Amtrak’s Chicago-bound Lincoln Service No. 302 is just moments away from making its station stop in Springfield, Illinois, as it rolls along down South Third Street. No. 302 is the second northbound of the day out of St. Louis for Chicago. Today’s consist is a pure Horizon Fleet offering. The photo was made on March 1, 2022.
Milwaukee-bound Hiawatha Service No. 334 has an all Horizon equipment consists as it prepares to depart Glenview, Illinois. Note the differing liveries of the two coaches. On the point is a GE-built P32-8 locomotive.
Amtrak P42DC No. 128 catches some spring morning sunlight as it pushes Hiawatha Service Train 332 out of Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on May 20, 2006. Chicago-Milwaukee trains over the years have typically operated in push-pull service with a control cab on the south end and a locomotive on the north end. The train is on Canadian Pacific track once owned by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific. The train’s consist is pure Horizon fleet.
Amtrak’s northbound Illini has finished its station work in Centralia, Illinois, and is headed toward its next station stop in Effingham. Train 392 originated in Carbondale and will end its journey at Chicago Union Station later this evening.
The train has a typical consist for Midwest corridor service of Horizon Fleet coaches along with one lone Amfleet food service car tucked in behind the P42DC locomotive pulling the train.
The image was made on Aug. 4, 2012.
The massive grain elevator complex in Arcola, Illinois, has been a favorite backdrop that I’ve used over the years when photographing Amtrak trains on the Chicago-Carbondale-New Orleans corridor.
The way the schedule works out, the complex best works as a backdrop for the northbound Saluki.
The southbound City of New Orleans would have to be really, really late to catch in daylight and the window for getting its northbound counterpart is very small.
The Illini in both directions passes through Arcola in daylight but by then the sun is behind the grain complex.
So that leaves the Saluki, which I’ve photographed here a few times.
My motivation for getting No. 390 this year has been to recreate an image I did years ago but with different motive power.
The P42DC units that were mainstays on the Chicago-Carbondale trains have given was to Siemens SC-44 Chargers.
Last Sunday No. 390 was about 10 to 15 minutes off its published schedule as it blasted through Arcola.
There is a restored Illinois Central depot here, but Arcola has never been a scheduled Amtrak stop.
This is the second time I’ve photographed No. 390 in Arcola this summer. Back in mid June the Saluki carried a Heritage baggage car.
That has since been replaced by a Viewliner baggage car. In both cases, the baggage car was in the consist to enable the train to meet a minimum axle count required by host railroad Canadian National.
The conductor of Amtrak’s southbound State House is picking up the step box on the platform in Joliet, Illinois, in preparation for departure.
Although several passengers boarded Train No. 303 here on this July 1998 day, they didn’t need the step box to reach the steps of the Horizon coach.
The State House was funded in part by the Illinois Department of Transportation and was the first state-funded train on the Chicago-St. Louis route.
Today all trains between Chicago and St. Louis except the Texas Eagle are funded by IDOT and have been renamed Lincoln Service.
An Amtrak conductor checks his watch to see how close to schedule Train No. 391 is as it pulls into the station at Kankakee, Illinois.
The southbound Saluki was on-time early in its journey to Carbondale.
The image was made on Aug. 5, 2012.
Amtrark’s northbound Saluki sports a consist of entirely Horizon Fleet equipment as it accelerates away from the station in Effingham, Illinois.
It is not necessarily a rare site, but typically Midwest corridor trains that use Canadian National tracks have a mixture of Amfleet and Horizon equipment.
It is common for Amtrak to use baggage cars in the consist in order to meet the CN-mandated minimum axle count.
I even once saw Viewliner dining car Indianapolis assigned to the Saluki to meet the axle count.
Perhaps during the holidays Amtrak will ensure that all of those coaches are open and available for passengers.
Digital photograph has many advantages but one of the most underused one is the ability to transform an image from color to black and white.
I don’t often see this done and I’m just as guilty as anyone else in not thinking about doing it.
What I have learned, though, is that recognizing when to convert an image from color to black and white is an art in itself.
It works well in situations in which the colors are subdued, often to the point of the image virtually being black and white anyway.
When I was processing this image of Amtrak’s westbound Blue Water at Durand, Michigan, it all but called out for conversion to black and white.
There is strong back lighting from the sun that washed out the color anyway.
Making the image black and white helped to draw out the contrast and enhance the mood.
Train No. 365 is waiting for time. It arrived in Durand a little early and all of the passengers have boarded.
A few onlookers are gathered along the fence waiting to see of a Boy Scout troop that boarded.
The conductor is standing by a vestibule waiting to give a highball and accommodate any late arriving passengers.
Note also the contrast in shapes of the Amfleet and Horizon coaches in the train’s consist, a testament to competing philosophies of passenger car design.
Boarding has begun for the Chicago-bound Hoosier State on June 25 at Indianapolis Union Station.
By the time I arrived in Indianapolis Amtrak’s Hoosier State had just one week left to live.
I would experience No. 851 three times before it made its final trip on June 30, riding it once and photographing it trackside twice.
I have ridden the Hoosier State several times but not since August 1991.
Interestingly, my purpose for riding the Hoosier State nearly 28 years later would be the same as why I rode it in 1991.
I was moving and needed to go back to my former hometown to pick up a car and drive it to my new hometown.
In 1991 I had driven from Indianapolis to State College, Pennsylvania. In 2019 I drove from Cleveland to Indianapolis.
Boarding of No. 851 began shortly after I arrived at Indianapolis Union Station on the morning of June 25.
I was the second passenger to board the Horizon fleet coach to which most Indy passengers were assigned. The car was about two-thirds full.
The consist also included an Amfleet coach, an Amfleet food service car and two P42DC locomotives, Nos. 77 and 55.
We departed on time but a few minutes later received a penalty application near CP Holt that required a conversation with the CSX PTC desk.
We would later encounter a delay between Crawfordsville and Lafayette due to signal issues.
Yet there was no freight train interference en route that I observed. We stopped briefly in Chicago so a Metra train could go around us.
That was probably because we were early. We halted at Chicago Union Station 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
I had heard the former Monon can be rough riding, but I didn’t think it was any worse than other Amtrak routes I’ve ridden.
There wasn’t any of the abrupt sideways jerking that I’ve experienced on other Amtrak trains.
The journey did seem to be slow going at times, particularly through the CSX yard in Lafayette; on the former Grand Trunk Western west of Munster, Indiana; through the Union Pacific yard on the former Chicago & Eastern Illinois; and within Chicago.
Overall, the experience was much the same as riding any other Amtrak Midwest corridor train although it featured an entrance into Chicago that I had not experienced before in daylight.
The crew said nothing about it being the last week of operation for Nos. 850 and 851.
My next encounter with the Hoosier State came in Lafayette on June 28.
No. 851 arrived on time with a more typical consist that included cars being ferried from Beach Grove shops to Chicago.
These included a Superliner sleeping car, a Viewliner baggage car, a Horizon food service car, and a Heritage baggage car in addition to the standard Hoosier State consist of three cars. On the point was P42DC No. 99.
I was positioned next to the former Big Four station at Riehle Plaza so I could photograph above the train.
Although a sunny morning, the tracks were more in shadows than I would have liked. Nonetheless I was pleased, overall, with what I came away with.
After No 851 departed – it operates on CSX as P317, an original Hoosier State number – I went over to Fifth Street to photograph it sans railroad tracks.
One stretch of rails has been left in the street in front of the former Monon passenger station.
My last encounter with the Hoosier State would be my briefest.
I drove to Linden to photograph the last northbound run at the railroad museum at the former joint Monon-Nickel Plate depot.
No. 851 was 24 minutes late leaving Indianapolis Union Station and about that late at Crawfordsville.
It had a consist similar to what I had seen in Lafayette two days earlier. P42DC No. 160 had a battered nose with some of its silver paint peeling away.
I wasn’t aware until I saw them that two former Pennsylvania Railroad cars had been chartered to operate on the rear of the last Hoosier State.
They were Colonial Crafts and Frank Thomson. The latter carried a Pennsy keystone tail sign on its observation end emblazoned with the Hoosier State name.
It was a nice touch and after those cars charged past the Hoosier State was gone in more ways than one.
That’s my Horizon coach reflected in the lower level of the Lafayette station.
Watching the countryside slide by west of Monon, Indiana.
The Hoosier State has come to a halt on Track 16 at Chicago Union Station. That’s the inbound City of New Orleans to the left.
A crowd lines the platform in Lafayette as the Hoosier State arrives en route to Chicago.
The former Big Four station in Lafayette was moved to its current location to serve Amtrak. At one time it also served intercity buses.
Pulling out of Lafayette on the penultimate northbound trip to Chicago.
P42DC No. 160, which pulled the last northbound Amtrak Train No. 851 had a well-worn nose.
Two former Pennsylvania Railroad passenger cars brought up the rear of the last northbound Hoosier State.
Amtrak in the Heartland 