#u25b

Westbound on the Big Four

Forty-three years ago I went out with a couple of friends looking for trains. Upon reaching Greencastle, Indiana, we found a westbound train sitting at the nice station north of town there.

[This is the Big Four/NYC/PC/Conrail line that runs west from Indianapolis/Avon to Terre Haute.]

After getting a drink of water for the lead locomotive, a GE U25B that was built for the NYC in 1964, the train was able to head out. The last photograph shows the train just west of Greencastle about a mile or so. The second engine, also a GE U25B, was built for the Pennsy in 1965; the final engine, painted in Conrail blue, is a GP40 built for the NYC in 1967.

Going back up to the first image, the close-up of the U25B, it seems to represent boiled-down simplicity. Compare this piece of equipment to a locomotive made in the last ten or fifteen years—it would be akin viewing a WWII plane, a P51, say, next to an F35.

The "popsicle" nickname, the proto-SPSF color scheme, or the disappointing silk purse you get out of a sow's ear—these MK rebuilds were brutal beasts, don't let anyone fool you.

“Erie-Lackawanna U25B leading an eastbound over Broad Street in Griffith, Indiana. The head trucks of the 2506 are on the Grand Trunk crossing and about to rattle the EJ&E diamonds.”

Note that there are no gates or lights for this grade crossing, which was protected by a real, live crossing guard as seen here, who used the shanty at left for protection from the elements.

Griffith, Indiana

February 17, 1976