An Illinois Central Gulf Railroad side door caboose brings up the rear.

An Illinois Central Gulf Railroad side door caboose brings up the rear., a photo by Eddie from Chicago on Flickr.

I took this photograph last week Wednsday night, at the Oak Park Society of Model Engineers,H.O Scale Model Railroad Club.

I was operating a 1970's era auto parts freight train, from the former Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. My train consisted of a former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio EMD GP 38-2 roadswitcher diesel electric locomotive painted in the late 1960's era G,M & O "Red Bird" color scheme, and several newer 60 foot modern box cars, as well as a few older 1950's era 50 foot double door box cars.

The rear of my train shown here, features a former Illinois Central (Pre 1972) steam era side door caboose painted in the solid orange Illinois Central 1967 "New Image" color scheme, with 1972 era Illinois Central Gulf markings.

The blue box car ahead of the caboose, is one of those older 50 foot double door box cars from the 1950's (And earlier) that were originally used for transporting automobiles. The blue box car, is decorated for the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line Railroad.

During the 1960's and 70's transition era, mixes of newer and older box cars like this, were very common in daily operations. Although
roofwalks like the one shown of the blue box car were phased out during the 1960's, many box cars from various railroads rolled around with these attatched well in to the 1970's, as it would take quite awhile to eventually replace them all.

I enjoy modeling the 1960's and 70's era American freight trains I grew up seeing in Chicago many years ago.

Thanks.
Eddie K.