Monday, May 19, 2008

Eastbound Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad interurban coach crossing over a dry creek bed. The Illinois Railway Museum. July 1988.

I took this photo on a July 1988 visit to the Illinois Railway Museum, located in the town of Union Illinois. A speeding Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad electric interurban M.U coach, is seen passing over the trestle of a now dry creek bed. The State of Illinois and other parts of the midwest, were suffering from a very severe Drought condition. The normally shallow and flowing creek here, was a bed of mud at the time of My visit. Notice the straw brown coloration of the grass on the banks. Further east on the mainline one day, the museum's own steam locomotive Frisco # 1630, a coal burning Baldwin 2-10-0 type steam locomotive built in 1918, had recently set a brush fire due to the dry conditions. It was a hot summer that year at the Illinois Railway Museum.

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