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| Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted It's Oct., 1959, at the Illinois Central's coaling tower in Champaign, IL. 0-8-0 3554 and what appears to be a 2-8-2 are visible to left, but they won't be taking on coal today - or ever again. By 1959 the only active IC steamers were on the Kentucky or St. Louis divisions, and in early 1959 all of them were pulled from service. For the first time in its 108 year history the IC didn't have an active steam locomotive. A number of steam locomotives were "stored serviceable" in case they were needed during the fall harvest, but for most that call never came. 4-8-2 2613 was leased to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad for an Oct. 24 excursion between the L&N's namesake cities. Afterwards, 2613 was put back into freight service at Paducah, and over the past few weeks was joined by a handful of other steamers. But the delivery of new GP18's caused these steam locomotives to be permanently pulled from service. As for 3554 and the unidentified steamer next to it, they most likely made a one-way trip south to the scrap yard behind the shops in Paducah, then cut into chunks of metal, and then hauled off to a steel mill. A handful of IC steamers were sold intact, however, to steel mills, who did the scrapping themselves. It is known that 3554 was retired Feb., 1960, but it's ultimate fate is unknown. Champaign, IL, Oct., 1959, Brenda Bailey photo, Cliff Downey coll. Cliff Downey shared |
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| Jacob Hortenstine posted Champaign Illinois concrete coal dock Illinois Central [Some comments agree that it was all wooden.] Charles Scherer Ok, Jacob, nice pic., but what is that, a power washer for empty coal cars? Cliff Downey Hose to refuel diesel-electric locomotive. Near the center of the photograph there is a fuel pump with a meter. Fuel goes to the vertical pipe, and then the hose before being delivered to the locomotive. In the 1930's and 1940's it wasn't uncommon for many locomotive terminals (even large ones) to only have one diesel fuel pipe, because, after all, many places only had one diesel locomotive! |
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| Jacob Hortenstine posted Illinois Central Champaign Illinois coal dock read print on photo. Charles Scherer Never seen this type operation, are the trains going up into the building shown and dumping loads through drop hatches?James Nelson Yes.Cliff Downey Thanks to the steam locomotive at left blowing off steam, it's a bit difficult to tell how long this coal dock is. However, I've seen photos taken circa 1895 of the one along the mainline at Fulton, KY, and the ramp and coal dock were easily 500' long. By 1910 most of these had been replaced by wooden coaling towers, which eventually were replaced by steel coaling towers.Richard FiedlerGroup Admin Cliff Downey easy 500’ the end of the structure is obscured by the escaping steam. [Cliff confirms that this 1880s structure was replaced by the above coal tower.] |
Douglas B. Carlyle also posted this photos, but in a different order.
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The yard is long enough that it takes two old aerial photos to show it. And it was far enough out of town that the southern part includes more than just the yard so that you can see how it related to the town back then.
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| 1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, north |
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| 1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, south |
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| 1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, closup |
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John DuFrane posted four photos with the comment: "Champaign IL yard and freight station."
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| 1 1960 Champaign yard Dave Prasse U25B testing on a refrigerator train ... excellent ! Now , if I could find pics of the Train Master Demonstrators working on the IC ... |
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| 2 2013 Champaign yard from a plane |
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| 4 this building still stands downtown Champaign |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on John's post In this 1940 aerial, it appears that two smaller roundhouses may have been replaced by a larger roundhouse. The land for the large roundhouose is now used by Vulcan Materials. (I used the curves in the stream to correlate the old photo with today's satellite map.) Today's diesel fuel tank probably is where the southern small round house was. The northern one now seems to be part of a storage lot. James Patterson Dennis DeBruler when I worked there in early 90s, there was a partial round house there. |
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| LJ Bootsie posted Looking north off the I-74 overpass at Champaign, Illinois Jeff Shook: I’ve never seen it that dead, wow. Kendel Robinson: Switched a lot of cars in that yard. My first student trip was the 730 am yard job. Was told to get up on the engine and sit down. A little later the foreman had me get down. Had me throw the point switch a few times and then at noon/lunch time he said I was done and go home. That was the first of three student trips and then was marked up good to go, zero classroom July 76. Nine jobs a day seven on weekends. |
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