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Jim Adams was an employee in the shops of the Illinois Central Railroad at Centralia, Illinois. He used his unparalleled access as a railroad insider to document the last days of the steam locomotives he loved, taking his reel-to-reel tape recorder trackside and into the cabs of locomotives. In this volume, we present recordings made in the cab of Illinois Central 4-8-2 #2608 on a mine turn from Centralia to the Orient Mine near Waltonville on October 17, 1958.

It’s railroading as it was, just before complete dieselization.

Track 1 – Introduction

Track 2 – Coupling to the train in Centralia’s F-Yard. - 1:55

Track 3-4 – Taking to the mainline at Irvington. - 0:30

Track 5 – Passing through Irvington. - 2:05

Track 6-7 – Charging through Richview and Ashley. - 5:20

Track 8-9 – Arriving at DuBois. - 0:47

Track 10 – Departing DuBois. - 2:30

Track 11-12 – Encountering a hill on the Orient Mine Spur. - 7:30

Track 13-14 – Reaching the MoPac interchange at Scheller. - 2:10

Track 15-16 – Easing away from Scheller. - 0:48

Track 17-18 – Arriving ahead of a Burlington train. - 0:34

Track 19 – Stopping at the Orient Mine. - 0:30

Track 20-21 – Departing the Orient Mine with 2,000 tons of coal. - 5:40

Track 22 – Uphill west of Waltonville. - 2:16

Track 23-24 – Uphill and crossing the Little Muddy River. - 3:55

Track 25-26 – Uphill east of DuBois. - 2:07

Track 27-28 – Entering DuBois. - 2:01

Track 29 – Checking on number 2 and leaving DuBois. - 3:40

Track 30 – Northbound north of DuBois. - 3:30

Track 31-32 – Held up at Ashley. - 4:15

Track 33 – Passing through Ashley. - 2:22

Track 34-35 – Charging through Richview. - 3:30

Track 36-37 – Arriving at Centralia. - 3:40

65 Minutes (62 minutes of recordings with 3 minutes of descriptive narration between recordings)