Slingshot
Pictured: a northbound Slingshot on the historical Alton (GM&O). The Illinois Central Gulf designed this to be a fast TOFC train between St. Louis and Chicago. I believe a deal was cut with trainmen so that a full crew would not be required.
Every time I saw this train it was powered by a single GM&O GP35—either in the black and white of the GM&O or orange and white of the ICG, like this one. However—this unit is an anomaly in that it was built as a GP40X (IC 3075), wrecked, and rebuilt into a GP35 and thus numbered with the ex-GM&O units of similar ilk.
Also: every time I saw this train is was completely empty, sans trailers, or nearly so (there is one trailer at the very end of this train). The location is at a spot where the Chicago & North Western flies over the Alton—between Girard and Nilwood, in central Illinois.
Image by Richard Koenig; taken May 21st 1977.
