Скачать или смотреть The Crab Orchard & Egyptian in 1980

Long defunct producer DeLuz Video came to Marion, Illinois, to visit the Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad in the summer of 1980.

At that time, the railroad relied on Canadian-built 2-8-0 #17, which had been returned to service the previous summer. The railroad's primary business was piggyback traffic, with flatcars being loaded and unloaded at a ramp located at west end of the line at Ordill, near Crainville.

On this day a train for Ordill was put together, and the train was chased to the west end. The cameraman joined the crew in the cab at Ordill, and rode along with #17 running tender-first back to Marion.

This was the height of the CO&E as a steam-powered shortline, noted in the railroad media for its big 2-8-0 pulling intermodal trains. The piggyback boom would soon go bust however, as the Staggers Act that deregulated the railroad industry would lead to consolidation and the closure of local lower-volume piggyback ramps. Much traffic that would have been moved through Ordill and the CO&E would instead be forced to be trucked to intermodal hubs around St. Louis or abandon the rails for the highways entirely.

It was a unique operation that we are fortunate to be able to revisit today.