Train no. CA-5 headed for Cairo

NG502069

Train no. CA-5 headed for Cairo

Steam Locomotive

The 2825 pulls past the depot at Mount Carmel, headed into the yard with train CA-5 southbound. This symbol, with variations, covers all manifest services from Chicago to Cairo, which amount to very little - a train a day for the Indiana Division at Sheff, and a train a day for points south of Lyons. Half of the latter is normally St. Louis traffic interchanged to the main line at Midland, and the rest is parcelled out to Cairo, Evansville, and intermediate points. The 69-car train below is made up of a residue of traffic out of Chicago, plus a fillout from Midland consisting of cars from Terre Haute and east. The bread-and-butter of the Cairo line is of course the coal traffic from the fields around Harrisburg. When the line had its own superintendent, headquarters were in the depot at Mount Carmel, and the present trainmaster still has his office there. The three separate yards here hold about 1,100 cars, which is surplus capacity in these lean times in this territory. In steam days, there was a sixteen-stall roundhouse and a backshop which maintained all power assigned to operate between Chicago and Cairo. (Mikados of the H-10 class handled heavy freight work before the L-2s were introduced late in 1951.) The last steam engines were taken off the Cairo line in April, 1955.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

12/1953

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4-8-2

511

L-2c

#2825

Alco-Schen

Mt. Carmel, IL