

Here in the spring of 1985, I'm munching on a locally baked pizza, washing it down with a Diet Coke, and managed to catch two trains in the space of only an hour or so.

Then back on the interstate, kick up the stereo real loud and drive, drive, drive.  Better than a thousand miles to go.

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I came thru there in 1974.  Got off the St Louis to Washington Amtrak train, spent a few hours, and catch the Chicago to New Orleans train.  I watched the diamond go up and down maybe 12" as each train passed up.  It was fun to watch.

Great shots of a very interesting railroading era in Effingham.  The Conrail train appears to be picking up Staley or ADM syrup cars from track CR1 or CR4 from the ICG interchange.  Before CSX, a lot of Decatur, Illinois loading was brought down to Effingham via ICG, where Conrail handled the loading to eastern markets.  Traffic was abundant enough at this interchange that both carriers had specific manifests designated to handle the loading.  When the CR line became CSX, the Decatur loading destined for CSX left Decatur via the old B&O through Tuscola, IL.  Some other interesting items in the Conrail image is the Trailvan  parked across from the depot for some reason, and the open top hopper on what used to be a northwest quadrant connecting track.  That connecting track is long gone; all interchange is handled via the connection tracks in the southwest quadrant.  The NYC style signals have also been replaced by newer Vader tri-lights.

    The ICG photo was a real good catch!  The northbound Inland Steel coal train, with the ICG normal filthy power, is crossing over to the southbound main at a crossover which was the topic of much discussion during the asset cannibalization process during the early 1990's.  Preliminary proposals left two main tracks through Effingham to maximize operating flexibility, with the crossover providing access to customers on both sides of the mains and routing to ICG's yard south of the diamond on the east side, and around traffic on the main closest to the depot north of the diamond.  The proposal did not make it to the final selection process, and the northbound main was removed from the interlocker northward.

    Sure glad Effingham was a stop during your cross country journey.  Thanks for sharing your images.