Waiting to Board in Joliet

It is early in the Amtrak era and the wayback machine has landed us in Joliet, Illinois, at the Union Station. This was a good place to watch passenger trains in the early 1970s as it hosted Amtrak trains to St. Louis, Houston and Los Angeles, as well as Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific trains to Peoria and Rock Island. And that is not to mention commuter trains to and from Chicago.

A large crowd of passengers has gathered on the platform to board the Abraham Lincoln to St. Louis. The train is still operating with Gulf, Mobile & Ohio E7 passenger locomotives. No. 101 had been built by EMD in March 1945 for The Alton Road and has passed this station countless times over the years.

It was being leased by Amtrak and never joined the national passenger carrier’s permanent motive power roster.

If you look back in the consist you’ll see that there is a dome car.

The dispatcher must be planning to take the “Abe” out of town via the Santa Fe because it has come in on a Santa Fe track.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Tags: Amtrak, Amtrak in Joliet, Amtrak photographs, Amtrak Photos, Amtrak's Abraham Lincoln, E7A, early Amtrak, early Amtrak locomotives, early Amtrak motive power, Early Amtrak trains, GM&O locomotives on Amtrak, GM&O passenger locomotives, Gulf Mobile & Ohio locomotives, Gulf Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Joliet Illinois, Joliet Union Station, Photographs of Amtrak, photos of Amtrak, Robert Farkas photography