Covered Wagon

Here’s a GM&O F3 in, you guessed it, Bloomington, Illinois, along the Alton. The poling pockets were idiosyncratic to the GM&O.

Slingshot

Pictured: a northbound Slingshot on the historical Alton (GM&O). The Illinois Central Gulf designed this to be a fast TOFC train between St. Louis and Chicago. I believe a deal was cut with trainmen so that a full crew would not be required.

Every time I saw this train it was powered by a single GM&O GP35—either in the black and white of the GM&O or orange and white of the ICG, like this one. However—this unit is an anomaly in that it was built as a GP40X (IC 3075), wrecked, and rebuilt into a GP35 and thus numbered with the ex-GM&O units of similar ilk.

Also: every time I saw this train is was completely empty, sans trailers, or nearly so (there is one trailer at the very end of this train). The location is at a spot where the Chicago & North Western flies over the Alton—between Girard and Nilwood, in central Illinois.

Some Joliet Action

Here are several images made while spending some time in Joliet back in the mid-1970s. All of these trains are either northbound on the Alton or eastbound on the ATSF, clattering over the Rock Island diamonds, headed toward Chicago. These images are not great, but it’s always good to see action under the semaphores.

The first photograph has a northbound Amtrak train—most likely the State House, arriving on the Alton (GM&O). The second and third pictures show a Santa Fe manifest blasting through with six units, the first three being what looks like big General Electric U36Cs. And the final image provides a local job, with a couple of diminutive EMD GP20s up front. Now why couldn't that 2nd unit been up front?

On the Alton

Here we see a northbound coal drag on the Alton/GM&O/Illinois Central Gulf between Chicago and St. Louis. This is a spot, south of Springfield, where the C&NW flies over, between Girard and Nilwood. (The photographer is positioned on that right-of-way.)

The first and last locomotives, both SD40s, are from the home road, formerly wearing GM&O red and white. I imagine this was a double-track main—and it will be once again.