Westbound on the Big Four
Forty-three years ago I went out with a couple of friends looking for trains. Upon reaching Greencastle, Indiana, we found a westbound train sitting at the nice station north of town there.
[This is the Big Four/NYC/PC/Conrail line that runs west from Indianapolis/Avon to Terre Haute.]
After getting a drink of water for the lead locomotive, a GE U25B that was built for the NYC in 1964, the train was able to head out. The last photograph shows the train just west of Greencastle about a mile or so. The second engine, also a GE U25B, was built for the Pennsy in 1965; the final engine, painted in Conrail blue, is a GP40 built for the NYC in 1967.
Going back up to the first image, the close-up of the U25B, it seems to represent boiled-down simplicity. Compare this piece of equipment to a locomotive made in the last ten or fifteen years—it would be akin viewing a WWII plane, a P51, say, next to an F35.
Three images by Richard Koenig; taken March 6th 1977.