Grassroots Railroad Sports?

In reply to NickD :

The torpedo boats are among my favorite GP units. Always loved how they looked with that mess of air tanks on the roof.

NickD said:

A mixed batch of C&EI motive power consisting of a GP9, a BL2 and an F-unit booster departs Danville with general merchandise.

I know exactly where that pic was taken, but it took me a bit to figure it out because it's so much more barren back then. 

 

I can't get the same view from Google, but here's its relatively current state. 

NickD said:

A lone Wabash Geep, with a single Wabash boxcar and a caboose, trudges off through Sydney, Illinois on it's way to Danville on April 7th, 1960

I lived about this distance from these tracks, but a few miles west of Sidney in Philo from 2000-2003. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

NickD said:

A mixed batch of C&EI motive power consisting of a GP9, a BL2 and an F-unit booster departs Danville with general merchandise.

I know exactly where that pic was taken, but it took me a bit to figure it out because it's so much more barren back then. 

 

I can't get the same view from Google, but here's its relatively current state. 

Hardly looks like the same spot. I wonder if the C&EI lettering is still on the bridge.

A collection of Illinois Terminal diesels lounging around the Springfield shop facility

A first-gen T-bird dodges a Decatur-bound Illinois Terminal switcher on the streets of Monticello

IT #777 making a turn at Monticello. The #777 was an SW1200RS (RS for Road Switcher), which is a variation of the standard SW1200 that features large front and rear numberboard housings, EMD Flexicoil B-B trucks, and larger fuel tanks for road switcher service in an end-cab switcher package. 

In reply to NickD :

I zoomed in, it's not. I remember being able to still see the "L&N" on many bridges back into the 80's, but I only remember a couple as a kid where "C&EI" was still visible. 
 

Edit: once I "drove" closer to the bridge in Google, I could see the right/north side abutment matched the one from your pic. That also means they must have already pulled up the 2-track mainline by that point too. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That's unfortunate. In Little Falls, NY, there is a bridge on the CSX mainline that is still painted for New York Central Systems. Pretty impressive that it escaped being painted by Penn Central, Conrail or CSX.

The difference a few months make:

The C&EI's northbound Meadowlark on March of '59, with an F-unit and 4 passenger cars

The same train, the northbound Meadowlark, at the same location just 9 months later, now reduced to a single Budd RDC.

The Monon's Thoroughbred making a stop at the railroad's namesake city of Monon, Indiana in April of '59

The Thoroughbred passing the Monon's shops at Lafayette, Indiana.

A Monon-owned Fairbanks-Morse H-15-44 in the process of receiving a new EMD 567 heart. Monon repowered one H-10-44 switcher and two H-15-44 road switchers with EMD engines.

A Monon F3 gets some finishing touches applied to the paint and lettering.

A Monon RS-2 leading a local freight at Crawfordsville, Indiana.

NickD said:

The Thoroughbred passing the Monon's shops at Lafayette, Indiana.

Part of the Monon shops still exist. Barely. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

NickD said:

The Thoroughbred passing the Monon's shops at Lafayette, Indiana.

Part of the Monon shops still exist. Barely. 

The NYO&W shops still existed in Middletown, NY until last year and then they burned down. It was the largest surviving structure from the NYO&W. Now the largest is the partially burned and fully abandoned station and headquarters building at Middletown. It's amazing how few locomotive shops are really left. I think roundhouses have a much higher survival rate. D&H's Colonie Diesel Shops ("Where Big Things Happen") have been badly burned and vandalized and are crumbling into ruin. It's interesting that when CPR bought the D&H from Guilford Rail, CP specifically excluded the Colonie shops from the purchase. When I was near Conneaut last summer, I was curious if any of the Nickel Plate's facilities still remained to go swing by and see them. Nope, all gone. There is barely anything left of Alco's Schenectady facilities and even less to commemorate them. All of Baldwin's massive Eddystone complex is gone. Pretty sure all of Lima's shops are gone. Hell, EMD sold off the LaGrange plant that they started in and it's all been bulldozed over.

One of the weird outliers was Southern's old Irondale steam shops, which were still active as a steam shop well into the '90s. Southern/Norfolk Southern serviced all their excursion engines there under the watchful eye of Bill Purdie. There were even a few locomotives that weren't operated by SOU/NS that came and had work done there (Atlanta & West Point #290 comes to mind)

Tough morning on the SAL: train no. 8, a mail-express train, derailed in Raleigh, NC, snarling up traffic. SAL crews are beginning the clean-up, while getting operations back to normal.

The evolution of EMD power on the SAL at Raleigh: an E3 (with a set of intriguing auxiliary lights) in the back, an FT closer, and a GP7 just poking into frame.

An engineer and fireman follow an EMD rep up into the cab of shiny new GP30 #511 in November of '62

With the paint still shiny, SAL #500, the firs tof the GP30s that they bought, speeds towards Raleigh.

Early GPs and covered wagons roll through a cut at Bracey, Virginia.