Скачать или смотреть Grand Trunk Western and Illinois Central GP38-2s on CN L588-91

CN symbol L588-91 really gets around town. In general, it is a weekday local running south out of Centralia. On Mondays, it runs over the Centralia, Eldorado, and Bluford Subdivisions to serve customers between Du Quoin and Eldorado. On Tuesdays and Fridays, it runs to Baldwin and/or Sparta and Percy via the Centralia, St. Louis, and Sparta Subs. On Wednesdays and Fridays, it occasionally runs to Bluford, but is usually a yard job or an extra.

Today, it's running on the Eldorado Sub. We first catch the Geeps coming off the Centralia Sub at Eldorado Junction in Du Quoin. We gradually work our way east, eventually making our way onto the Bluford Sub via a mid-air wye. The only car was a lone ballast hopper to be dropped off at Ferber. After depositing the hopper, they returned north as light power. Due to a *critical blunder*, I did not catch up to them until they were back around Du Quoin. Fellows, always make sure your train actually leaves the station before chasing it...and make especially sure that it doesn't start heading the exact opposite direction, either. I learned my lesson the hard way on this one. Luckily, I still saw it a few times before I let it continue past Tamaroa.

The Grand Trunk Western has been an operating subsidiary of Canadian National since 1971. That is why their logo uses the same font as CN's 'Wet Noodle' logo. The Grand Trunk's locomotives, however, were painted blue and red instead of black and red. In 1991, CN announced that the operation of all of its U.S. railroads would be regrouped under the CN North America brand. Despite the corporate rebranding, many locomotives still feature their original paint, such as GP38-2 4912. It was built as Missouri Pacific 877 in 1972 and sold to the GTW in 1988. It was renumbered 5712, and later, under the North America brand, 4912. One good thing about the North America brand is that it allows locomotives from all the railroads to operate across the entire CN system. Seeing a Michigan railroad in southern Illinois would otherwise be quite rare.

On August 10th, 1972, the Illinois Central merged with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio to form the Illinois Central Gulf. In the late 70s, the ICG got rid of most of the GM&O, selling off its redundant trackage to other railroads. In 1988, the ICG was reorganized, and it subsequently dropped the 'Gulf' from its name, becoming the Illinois Central once again. Canadian National bought the railroad in 1998. While a respectable number of ex-Illinois Central locomotives remain in service, many wear CN's corporate red, white, and black paint scheme with IC reporting marks, such as IC 9619. The 9619 was built as a GP38-2 for the Illinois Central Gulf in 1974 (same number). It was repainted into CN's scheme around September 2007.


E-bells can go to heck.


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