Harold had a girlfriend, as I recall. He played Santa in the Minier Christmas parade every year. Someone tried to mug him on the platform in Bloomington once, and he carried a gun in his "grip" always after that (a lot of those guys did). I doubt that he ever would have used it, though.
This was a terminal point for the crews in those days. I still see some of the old heads from time to time, but they are fading away.

By the way, I recall Russell (Buck) Stevens telling about when they hit that house. He was the brakeman on that train. Buck said the thing just seemed to explode.

I was going to the first run of the "Prarie Marksman," at the invitation of some Amtrak officials I knew. I had to ride 301 to Bloomington and take the bus from there to Peoria. I can't remember his name but the brakeman gave me a ride over to the bus terminal as I knew him from the trainmen's room at Chicago Union Station. In return I gave him a GM&O uniform collar badge that also said, "The Alton Route." Luckily I had a few more. I always wanted one of the Bloomington station platform signs. But they went to a "better home."

There was a GM&O passenger conductor that collected dining car china. I can't rememeber his name. My impression of the GM&O guys was that they all were pretty good people.

The conductor of the Joliet plug, who had the nickname "Dynamite," was a character. he never wore a uniform.

One of the dining car stewards had his locker right next to mine at CUS. I inherited his collar box.

We tried to get the McLean County Historical Society to take the platform signs when they closed the old station, but they wouldn't have them. I was disappointed in them for that. Some rail buff was coming around for a week or so with a hack saw bragging about how he was cutting them off. A thief bragging about it. When they tore down the station I got a few pieces of the masonry because I gave the contractors a copy of the little book I had written about the construction of the old station. They are ornamenting my yard now.

I wish I could have gotten the clock works out of the platform-side clock on the side of the old station. It was one of those slave clock arrangements.

The Bloomington depot was a classic "Division Point" depot with all the trappings of such.

I was part of the South Shore management (Art Director) when we took over the GM&O from the IC.

I came up with the CM&W locomotive color scheme based on that of the C&A and GM&O. As I did with the South Shore I wanted to preserve the visual heritage of the line. I had the blueprints for the station signs in my office.

I created the CM&W insignia by taking the shape of that of the CA&E (another Insull owned electric interurban) and having the typesetter set up "Chicago Missouri and Western in the same typeface.

The party line was that the South Shore wanted the old GM&O in order to compete for intermodal traffic from the east to Kansas City. I figured the purchase was so the president of the South Shore could run steam excursions without having overhead catenary in the way.

Thems was the days I tell ya.

I'll just name a few of the old conductors from the GM&O here: Paul Thompson, Dale Huber (Sarge), Hugh Wallace, Earl Crutcher, the Abbott brothers, Jim Miller, Bill (Poopie) Hopper, Buck Stevens, Harold Martin (Big Foot), John Heafer, John Maitland, Noel Hicks... I'm sure I'll think of more later.

Welcome to GM&O 185.

I think it was Paul Thompson that collected dining car china. He was going to buy some of my Milwaukee Road china but he either retired or was bumped.

Yes, Paul was a collector, too. I forgot to mention Paul Bacon. He went out west later. And Ron Jackson went west, too. Then there was Leon Van Hook, who died fairly young of cancer. Great guys, all of them.

Did Ron Jackson come up from the south/ If so, I remember him. the name sounds familiar.

What was comical about the CM&W 'experiment" is that they thought they could compete in the market with Santa Fe and BN. With 10mph track through Mexico, Mo.

I guess we can laugh about it now. It didn't seem too funny at the time.
Ron was originally from Bloomington, but he moved out west-KC, I think. His dad was a surveyor for the railroad, too.

It wasn't funny back then. The South Shore paid way too much for the line , neglected to insist on the portion from Joliet to Chicago, and permitted the existing traffic to remain in the hands of the IC. Sort of like buying a watch without insisting there be hands, and letting the movement remain in the hands of the seller. What's left for you? A cracked dial in a tarnished case of course.

Yes! And the Amtrak equipment was junk. We used to say that Bloomington was where old engines went to die. We had the phone numbers of the charter bus companies memorized back in those days. We were all burned out, and never really came out of it.
Oh well, I retire in September. I'm just waiting my time out now.

Steve G.

Steve,

What do you do for the railroad? Are you a UP guy?

I worked as a hostler helper for four years in the Engine House here in Bloomington between 1970 and 1974, where I first met most of the engineers, then took a job in the ticket office, where I've been ever since. It has been a blessing and a curse combined, if you know what I mean. I've known some great people, and I've been the whipping boy of the general public and management alike. It's a living, anyhow.

When I left the C&NW in '72 I spent the summeras a reservation and ticket agent for Amtrak at CUS.

I would rather have had root canal performed by a drunk barber.