We visit the busiest freight railroad in the world: Union Pacific’s Council Bluffs Subdivision. Join us as we see hot spots such as Gibbon and Grand Island and Bailey Yard.

The trains in this program were shot at the end of the ICG’s existence, in the years before the railroad reverted to the Illinois Central name. At that time, there were three ICG paint schemes, and all of them make an appearance.

When the ICG became independent again, the move came with a return to the old Illinois Central name, and a new black paint scheme harking back to the days when the Illinois Central was known as the Mainline of Mid America.

This program covers Norfolk Southern early in its existence, with plenty of locomotives painted in the colors of the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western mixed with newly repainted Norfolk Southern power.

Here is the last railroad to use steam exclusively in freight service in the United States, the Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad. Interviews with one of the railroad’s founders and the current president of the railroad add to the story.