Come along for a look at the beginnings of one of America’s two remaining western Class I railroads as the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe combined to form the BNSF Railway.

Norfolk Southern Takes Over The Middle Division

Sixty Years Along The Illinois Central

Come along for a look at sixty years of history on the Illinois Central between 1938 and 1998. We see steam era footage from 1938 and the mid 1950’s, passenger and freight trains in the late 1960’s, footage of the Illinois Central Gulf era, and the “new” image I.C. from 1988 through the winter of 1998-99​

Conrail
Saint Loo To Horseshoe

Come along for a look at Conrail in it’s prime during the first half of the 1990’s on former Pennsylvania Railroad lines in Illinois and Pennsylvania​

Join us for a look at the Santa Fe in its final years. Filmed between 1992 and 1995, this program visits the Santa Fe’s eastern end at several locations in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa​

Union Pacific and Cotton Belt Midwest Joint Lines

Travel back to the late eighties and early nineties when the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific subsidiary St. Louis Southwestern ran side by side on lines west and south of the St. Louis area. Seen are trains on the Kansas City line west of St. Louis and the Chester Subdivision in the Mississippi River Valley through southern Illinois​

Burlington Northern: The Former "Q" In The Coal Fields

This program features action on the line filmed between 1986 and 1991, with U30C, C30-7 and SD40-2 locomotives as the main power moving western coal to Joppa, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky. Oakway SD60s, GP30s, GP35s, GP40s, a GP20 and an SD9 are also seen. In addition to coal trains, manifest freights and intermodal trains are also seen. Cabooses are seen on most trains, including one still painted for the CB&Q. Trains are seen in all seasons, including snow scenes and fall colors​

Early CSX: Changing Times On The West End

When the Chessie System and the Seaboard System were combined, the new railroad had two routes into East St. Louis: the former Louisville & Nashville line from Louisville and the former Baltimore & Ohio line from Cincinnati. For a number of years, through trains were routed over both routes before being shifted onto the former B&O​

Early CSX: The Rainbow Years

This program in The Heritage Series from Diverging Clear Productions examines the formative years of CSX from the end of the Chessie and Seaboard systems in 1985 through CSX’s own image in the early 90’s​

Early Norfolk Southern: 1985-1986

This volume in The Heritage Series from Diverging Clear Productions covers Norfolk Southern early in its existence, when plentiful locomotives painted in the colors of the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western mixed with newly repainted Norfolk Southern power​

Early Norfolk Southern: 1987-1989

Picking up where the previous volume left off, we see action filmed primarily on the west end of the former Southern Railway line from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, Missouri. Action is centered on Centralia, and locations include Hoffman, Posey, Bartelso, Walnut Hill, Bluford and Mount Vernon​

The scenes in this program were shot at the end of the ICG’s existence, in the years before the railroad reverted to the Illinois Central name. At that time, there were three ICG paint schemes, and all of them make an appearance in this program. Orange and white power lettered Illinois Central and featuring the “Split-Rail” logo are also seen, along with red GM&O SD40’s and GP38’s. The original green diamond paint scheme of the Illinois Central also appears in a pacing sequence with GP40 #3018​

The Illinois Central: Back In Black

Filmed in 1988 and 1989 on the Champaign and Bluford Districts. Locations include Centralia, Edgewood, Effingham and Bluford. Most of the Illinois Central’s power of the era appears in this program, including Paducah rebuilt GP8’s, GP10’s, GP11’s, SW14’s, SD20’s and one of two GP26’s. Other rarities include SD40 prototype 6071 in new black paint and SD28 9451 months before it was destroyed at Freeburg, Illinois​

The Illinois Central: 1990

1990 was a year of change along the Mainline of Mid-America. That was the year that management decided to single-track the mainline between Chicago and New Orleans. In this volume, we see that last months of the double track mainline and the early months of single track operations between Effingham and Cairo in Illinois. We also get a glimpse at the work making the cutover to single track at Carbondale, Illinois​

The Illinois Central: 1990-1991

The first part of the program covers operations on the Edgewood Cutoff (Bluford District) in 1990, and the second part covers the original mainline through Centralia, DuQuoin, Carbondale and Cobden in 1991​

Missouri Pacific Last Days Of The Eagle

The Missouri Pacific became a part of the Union Pacific in late 1982. By the mid eighties, yellow power was making inroads with Union Pacific power alongside power lettered Missouri Pacific in yellow paint. But even in the mid and late 80's, consists of pure blue Missouri Pacific power could still be found​

This program features the Santa Fe in four locations in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. The video footage was shot in 1988 and 1989, and locomotives in the black, red and yellow scheme of the recently aborted SPSF merger were abundant along with units in the Santa Fe blue and yellow scheme. In addition, vintage film and photos present a few scenes of the railroad as it was in the 1940’s​