Train no. CE-1

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Train no. CE-1

Steam Freight train

At YD, two miles south of the depot at Mount Carmel, the Cairo line splits into two segments. One heads southwest to Cairo through the rolling country of southern Illinois, and the other curves abruptly southeast to Evansville through the Wabash River bottomlands and a corner of southern Indiana. This final photograph was made from the highway overpass north of YD, looking south as train CE-1 entered the curve leading towards Evansville behind H-5 no. 1596. The seven-track south yard, which parallels the main track to Cairo, is in the right background. CE-1 and EC-2, its opposite, were established in an attempt to attract some of the Chicago business moving via the Evansville gateway, which was and still is a C&EI stronghold. The attempt failed, and the consist of the CE-1 above, 62 empty L&N hoppers, testifies to this. During the period when the Gary coal was being washed at Lynnville, the return movement of L&N empties was made via the Cairo line rather than via the circuitous route followed by the northbound coal. These empties ran as nearly solid trains on the “hotshot”, CE-1, and made fillouts on drags. Now, the Cairo line is once again left alone with its old standby, the coal business out of Harrisburg. On a light-traffic line like the Cairo, the cessation of any movement, even of empties, leaves a very noticeable void. No single element anywhere in railroading, however, has removed as many essentials from the scene in its passing as did the steam locomotive. The sum totals of these essentials -- the personality and character of the machine - defy description. They are implicit in the scene above, sadly symbolic as it is of the ending of an era.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

12/1953

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solid coal

512

H-5p

#1596

Alco-Brooks

Mt. Carmel, IL