Road Names that Go with 1950s – 1980s Illinois Central

We grew up at the other end of the line and remember the City of New Orleans departing the city for points North. Only visited Chicago once as a young boy with no memory associated with the event.

I'm guessing that you want anything that was seen behind I.C. power?

I've seen B&O, C&O, L&N, MONON, Pennsylvania, Southern, as well as, some NYC cars leaving Louisville, Ky running south, on the I.C. > Central City, Ky

I also remember seeing cars from Swift, Fisher, Klarer, Meat Packing Plants from smoke town in Louisville.  There was also a lot of MKT Livestock cars that came in on the I.C. from the Memphis, Tenn area, that originated from out west, Texas/Oklahoma.

This was in say the middle 50's. Remember that, cause I finally got big enough, and tough enough, to brave riding my bicycle through a mean A** neighborhood, out to Oak Street Yard, to watch the last of the Steam Locomotives working in Louisville, Ky................Hope this helps..........................Brandy! 

John, they came up from Western, Ky on their own line! The passenger trains went to old 7th street/Central Station, which the passenger trains split the Oak Street Yard, due north to the station. They also moved a tremendous amount of troop cars from Louisville South to FT.Knox Ky, and North from Memphis, Tenn to Ft. Knox. This was done Viet Nam > Korea, WW2/WW1.  

Poor old I.C. didn't get a lot of press back in the day, as L&N's home office was next door, to the Union Station in Louisville on West Broadway (maindrag) thru town.

Trust me I.C. wasn't second to any of em in Louisville!  Of course I liked them, because I got to visit, and watch steam locomotive's working out there longer, as they were the last to go in the Louisville area.

I bet you didn't know that I.C. built a "Hudson" Engine, only 1, did ya?,  Well it was it was bigger, I was told, than the NYC's Hudson's. In those days NYC Hudson's were the ruling grade for "Hudson Engines".

C&O had biggest of all Hudson's, and they pulled the "George Washington" into Louisville from Ashland, Ky, Lexinton/Louisville, Ky. But we ain't here to talk C&O are we!!!!!!

That was just a story I heard, loafing at the Oak Street Roundhouse. It was build at the Paducah, Ky shops, or so I was told, also hear that it was Central City Shop!

If'n I'd had a dollar for every time that I saw their 2-10-2/2-8-2/2-8-4 freight engines, as well as, the 4-8-2's, pulling passenger trains in/out of Louisville, I could save my five's that I Pi** away on the lottery every week! 

P.S. I hope I didn't bore you with a bunch old man's stories! "Hot Water" gives me some shi*t every now and again, but the Dr told me I ain't got long so , I guess relievin what I seen as a young kid's all I got! 

Have a good one kid, and I hope all goes well with your project.....................................................Brandy!

I looked into ICG interchange traffic several years ago and decided, among readily available freight cars,  GM&O; Ashley, Drew and Northern; Louisiana Midland; Columbus & Greenville; Canadian Pacific; and Kansas City Southern would suffice for a Gulf Coast focus circa 1970's. 

Many thanks for all of the ideas and stories!  One follow-up: I know a little bit about the REA and how it was co-owned by a consortium of railroads. Does anyone know if the IC was one of those owners and, if so, would it have been prototypical for it to pull REA cargo?

IC was one of the railroads owning REA.  I remember watching them load express on the IC passenger trains at Carbondale, IL in the early 1950's.

          Logan

Off topic...but a memory of the Carbondale depot.  The restaurant there was the only place in town you could get pickled eggs (hard boiled).  I really liked them and was a regular customer.  (Word around town was that they were fresh every month).  They still were good.  Wish I had one now.  Thanks for letting me ramble.

          Logan

Logan Matthews posted:

IC was one of the railroads owning REA.  I remember watching them load express on the IC passenger trains at Carbondale, IL in the early 1950's.

          Logan

I just bought an REA reefer to get things started - thanks again!

I have seen this question and others like it here more than once over the years. There is sometimes a misunderstanding about how the US (and other) rail systems work.

All railroads (except some industrial roads, and the like) are interconnected. They do what is called "interchange". Behind your ICG (or any road) locomotives you could find, actually, any railroad in the US (and Mexico and Canada) that interchanges with other roads. Essentially, all roads could show up - and did.

Certainly there is a tendency to see cars from the home road and others that have more interchange traffic with it. Also, since railroad A bills railroad B time (demurrage) charges, railroads want to send a railroad's card "home" as soon as possible, home road cars tend to be the most common. 

Also, there are "private line" cars - those cars who's reporting marks end in "X" (like "GATX"); these are not railroads (they may be owned by one or more railroads) and tend to be in somewhat "captive" service to a mill or refinery or the like. You could see many of these as used by shippers on your road.

Basically, so long as the era is correct - your time frame or earlier, and sometimes a lot earlier - anything could show up behind your orange and white locos - but, some are more likely than others.

Also, big railroads tend to have a lot of cars, and these show up more often all over the place than those of small railroads, unless there is a regional reason. A steam-era model RR would have lots of ATSF, PRR, NYC, UP, and so on cars, regardless of where it was set.

Interesting. I worked for the GM&O/ICG, in Mobile, for 15 years. 

rattler21 posted:

Depending on the service route, the IC could have handled a lot of the potatoes from the Red River Valley, Wisconsin dairy products, Iowa beef products, Milwaukee beer, etc.  Steel and refinery products from Chicago, Whiting, and Gary.  Northbound reefers could be returned carrying bananas and aluminum ingots.

 

Interesting thought about the refinery outputs: I interned (and later consulted) for BP/Amoco/Standard Oil of Indiana and have been looking for some Standard Oil tank cars, but have never found any that were made.  Does anyone know if such things existed?

Brandy posted:

John, they came up from Western, Ky on their own line! The passenger trains went to old 7th street/Central Station, which the passenger trains split the Oak Street Yard, due north to the station. They also moved a tremendous amount of troop cars from Louisville South to FT.Knox Ky, and North from Memphis, Tenn to Ft. Knox. This was done Viet Nam > Korea, WW2/WW1.  

Poor old I.C. didn't get a lot of press back in the day, as L&N's home office was next door, to the Union Station in Louisville on West Broadway (maindrag) thru town.

Trust me I.C. wasn't second to any of em in Louisville!  Of course I liked them, because I got to visit, and watch steam locomotive's working out there longer, as they were the last to go in the Louisville area.

I bet you didn't know that I.C. built a "Hudson" Engine, only 1, did ya?,  Well it was it was bigger, I was told, than the NYC's Hudson's. In those days NYC Hudson's were the ruling grade for "Hudson Engines".

C&O had biggest of all Hudson's, and they pulled the "George Washington" into Louisville from Ashland, Ky, Lexinton/Louisville, Ky. But we ain't here to talk C&O are we!!!!!!

That was just a story I heard, loafing at the Oak Street Roundhouse. It was build at the Paducah, Ky shops, or so I was told, also hear that it was Central City Shop!

If'n I'd had a dollar for every time that I saw their 2-10-2/2-8-2/2-8-4 freight engines, as well as, the 4-8-2's, pulling passenger trains in/out of Louisville, I could save my five's that I Pi** away on the lottery every week! 

P.S. I hope I didn't bore you with a bunch old man's stories! "Hot Water" gives me some shi*t every now and again, but the Dr told me I ain't got long so , I guess relievin what I seen as a young kid's all I got! 

Have a good one kid, and I hope all goes well with your project.....................................................Brandy!

Brandy, great story, that's the stuff I like to listen to.  I've never had any experience with steam but I bet it was something to see and feel. Thanks for sharing. Nick T

I'll second Logan on Carbondale REA. Family moved to C'dale in '71, near the end of REA and just after Amtrak started up. My dad used to look for bargains at a railroad salvage place - the name escapes me.

David

JTrains posted:

......I interned (and later consulted) for BP/Amoco/Standard Oil of Indiana and have been looking for some Standard Oil tank cars, but have never found any that were made.  Does anyone know if such things existed?

The only ones I know of are the Lionel No. 9153. Easy to find on the Bay. They're models of a common steam era 8000 gal. tank car. They would have run into the early diesel era as well, I'd think.

breezinup posted:

JTrains posted:

......I interned (and later consulted) for BP/Amoco/Standard Oil of Indiana and have been looking for some Standard Oil tank cars, but have never found any that were made.  Does anyone know if such things existed?

The only ones I know of are the Lionel No. 9153. Easy to find on the Bay. They're models of a common steam era 8000 gal. tank car. They would have run into the early diesel era as well, I'd think.

Ah, yes - I've seen those ones for Standard Oil (of California) / Chevron.

I think K-Line made a Amoco tank car like the Chevron above.   I repainted a K-Line tank car to Amoco years ago.   The Amoco tank car will have AMOX plus the car number.

I also have a Amoco Chemical covered hopper car for plastics  made by Weaver.

Also a Amoco tank farm and a oil well and gas well.

Can not find pictures of the tank car or Hopper car.   Worked 30 years for Amoco/BP, they paid for all of my trains.

CBS072 posted:

I think K-Line made a Amoco tank car like the Chevron above.   I repainted a K-Line tank car to Amoco years ago.   The Amoco tank car will have AMOX plus the car number.

I also have a Amoco Chemical covered hopper car for plastics  made by Weaver.

Also a Amoco tank farm and a oil well and gas well.

Can not find pictures of the tank car or Hopper car.   Worked 30 years for Amoco/BP, they paid for all of my trains.

 

 

Ah - I now found the K-Line tank car, thanks for the tip!  And nice tank farm!  My late wife worked in IT for Amoco Chemical at the Joliet refinery for a number of years.  Through several twists of fate, I get my medical insurance through BP's retirement benefits to this day - am waiting for the new retiree rates to come out here in the next couple of weeks...

T8AFAO, I also pedeled out to the L&N Shops. The 2 Roundhouses are part of the U of L Campus now.

They had a "slip track", that they would use to "run in engines", make timing adjustments. Mr. Hollenseed the "Master Mechanic", who was on my neighborhood paper route told me, that was what it was used for!

My trips around the different rail yards and shops/roundhouses in the Louisville Area, I never ever saw another one.

I always wondered how the others did their adjustments? Run along side!!!!..........................