Illinois Central Railroad Heritage Association
shared two photos with the comment: "
From the Metropolis History page."
[Comments indicate towers are still standing in Carbondale, IL; Council Bluffs, IA; Gilman, IL; Centralia, IL; Bluford, IL; and Central City, KY.]
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Stephen N. Brannon That northbound coal train from Paducah is most likely stopped and waiting for a southbound train to pass since there are train orders on the extended order forks where my grandfather is standing waiting to be snared "on the fly" by the crew of a southbound train, the top fork for the engine and bottom fork for the caboose. There was a long 258 car plus engine passing siding at Reevesville which was used as "double track" with northbound trains, such as the train in the photo, using the track in the left of the photo and southbound trains using the other track. This was the longest passing siding on the "Edgewood Cutoff" fast freight line, completed in 1928, between Edgewood, Illinois and Fulton, Kentucky. Trains from Paducah entered that line at a junction called Chiles at the south end of the Metropolis railroad bridge. |
Note the coaling tower in teh background.
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Stephen N. Brannon posted
A busy train order job in its day. The IC at Reevesville, Illinois where my grandfather was Agent 1914-1954, on the Edgewood Cutoff Fast Freight Line avoiding the grades, curves, large towns, and highway grade crossings of the original north-south main line via Centralia, Carbondale, and Cairo. In all the years I knew it I never even once, day or night, saw the order boards in either direction set at '"clear." All trains received orders at Reevesville on all three tricks. I took this photo, looking north, in 1958.
It all changed dramatically in 1961 with the coming of CTC on the Bluford District of the St. Louis Division. Operator jobs were cut and train order depots demolished. As engineer Frank Marberry, who lived next door to my grandparents in Reevesville, said to me sadly, "It's not the I.C. we knew." I fully realize the utility and safety aspects of CTC, but yet something real of the human element in railroading was lost with the demise of operators and train orders. I remember engineers and conductors saying to me how much they valued the friendly and reassuring "all's well" highball wave of operators when their trains passed open train order offices, especially in the night. Just the sounds of operators repeating train orders to dispatchers, along with the background clicks of telegraph sounders, were a valued part of railroading culture. |
2 of 7 photos posted by Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook.
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Illinois Central tracks at Reevesville, IL, on the Bluford District (a.ka. Edgewood Cutoff), looking north. The Golconda District split away from the mainline, to the right. Circa 1959. Photographer unknown, Cliff Downey coll.
Allen Hartman: Apparently the motorcar must have just been put on rails as there a caboose on that track probably going north. |
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IC SW7 9421 switches the yard at Rosiclare, IL, circa 1959. IC assigned steam power to the Paducah-Rosiclare local as late as 1957-58, hence the need for the water tank seen to the left. Photographer unknown, Cliff Downey coll. |
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Michael Wright shared
I found this cool old coaling tower this weekend. I waited around to try and catch a train going under it,but no luck. I found this gem in Reevesville,Illinois.
N on them tracks is the only tunnel on the ic ...you have to park at a church and hike in..they say tunnel is full of snakes
Rick Evans. There are three tunnels along the Edgewood Cutoff, not just one. The CN also has a tunnel on the Iowa Division at East Dubuque, IL. On the former Kentucky Division there is still a tunnel at Dawson Springs, and there used to be one further north at the summit of Rosine Hill. IIRC there was also one further south at Vicksburg, MS, and a short tunnel on the line to Madison, WI. |
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Jim Pearson Photography posted
CN Elgin Jolliet & Eastern Heritage Unit Canadian National 3023, the new Elgin Jolliet & Eastern Heritage unit, (EJ&E) leads loaded coke train U700 under the old Illinois Central coaling tower, left over from the steam era, as it heads south on CN’s Bluford subdivision on a misty overcast day at Reevesville, Illinois on November 21st, 2020. According to a press release from CN: This is one of six locomotives representing the railways that have joined their team since their privatization, 25 years ago. Each one features the colors of the railway at the time it merged with CN as well as the logo specially created to commemorate the quarter century of our IPO. These acquisitions propelled our service farther than any other North American railway, similar to our IPO propelled CN to new heights. The engines release so far are BC Rail; Grand Trunk West; CN; Illinois Central; Wisconsin Central; and Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. According to Wikipedia: A coaling tower, coal stage or coaling station was a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. Coaling towers were constructed of wood, steel-reinforced concrete, or steel. In almost all cases coaling stations used a gravity fed method, with one or more large storage bunkers for the coal elevated on columns above the railway tracks, from which the coal could be released to slide down a chute into the waiting locomotive’s coal storage area. The method of lifting the bulk coal into the storage bin varied. The coal usually was dropped from a hopper car into a pit below tracks adjacent to the tower. From the pit a conveyor-type system used a chain of motor-driven buckets to raise the coal to the top of the tower where it would be dumped into the storage bin; a skip-hoist system lifted a single large bin for the same purpose. Some facilities lifted entire railway coal trucks or wagons. Sanding pipes were often mounted on coaling towers to allow simultaneous replenishment of a locomotive’s sand box. As railroads transitioned from the use of steam locomotives to the use of diesel locomotives in the 1950s the need for coaling towers ended. Many reinforced concrete towers remain in place if they do not interfere with operations due to the high cost of demolition incurred with these massive structures. Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/160, ISO 200. I appreciate that you pick interesting contexts for your photos such as grain elevators, bridges, coaling towers, etc. |
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Jim Pearson Photography posted
BNSF and CN meet at Reevesville, Illinois On January 2nd, 2020 a loaded BNSF grain train sits in the siding at Reevesville, Illinois as a empty CN coal train heads north, on CN’s Bluford Subdivision, under the old Illinois Central Steam Train coaling tower. According to Wikipedia: A coaling tower, coal stage or coaling station was a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. Coaling towers were constructed of wood, steel-reinforced concrete, or steel. In almost all cases coaling stations used a gravity fed method, with one or more large storage bunkers for the coal elevated on columns above the railway tracks, from which the coal could be released to slide down a chute into the waiting locomotive’s coal storage area. The method of lifting the bulk coal into the storage bin varied. The coal usually was dropped from a hopper car into a pit below tracks adjacent to the tower. From the pit a conveyor-type system used a chain of motor-driven buckets to raise the coal to the top of the tower where it would be dumped into the storage bin; a skip-hoist system lifted a single large bin for the same purpose. Some facilities lifted entire railway coal trucks or wagons. Sanding pipes were often mounted on coaling towers to allow simultaneous replenishment of a locomotive’s sand box. As railroads transitioned from the use of steam locomotives to the use of diesel locomotives in the 1950s the need for coaling towers ended. Many reinforced concrete towers remain in place if they do not interfere with operations due to the high cost of demolition incurred with these massive structures. Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/120, ISO 400. |
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Mary Rae McPherson posted
As was mentioned in the comments on a roster shot of Illinois Central GP40U #3101 wearing an early "new image" paint scheme, the locomotive had teamed up with GP38-2 #9619 in pulling a director's special.
Here is that special, which was photographed on November 1, 1987.
Mary Rae McPherson shared |
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