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Re: Illinois Terminal and other Q tid-bits

To: Russell Strodtz <vlbg@e...>, Burlington Route Historical Society <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Illinois Terminal and other Q tid-bits
From: Val Nelson <super-chief-val@c...>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 23:07:43 -0600
References: <397A1A9A-5243-11D7-AA7F-00039376192E@e...> <3E6BA0E0.DC2FCDEA@c...> <008701c2e67e$37ba01c0$0f05460a@m...> <3E6CD0B5.2DBCC0C9@c...> <00ea01c2e760$c1719bc0$0f05460a@m...>
Russell,

You are not gonna believe this. I was thumbing through the pages of the latest 
Classic
Trains magazine special edition #1 on Dream Trains. On pages 94-98 are 
full-color
pictures and an article of Illinois Terminal's 2-car electroliner streamliners. 
The
article is entitled "White Elephants Under the Wires" by Mike Schafer. And the 
cars
ARE lettered for "Illinois terminal".

Hope you all get a chance to read that magazine. The only thing I can't figure 
out is
why on earth they would call it Dream Trains and not have anything on any of 
Santa Fe's
Super or El Capitan.

But of significant interest to Q fans is a color picture on page 41 in which 
you will
see the Great Northern's Empire Builder, in which you will see a CB&Q car 
painted in GN
colors. The picture only reveals the very end of the car, but it has a 
full-width
diaphram which is also painted with the GN colors.

There are also lots of great pictures of the California Zephyr and how it 
starred in
the Cinerama movie Cinerama Holiday. Fascinating history.

Russell Strodtz wrote:

> Val,
>
> Do not know for sure but I doubt it. They were owned by Illinois
> Power & Light up to their reorganization and the way I read it the
> steam lines were leased to Illinois Terminal when they acquired it.
> This would make them separate operations up until 1937. While
> the electric lines did make an effort during the late 20's and through
> the 30's to enhance their freight capabilities, (for example constructing
> freight belt lines around cities with street running), I really can't see
> them buying freight cars with an associated company that must have
> had their own. The book's roster only covers electric equipment so
> it's not much help in that area. Illinois Terminal started out using the
> initials "ITC" and switched to IT sometime in the 60's. In 1960 they
> registered 1965 cars. During the 70's they caught the "Incentive Per
> Diem" bug and even had some all door box cars.
>
> In 1956 eleven railroads bought equal shares in their assets. They were:
> B&O,C&EI,CB&Q,C&NW,CRI&P,GM&O,IC,NYC,NKP,& WAB. All they
> wanted out of the deal was access to industries and most of the line haul
> trackage was abandoned. During the 80's they were absorbed into the
> N&W. There must have been some deals made to get the other road's
> shares. I know that to this day NS switches some industries in Alton
> that are direct BNSF billing and all they get is a contract haulage charge.
>
> Russ
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Val Nelson" <super-chief-val@c...>
> To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, 10 March, 2003 11:51
> Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Re: Illinois Terminal
>
> > Russell,
> >
> > Thanks for the history on that. It makes sense now. I had looked up IT in 
> > my RR
> > atlas, but didn't find any mention of an Ill. Traction line for some 
> > reason. And
> > I only remembered seeing a few RR cars lettered for Ill. Terminal as both 
> > models
> > and the real thing. Did Ill. Trac. have cars lettered as such?
> >
> > Thanks again!
> > Val
> >
>
>
>
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