Every Rail Enthusiast has their favorite place. Most of the time, their favorite place is called “My Place” because there’s a sense of ownership through the unique nature of the location, an emotional tie or, perhaps, just a quiet location where they feel comfortable and enjoy just being there. To qualify for “My Place” status, the location must look great without a train. For me, there are two places that fell into that category.
Read moreArcola is a small town located in the vast prairies of central Illinois. Like many small towns, much care has been taken in fixing up the downtown area. In Arcola, this includes numerous murals painted on downtown buildings.
Arcola plays in the lore of the passenger trains of the Illinois Central Railroad. So the story goes, a passenger stopped the conductor as he was walking through the train.
“Excuse me. What is the next stop?”
“The next stop,” said the conductor, “is Arcola.”
“And what stop is after that?”
“The stop after that is Tuscola,” replied the conductor.
“Let me guess,” said the passenger. “The stop after that is Pepsi Cola.”
The conductor shook his head.
“No sir. Champaign.”
Whether or not this exchange ever actually happened is open to debate, but Arcola has not been a scheduled stop for a passenger train in decades. It remains notable however, since one of the murals features an Illinois Central E-Unit in the original passenger colors from the forties with the reference to the famous song proclaiming “The train they call the City of New Orleans.”
Amtrak’s version of “The City” still passes through Arcola, one of three daily round trips, and this photo shows the northbound Illini passing with the mural in the background on a late September afternoon in 2015.
Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2022
Most railfans, at some point or another, are asked what their first train sighting was. For me, I can’t remember the first time I saw a train, but I do remember the first time I took a picture of a train. May 16, 2010 was the date. The event was the annual Railroad Days festival held in Homewood, Illinois.
Railroad Days, located in downtown Homewood near the entrance to Canadian National’s (CN) bustling Markham Yard, has been held every year since 2004 (except 2020 due to the pandemic). It’s the town’s way of celebrating their 150+ years of being a major railroad hub. Model train displays, vendors, rides on the CN’s little “train on tires” that drives around a parking lot adjacent to the yard, and lots of railfanning make up the special day.
For seven-year-old me, this was something exciting beyond belief, and in all likelihood, I did not get any sleep the previous night as I eagerly awaited for my dad to get up and take me to Homewood. When we finally got there, we first checked out the model train displays. I talked my dad into getting me an HO scale locomotive for my rapidly expanding model collection, and then we headed over to the then new Homewood Railfanning Platform, located near the Amtrak station, to watch some trains before heading home.
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Drive on Levee Street in Vicksburg south of the waterfront and the casino, and you soon reach the Kansas City Southern railroad yard. This is a historic railroad yard and has been in continuous use since before the Civil War. There is still a turntable, and there was once a brick roundhouse, but it was demolished sometime in the 1970s, I was told. One remnant of the 1800s remains; a forlorn and sad but once handsome brick building. According to the Vicksburg Post (20 January 2008), it was once a warehouse and work shop for steam engine supplies, but it now sits neglected and deteriorating.
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At one time, there was a gas station and garage in downtown Elkville, Illinois. Not that there was a whole lot in Elkville to make up a downtown; it’s a small village of fewer than 1,000 people, 300 miles south of Chicago on the mainline of the former Illinois Central Railroad in southern Illinois. The downtown gas station gave way to a Casey’s General Store at the edge of town, and a vacant lot took its place. Eventually, a small gazebo was placed where the gas station once stood.
On December 8, 1999, the gazebo was dressed up for Christmas as a southbound freight came blaring through town. On this date the railroad had been under the flag of the Canadian National Railway for five months, but you wouldn’t know it in this photo. As the new millennium began however, the remnants of the Illinois Central would become fewer and fewer.
One could say that 1999 would be the last Christmas for the Illinois Central.
Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2019
Driving south through Mississippi on Interstate 55. It’s a cool, rainy morning, the kind of spring day you sometimes get in the South before the summer heat and humidity settles in. I pass the signs for Crystal Springs, Hazelhurst, Wesson, Brookhaven, Bogue Chitto, Summit—towns that lie to the east along the tracks. The tracks, and the Interstate, lead me to McComb. In town, I stop for a morning cup of coffee, and make my way to the former Illinois Central depot.
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