The Heritage Series: 60 Years Along the Illinois Central (2019)

The Illinois Central existed for nearly a century and a half and this program covers the last sixty years from 1938 to the winter of 1998-99, the independent I.C.’s last. The show begins at the headquarters of the St. Louis Division in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1938. Passenger trains behind a Pacific and a Mountain are seen, before we head to the yard where Mikados are seen in action. We next visit the mid-fifties, including a short cab sequence aboard a 2-10-2 and a pacing sequence with another 2-10-2 on a local freight. Mikados and an 0-8-0 are also seen under steam, along with a glimpse of a 2-10-0 Decapod. Next we look at the late sixties, as passenger and freight trains are seen in the Champaign, Illinois, area. Locomotives in the green diamond black scheme are seen, along with the new orange and white split-rail image. Early Paducah rebuilds are seen, along with a rare General Electric U30B leading a train. Then we look at the Illinois Central Gulf era, which is covered in newly acquired footage. The mixed bag of motive power typical of the I.C.G. era is on display, with orange and white power mixed with locomotives in black, grayback and GM&O colors. Next we see the transition from the I.C.G. to the new image Illinois Central. An early sequence from this era shows freshly painted power alongside locomotives being prepped from the paint bay in the roundhouse at Centralia, Illinois. Over the course of two years, the new image replaces the mix-and -match look of the I.C.G. era. Our look at the new image Illinois Central covers the last decade of the railroad’s independence. At first, Paducah rebuilt power abounds. Later, Burlington Northern SD40-2’s arrive, and we see some of them in B.N. paint before they became the new 6100 series. Finally, the 1000 series SD70’s arrive. The program ends during the winter of 1998-99, mere months before the railroad was folded into the Canadian National system.