Recently, Tom Gears started a thread about an 0-8-0 at the Museum of Transportation. In it, Tom said that it was the only surviving Alton steamer. That is not exactly true of course. The locomotive in that thread belonged to the Alton & Southern, a switching road in St. Louis with most of its trackage across the Mississippi River in Illinois. I am not being critical here of Tom, as I am sure that he really meant to say the number 12 was the only surviving Alton & SOUTHERN steamer. But his thread gives me the chance to bring up the REAL Alton Railroad. Better known perhaps by a previous name (the Chicago & Alton), and at one time controlled by the B&O, the C&A was one time a major railroad in Illinois with lines into Missouri and as far west as Kansas City. In fact, of the railroads that were the major passenger carriers between Chicago and St. Louis (the IC, the C&EI, the Wabash and the C&A), the Alton had the most patronage. After the railroad became simply the Alton Railroad, it eventually was acquired by the GM&O and remained a vital part of the GM&O system. Much of its route, still exists today. I recall seeing a beautifully painted Alton boxcar once in a color photo and it got me to thinking about the railroad, and how much of its equipment, if any, has been preserved. I don't think any true Alton (or C&A) steamers exist, or do they? What about other equipment? Anybody out there got a piece of C&A (or A) rolling stock? And BTW, that reporting mark for the Alton was a rarity amongst U.S. railroads. I think only the Rutland, with the reporting mark of R, also had a single letter for its car initials. So Tom, thanks for calling A&S #12 an Alton steamer, and for giving me an excuse to finally bring up my question.

Les

Les,

B&O/C&A/GM&O parlor observation 5998 is in the MOT collection in St. Louis. The Little River Railroad in Michigan has C&A heavyweight combine 1489 which became GM&O 2594.

Don C.

IRM has a 1924 outside-braced automobile boxcar off the Alton, C&A 39167, later C&IM X81:
http://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi?freight=Chicago+&+Illinois+Midland=X-81
http://www.irm.org/gallery/CA39167/aaa

There are four pieces of C&A equipment at the Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois:

#3516, a wooden box car circa 1906
#758 a combine car circa 1903
#903 a diner circa 1903
#827 a baggage car circa 1909

None of these wood cars are in what you might term "good" condition, but they are stored inside.

MOT also has the EMC twin-Winton powered passenger boxcab that went from the B&O to the Alton. I believe MOT acquired it from a scrap dealer.

Amtrak plies the Alton Route many times each day with the Lincoln Service and the Texas Eagle.

BTW, the Alton & Southern never really got that close to Alton. The A&S was/is located in Illinois and operates the large Gateway yard. I was always a fan of the yellow and green RS-2 locomotives tha the A&S operated for years.

Les and others,

Thanks for the "Alton" clarification. This is all very interesting.

I should also point out that the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum actually had a C&A car at one time. This was a lightweight streamlined parlor car built for the Baltimore & Ohio in April of 1935 and numbered 5933. As I heard the story, the B&O was apparently not to impressed with this early lightweight car and transferred it, and others built at the same time, to the Chicago & Alton, where it kept the same number. Later it was GM&O 5933. The car was deaccessioned by the museum some years ago and sold to a group in Sweetser, Indiana who were putting a walking/bike trail in there. The car was reportedly painted up as a Pennsylvania Railroad car but I am not sure what kind of condition it is in today, or exactly what it is used for.

I had heard that there might be another parlor car from this same series (5930-5933) also still existing, but I am not sure that that is really the case.

Les

The ex-B&O equipment apparently lasted well into the GM&O era. The cars are interesting in that they are not as tall as the standard AAR lightweight car template of 1938(?) that most post war streamlined equipment follows.

In one of the Morning Sun color photo books (the TRRA one I think) there is a nice photo of a GM&O passenger train headed to Chicago, complete with the obs car now at MOT on the tail end. The train is pictured on the Merchants Elevated down by the river front. Amtrak trains today use the McArthur Bridge, while in the GM&O and C&A eras, such trains used the Merchants Bridge.

If you take the Amtrak "Lincoln Service" from St. Louis to Chicago, you still see quite a bit of the old C&A. You can see original depots at Alton, Lincoln, Springfield, Dwight, and other places, as well as the original signal bridges that supported the B&O CPL signals. It's a nice ride, and only takes a little longer than driving, Chicago traffic on the Stevenson expressway excluded.

David -

There are also surviving C&A stations on the line to Kansas City. The one in Independence, Missouri is especially interesting since I first saw it years ago in a book entitled "Great American Train Stations" by Hans and April Halberstadt. In that book, the depot was in absolutely horrible shape and in a subsequent visit the wife and I made to Independence, it appeared not much better. But I understand that it has now been beautifully restored. I saw a similar restored station further east on the same line, but don't recall exactly where that was.

Les