Decatur - gotta love the smell of corn being ground up
Don’t Forget the the Soybeans!! The smell alone tells you that you are in Decatur!
The old Wabash yard there is impressive. But for me, Mattoon was the place for seeing the IC, and still kinda is, for there is a lot of old unpainted IC power down there!
Crazy:
What is the status of Mattoon? By unpainted, I assume you mean the black IC rather than the CN.
Mattoon was where my aunt lived and we would go visit her a few times a year. I would venture out and watch trains after the obligations. She lived on the west end of town between the Peoria line and the NYC line. I could look out windows and see both lines.
ed
Black IC units
Some of the old Mattoon-Evansville line is still in place down there, rails are shiny. The yard is usually full when I’m down there. And the station is being restored.
That is a neat depot. I remember many times walking in and down stairs then out to the tracks.
When I was about 17 years old there was an Employee timetable lying in the depot. I picked it up and was fascinated by it. So much info. It stated “for the goverance of employees only”. I contemplated taking it and finally did. Somehow I thought I would be arrested.
There is a website on the old PDE line which has quite a bit of historical stuff. Just google in Peoria, Danville, and Evansville. There is also a Yahoo group, but it isnt very active.
ed
The old PDE, got some stuff from that road. A couple of weeks ago, I got to sit outside by the tracks at the depot for a few hours. 500 pictures later, I left being told I could come back anytime!