A Few Moments With Illinois Central Steam in 1957

Kodak was the best-known maker of slide film in the steam era, but its Ektachrome brand has not aged as well as the Kodachrome shot at the same time. Fortunately, today’s digital photo processes can breath new life into color-shifted images that are approaching seventy years old. On a sunny August day in 1957, an unknown photographer visited the engine terminal in the Illinois Central Railroad’s North Yard in Carbondale, Illinois, with Ektachrome loaded in his 35mm camera.

By this time, the I.C. had started dieselizing its freight operations. Diesels had begun arriving for freight service a few years earlier, assigned to the far reaches of the system the greatest distance from the coal fields of southern Illinois and Kentucky. Carbondale was home of the St. Louis Division offices, and its proximity to online coal deposits meant that steam would hang on longer than most areas of the system.

Getting ready for a run on a local freight from Carbondale to Centralia, 2-10-2 #2702 takes a spin on the North Yard turntable. The locomotive barely fits!

The 2-10-2 type was known as the Santa Fe on most railroads, but on the I.C. they were dubbed the Central type. #2702 was originally built by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio, in 1921. Originally numbered 2982, the locomotive was renumbered when it was rebuilt in January of 1943.

After backing off the turntable, the locomotive pauses on the turntable lead. In the background is a 2-8-2 Mikado that is parked on one of the fan tracks surrounding the turntable. Locomotives were often stored there, held for repairs and later use. In the latter years of the steam era, locomotives would frequently be set aside here after making their last runs as they awaited their ultimate date with the scrapper’s torch.

#2702’s engineer poses in the cab of his engine. Within a couple of years the diesels will have taken over, leading to many operational changes. Among these would be the realization that a single local freight could be run with diesels from Centralia to Cairo, rather than two locals running between Centralia and Carbondale as well as between Carbondale and Cairo. The Carbondale yard would soon see a large decrease in importance.

It is now well into the afternoon hours as #2702 begins to ease its train out of the yard and onto the northbound main. The photographer is standing at Dillinger Road with U.S. Highway 51 at the far right in the image. The steam locomotive coal towers in the distance are still visible from this location today.

As #2702 eases onto the mainline, sister Central type #2747 is easing into town with a short local from Centralia. In the distance is the northernmost of the Dillinger grain elevators. Totaling three elevators, they remain in place today despite having been unused for many years. U.S. 51 is at the far left.

After catching the two Centrals meeting at the north end of the yard, our unknown photographer has returned south to catch #2747 on the southbound main at the coal towers. The engineer has been kind enough to spot the engine in the classic “rods down” position for the camera. With but four cars left tied to the tender, it’s apparent that the locomotive has been used for switching the cars it brought down from Centralia.

#2747’s last use would be on the “C&C” local between Centralia and Carbondale, and would be parked for a time after the last run on a fan track opposite the Carbondale roundhouse. Both of these locomotives would remain on the roster until being officially retired in October of 1960, though by that time they would have been out of service for around two years.

These images were scanned from original slides in my collection that have shifted to a red hue with age. Despite their flaws, they provide a priceless glimpse into the everyday from generations past.