Continuing the series this week I offer a speed log of the Illinois Central Train #1 the City of New Orleans from 1965.
The first US railroad to authorize 100mph in its timetables was the Milwaukee with it’s Hiawathas (with steam no less) in 1935, two years after the Deutsche Reichsbahn began operating 100mph diesel two car units similar to the early zephyrs.
By WW2 four US railroads authorized 100mph (MILW, ATSF, IC, and CNW). DR dropped out when they diverted diesel fuel for their invasion of Poland in 1939.
In the 1950s with revenues declining as pax switched to cars or planes one by one the 100mph roads slowed their fastest trains to save costs. Which naturally drove even more people to faster alternatives. By 1960 only the IC still made 100mph speeds something of an objective in itself. And for a short while it had the only 100mph trains in the world. Germany didn’t regain 100mph speeds until 1962 with the electrification of its fastest train the Rheingold from Amsterdam to Basel.
It should be noted though that like the other 100mph RRs, the IC only reserved such speeds for a select few trains. The rest of the IC trains ran at a plebian 80mph.
Even the IC was not immune to passenger losses and by 1968 they needed to do something. But the IC danced to the tune of a different drummer. Under the leadership of its new VP of Pass Ops Paul Reistrupt the IC, rather than slow its fastest trains, decided to make every passenger train comparable to its fastest, creating a high speed mini corridor between Chicago and Carbondale Illinois with 5 trains daily each way.
Chicago was the second largest city in the US at the time (3rd now) with a population of 3 million in the NE corner of the state. Carbondale was in the opposite corner of the state with only a population of 20 thousand. Every other high speed corridor in the world was between two big cities. Why would the IC make a high speed corridor to such a small town?
College students. Carbondale had a big university with probably more students than its year round population. Along the way the IC served Champaign and Mattoon/Charleston with similar sized universities and towns.
This was brilliant really. Who more than college students in the 60s wanted high speed. This was the era of musclecars. Not too many college students could afford both college and a 100mph+ car but they still wanted speed. And the IC gave it to them. And gained a lot of passengers. Although this speed log was from 1965, all IC trains between Chicago and Carbondale by 1969 ran at such speeds.
I grew up in Southern Illinois not far from Effingham and had an Aunt in Mattoon. I recall picking up an Employee Timetable at the Mattoon depot and the authorized speed for passenger trains was 100mph.
My aunt had an IC passenger pass (her husband worked for IC) and she regularly went to Chicago for the day (Wednsdays, her day off from Kresge) and had lunch, then back to Mattoon in the pm. What a life! Her best friend also had a pass and they did this regularly.
I recall her telling me the coffee cups in the diner would only be filled 1/2 full due to spilling coffee when rounding curves. not many curves on the Mattoon - Chicago segment as that was pretty much straight line thru Illinois corn fields.
She always promised to take me to Chicago for the day, unfortunately it never happened, but she was a great, great lady. RIP Aunt Hulda!
Ed
I’ve heard that story elsewhere. Very cool it was your aunt. High speed and frequent trains made it easy. From 3pm to 9pm the trains ran from Chicago every two hours. She must have been a cool lady.
Note in particular that this was before the era of the Metroliner improvements on PRR that allowed faster than 80mph timetable speed…
If I remember correctly some of the IC E-units had 120mph gearing. I note with interest the line about these E9s ‘starting to run away’ and needing to be checked with a quick set.
That reminds me. I posted a vid of a CONO cab ride where it went 100+.
As you can see it bounced around a lot. No wonder the coffee cups were only half filled. That track doesn’t really look like 100 mph track but this was pre FRA track class rules. The IC dropped it to 90 about the same time as the track rules came into effect in 1973.
The video was originally from a DVD but I superimposed the speeds onto the track scenes from speedometer scenes interspersed throughout; which I then clipped out to make it a seamless view forward.
I believe that by doing a derivative work like this it falls under the fair use copyright act.
Cameras that are either held by or affixed to a moveable human body are subject to all the movement inputs that they body gets. The brain takes all the movement into account when forming the image in the body that the camera is attached to, however, those viewing the output of the camera get the disjointed display that the video presents. In the world of car racing, the networks have taken to installing cameras in the drivers helmets - such installations suffer from the impacts and G loadings that afflict the wearer, add into the equation the various reflections off the interior of the visor of the drivers helmet.
There are stabilized camera mounts for helmet-mounted cameras. They may not do much for aggressive mountain biking, however, where a long effective moment arm like a Steadicam might be needed…
Did any RR operate E units faster than 100 mph regularly? I have a book from 1945 published by the International Textbook Co. titled “Diesel Locomotives, Trucks-Draft Rigging” with the chapters on trucks written by Martin Blomberg. He states that the E truck, he calls it “6-wheel passenger locomotive truck” was designed for 117 mph operation but I have never found any citation stating that it was run that fast in service. Anyone know?
No railroad authorized speeds over 100mph until the PC Metroliners. At least I’ve never seen one on wx4.org which probably is closing on to 10,000 employee timetables including the many links to other websites such as multimodalways.org or prr.railfan.net. But in the days before black boxes recording everything who knows!
Back in the day - in trackage outside of specific speed restrictions for curves or municipal restrictions - it was common for management to look at ‘track speed’ with a wink and nod form of enforcement. In that kind of ‘enforcement’ triple digit operating speeds were common.
Thanks for the link. That was quite the video…brought back a flood of memories. As mentioned above, my Aunt lived in Mattoon. I would go to the station (still there today) and watch the IC and Penn Central action. In 1975 I purchased a Pentax 35mm camera and started taking train photos.
Spent time at Tolono (NW crossing), Tuscola (B&O and MoPac) during a snowstorm, and Arcola (Penn Central to Peoria). I was able to enter the Tuscola tower back in the 90s prior to razing and took photos and gathered some old station sheets.
Effingham was a regular hangout for me with the crossing of PC (ex PRR) line. Lots of action there in the mid to late 70s. The depot also served as the control for the crossing. I could see the CTC box and would await inside until a bell would ring signalling a train. The day operator there didnt like me being there and would slam the door to his office so I couldnt see the board.
The depot still stands and Amtrak stops to service. To the southwest of the crossing is quite the industrial park with a short line servicing - Effingham Railroad. Fred Frailey had a good article on this operation a few years ago prior to his retirement…I miss Fred’s contributions.
Anyway, thanks for the link and the great memories. Surprised IC allowed 100mph at Neoga over the old NKP line crossing.
Did anyone else sort of panic when that truck pulled up to the crossing north of Effingham? I did.
At one time, equipment had to be tested (and therefore designed to operate safely) at 10% over maximum anticipated service speed. So I would not be surprised that a locomotive that can run faster than 105mph in service might be designed not the have any ‘critical resonance’ up to 117mph.
