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| American-Rails.com posted The old art of grabbing train orders is demonstrated here by an Illinois Central Gulf crewman on caboose #199456 as part of a northbound freight crossing the Norfolk & Western diamond at Tolono, Illinois on August 4, 1982. Jack Kuiphoff photo. Greg Phelps In the mid-seventies I handed up train  🚂 orders with a forked stick! Had to stand close beside the train and hand up to the engineer, step back and then also hand up to the conductor on the caboose! At Horse Branch, KY handing up to a North bound coal train coming down a hill and around a curve at 60+ miles per hour! The engines would get to swaying so much you could read all of the number plates on the locomotives, six of them! First time I did this was a bit scary!Justin Gillespie What happened when they missed or dropped it on a busy main line like that? Terry Taylor The head brakeman , if it was the headend, or rear brakeman if it was the caboose started walking back and the operator ran toward the train knowing the dispatcher was going to eat his rear out for delaying the train and probably messing up his meet, whether it was his fault, or not. Michael Megee My first time . . . I tried to grab it with my hand. I ended up walking/running about 1/2 mile each way to retrieve them. Dan E. Brodigan Don't miss, or there's hell to pay! Todd A. Warrick shared Norm Alexander Pic is a great demonstration of why those IC cabooses were so long. Conductor has a level covered platform with a railing to stand behind when snagging orders. I understand those buggies gave a nice ride too. Mark Rickert They got tired of losing crew out the side door overreaching. Dennis DeBruler shared Thomas Kaufman: Having done what the trainman i doing on the caboose, I can tell you all it is not as easy as it looks, lol. |
The train is northbound because the tower was in the southeast quadrant.
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| 1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| Stephen N. Brannon posted Tolono, Illinois where the IC north-south main crossed the Wabash main from Detroit to Decatur and then on to either St. Louis or Kansas City could be a busy job at the joint agency depot. Richard Fiedler shared Richard Fiedler shared Richard Fiedler shared Jon Roma: It could be busy but it could also be quiet. This depot was built in the early Fifties to replace an earlier structure that had a tower built into the corner of the building. Manned by IC employees, Tolono closed as a 'round-the-clock interlocking station on April 15, 1992, and the building was razed in March, 1994. Stephen N. Brannon: Anyone have a photo of the previous depot with the built-in tower? |
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| Richard Fiedler answered Stephen's question |
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| Richard Fiedler commented even earlier. |
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| Bill Molony shared "Follow The Flag." Wabash E8A #1012 arrives at Tolono, Illinois with Train #4, the eastbound "Wabash Cannonball" (St. Louis - Detroit), as it eases across the Illinois Central diamonds on October 28, 1962. Thanks to the popularity of the folk song, "The Wabash Cannonball," the railroad inaugurated an actual train by that name in 1949, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Cannonball. Roger Puta photo/Marty Bernard collection. Brandon McShane The musical junction where the City of New Orleans crossed.Jared Stanfield had a section crew in Tolono in those days, note the great surface on that diamond. |
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| Todd A. Warrick posted Illinois Central Depot in Tolono Illinois where my stepfather, Jack Woods worked at. Not sure who is in this pic as it is from 1960. The black box to the left alarmed as the trains approached. It is where the IC and Wabash RR's intersected. Photograph by J. Parker Lamb, © 2015, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Lamb-01-032-01 James Maltby The electric track control box is now at the Wabash depot at the Monticello Railway Museum. Skip Luke I worked at Tolono many, many times. It was a good job back in the 60s, 70s ..... I did become a dispatcher in '68. ..... "The black box" was a relay interlocking machine, controlling the diamond and a set of crossovers on IC. |
Rob Conway High Hood SD45s were such cool units!
Jon Gilbert Might have been DR78, a Decatur - Roanoke train. Cabooses were mostly gone from the Wabash by then, other than on this train and on RD77.
Ken Schmidt Hooping up orders. You sure date that photo Tom.
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A Feb 7, 1984 photo of a northbound ICG GP3802
Robert Daly posted five photos with the comment: "Fifty-four years ago: on October 18, 1969 fellow railfan Ken Belovarac and I visited the IC/Wabash (N&W) station at Tolono. It was five years after the merger with N&W but the Wabash name was still on the trainboard. We caught a westbound freight with #2804, an ex-NKP GP9 delivered in 1959, and a former Wabash caboose. A southbound IC freight also appeared with the lead unit sporting the new orange and white colors."
Dennis DeBruler shared
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