Unmistakably Alco

Number 332, working for the Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation, is an Alco C420. Discerning the lineage of this locomotive was fun: to begin with, the gray color made me think of the Louisville & Nashville.

Indeed the engine ran for for the L&N as number 1332. [It seems that IHRC simply removed the "1" to create a new number: 332.] But the story goes on: the bell on the nose is a tip-off that this locomotive once ran for the Monon, which was subsumed into the L&N in 1971. The C420 was purchased new for the Hoosier Line in August of 1967 and ran with the number of 515.

A Meet and a Pass

We’re along the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon. A northbound freight is in the hole at Thornton Siding for an Amtrak Floridian moving in each direction. The tiny burg of Peerless is here at the north end of the siding; all of this lies between Bedford and Bloomington, Indiana.

About the black unit, an Alco C420: obviously it’s in former SCL paint, but shows on the L&N roster as theirs. It was built for the Seaboard Air Line in 1965; this is at or near the time of the so-called Family Lines being formed.

Alco on Point

Here’s a southbound train at the south end of McDoel Yard, in Bloomington, Indiana. The line is former Monon, but Louisville & Nashville at the time. The lead unit is an Alco C420 that was built in June of 1964.

Alco Comes Home

Here we see a southbound Amtrak Floridian meeting a northbound freight on the former Monon (Louisville & Nashville). The location is Harrodsburg, which lies between Bloomington and Bedford, Indiana.

In the second image, we see the freight up the line at Clear Creek, just a bit south of McDoel Yard. It’s interesting to note: the lead unit on the freight train (an Alco C-420) is a former unit of the Monon—and the bell on the nose of this unit is a tell.

Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation

This line is of the former Nickle Plate, a portion of which, between Neoga and Metcalf, Illinois, was owned by the Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, which contracted with the Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation to operate in the late 1980s. IHRC operated several disjointed lines in the Midwest, but is now defunct.

The locomotive is an Alco C420 that was built in 1967 as Monon 515; it became L&N 1332, and later IHRC 332. I think it’s funny to note that the “1” was simply removed from the number board when going from L&N to IHRC. And I may be wrong, but it’s my understanding that the bell on the nose is a tip-off that the unit is ex-Monon.

The location where the engine is resting is Charleston, Illinois, while the action shot was taken somewhere nearby—on a humid, summer day.