Mountain on the prairie
IC 4-8-2 2539 strides across the flatlands near Chebanse, Ill., with a southbound freight in September 1954.Photograph by Philip R. Hastings
Iowa Division meat train
The three Geeps heading IC’s Council Bluffs–Chicago freight CC-6 pause just west of Dubuque, Iowa, before crossing the Milwaukee Road’s line along the west bank of the Mississippi River (track at left) and continuing east with reefers of meat in October 1957.Photograph by William D. Middleton
Shoving toward the Thornton quarry
Crewmen keep watch as a train of empty hopper cars backs toward the rock quarry at the east end of IC’s 3-mile Homewood–Thornton branch south of Chicago in October 1960.Photograph by J. David Ingles
Meet on the old VS&P
IC Mikados 1515 (left) and 1794, each heading a freight train, meet at Haughton, La., on the old Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific in the 1940s.Photograph by Harold K. Vollrath
Orange and white at Homewood
Illinois Central 6000 — the road’s first SD40 — and GP40 3011 bring a freight into Markham Yard in Homewood, Ill. The date is June 15, 1974 — two years after the Illinois Central Gulf merger.
Photograph by J. David Ingles
Cairo Turn northbound
IC 4-8-2 2613 swings through an S-curve near Cobden, Ill., with the Cairo Turn, returning north to Carbondale, In January 1959.Photograph by J. Parker Lamb
Reefers and coal cars
On an October 1960 evening, IC GP9s 9098 and 9220 bring a coal train north through Homewood, Ill. Cut in behind the Geeps are two refrigerator cars.Photograph by J. David Ingles
Paducah rebuild on a local
IC Mikado 2130, rebuilt at the road’s Paducah (Ky.) Shops from a 2-10-2, heads a short local freight north near Litchfield, Ill., in September 1954.Photograph by Philip R. Hastings
Kentucky coal country
Steam locomotive 4-8-2 Mountain-type No. 2524 rolls east through Princeton, Ky., on IC’s Paducah–Louisville line, with empty coal hoppers in February 1960.Photograph by Fred B. Furminger
Banana train
At Champaign, Ill., a GP7-GP9 duo leads a seemingly endless train of refrigerator cars carrying bananas from the port of New Orleans to Chicago in December 1957.Photograph by Bruce Meyer
All through July 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit and glory of the Illinois Central Railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of IC freight selected from the image archive of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library.
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