Nostalgia & History > The Redmond Files... The former Q on August 2, 1970

George Redmond was in his mid-twenties and beginning to take his early cameras trackside in the summer of 1970.  On August 2nd, he headed over to the former Burlington engine terminal at his native Centralia, Illinois.

This was shortly after the Burlington Northern merger, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the power standing by.  Just over a decade before this was where the O1a Mikados and M4a Colorados (2-10-4 to y'all non-Q folk) made their last stand, working coal traffic out of the southern Illinois mines.  Traffic might have fallen off a bit from the end of the fifties, but the throng of SD7 and SD9 units awaiting their next job evidences that there was still plenty of mine work to keep Centralia busy.

Within a decade however, the traffic flow would reverse as inbound coal from the Powder River Basin would arrive as outbound coal mined locally would peter out.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Well, Mary, with the four digit numbers this is clearly after the merger.  Nice shots and narrative, thanks for posting.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA