A long way from anthracite country, in Chicago, 1968:http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?january04/01-19-04/At_Dearborn_Street_Station_1968.jpgLater, with big water car:http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?january04/01-19-04/Stopped_somewhere_in_Indiana_1968.jpg

The second picture might have been taken in South Bend. I'm sure someone here was on the trip and can clarify...

I would guess the east end of Valparaiso... Yes, I was on the Saturday trip and it was one of the more eventful trips that I ever rode. A friend had the operating plan from the GTW and it said that water would be taken eastbound at Valpo. There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant located about a block from the Valpo depot but you had to HUSTLE to get there before the railfans lined-up and made it impossible to get anything prior to the train's departure. We knew the routine from previous ex-GTW 5629 trips. About half a dozen of us bailed off the train, walked forward and grabbed some shots as 2102 pulled down to setover off the main and take water.......or so we thought. We made tracks for the KFC to beat the crowd. When we returned to the depot, the train was gone! When we photographed the train, it was leaving town for South Bend.Now what? The GTW was still operating passenger service at the time and we prevailed upon the conductor of the eastbound "Maple Leaf", I believe, to haul us to South Bend on our excursion tickets. We overtook 2102 somewhere east of Valpo waiting for our train to run around the excursion so they could perform a run-by. After detraining at South Bend Union Station, we had to walk several miles back out to Oliver Yard where the train was reversed for the return to Chicago. 2102 operated backwards with her smokebox almost sticking into the open gon which was now positioned at the headend of the train. The locomotive was wyed about 15 miles west of South Bend. That experience in the open gon sold me on exactly how loud a T1 could be. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch until we started across the 21st Street diamonds where 2102 put a set of drivers on the ground. As I remember, a C&WI RS1 coupled to the rear of the train and shoved us into Dearborn Street Station so we could detrain.2102 was rerailed and attempted to duplicate the trip on Sunday, only to have to cut the trip short (at Haskells, maybe) due to the driver box running hot on the previously derailed driver. I was not on the trip but a friend of mine has a photo of the 2102 running backwards in a south Chicago suburb, shoving that big, old tank car. Try THAT today on a mainline with a steam excursion!Don C.