Midwest Menagerie, 20 Railroads from the Heartland

MoPac Fs grinding up Kirkwood Hill … Illinois Terminal freight curving through Peoria streets… An extra-long “California Zephyr”… 4-8-4s hauling strings of G.T.W. heavy-weight varnish. Yes, it is quite a menagerie of rail “animals”!

We start with half an hour in and surrounding St. Louis. PCC cars roll downtown and near White Mill Station. Action at Union Station, then nearby locations including Granite City and West Alton, including freight & passenger action of TRRA, A&S, B&O, PRR, NYC, Katy, Frisco, Wabash, NKP, CB&Q, SOU, C&EI, L&N, M.P. (and M-I), SSW, IC, GM&O, I.T. and others.
Next, see ILLINOIS TERMINAL in the 1940s with 4-car tangerine-colored consists! Some b&w films show late 1930s-early 1940s in Peoria, and a fan trip with freight motor hauling Wabash coaches. There’s also some Iowa freight traction. Then do some train watching along the North Shore and South Shore! Plus more from the 1960s in Illinois and Iowa (AT&SF, R.I., TP&W, MILW, CNW, SOO and more), and ending with steam on Grand Trunk Western as Northerns haul intercity and commuter consists in Michigan. ache” -73 minutes of great nostalgia!

See also: “Lincolnland Rails” WWI-America at ktd-Century “Wallin’s Wonders” (GM&O – RI) Rail Trek VoL 2