Then & Now, Centralia, Illinois

Come along for a look at change over the decades at a southern Illinois hotspot that sees three mainlines funnel through downtown in this two-disc set. Centralia sees trains on Canadian National’s former Illinois Central mainline, Norfolk Southern’s for Southern Railway St. Louis line, and BNSF’s former Burlington Route coal line.  All three lines continue to see significant traffic today.

Our look begins with a look at these three lines as they were through vintage film and photography, as the steam era gives way to the diesel age.  We see the times change through mergers, and take a look at specials of the Southern Railway and Norfolk Southern steam programs that passed through town.  Then we see the end of the Missouri and Illinois Railroad, which once passed through Centralia as well.

Then it’s on to video showing the action as it was in the late eighties and early nineties.  We see one of the last M-I trains to leave Centralia, the Illinois Central Gulf giving way to the “new” Illinois Central, some of the last Southern Railway diesels before repainting into the Norfolk Southern thoroughbred scheme, the Burlington Northern moving Powder River coal, and Amtrak trains stopping in town.  The final twenty-five minutes of Disc One looks at the early years of the Twenty-First Century, following the merger that created BNSF and the Canadian National takeover of the I.C.

The footage for Disc Two was shot in the spring of 2021, showing the railroads of Centralia as they are today.  Chargers and Superliners are seen on Amtrak’s northbound Saluki.  Modern locomotives from both EMD and GE wearing the colors of all three lines, along with those of Kansas City Southern and Union Pacific.  A few holdovers also appear, including a Grinstein Greed SD70MAC and a GP40 and several SD70s in Illinois Central black.

It’s over a half-century of change at one of the busiest railfan hotspots in the southern half of the Land of Lincoln.