The Troy Grove Job departs Troy Grove, llinois on a Friday morning in October 1996. STEVE SMEDLEY PHOTO

The engineer of Job 107, the Illinois Railway's road freight between Ottawa and Eola, Illinois, flashes the peace sign as he slowly rolls 53 sand empties across the Fox River bridge on Mothers Day... (more)

Minnesota Dakota & Western S2 # 19 sputters along, kicking cars in the International Falls, Minnesota Boise Paper plant yard, on Friday morning, July 20,2007. The four remaining ALCO S2's work d... (more)

Union Pacific Railroads North Local, is south bound returning to its home base of Bloomington, Illinois as it passes by a signal gang removing dormant code line and lineside poles along the former... (more)

Illinois Railway's Zearing Job, which had been working with two units, has left an ailing CF7 behind as the train heads North on the branch towards Zearing on Friday morning Feb. 17, 2012. STEVE... (more)

The Peoria & Western Railway's crew of engineer Dave Henry and conductor Jake Streitmatter take the Canton Cannonball westward as they roll through the Spoon River valley at Marietta, Illinois on ... (more)

An Iowa Interstate crew begins to double its train out of Limit Yard on the North side of Peoria, as it passes the old waterworks building on April 1st, 2015. Steve Smedley photo

With out of service fire damaged B unit left in LaHarpe, the Canton Cannoball heads eastward with the matched pair of Aunits on the Peoria & Western. The Bunit has been repaired after fire damag... (more)

Chicago & NorthWestern Railway 5099 East, the last CNW GP50 built, leads a set of four GP50's on a long stack train at Winfield, Illinois on Christmas Day 1985.

Canadian National's Peoria Local sails southbound through Emden, Illinois as the photographers long time friend, Rance Grieder gives a friendly wave. IC 1039, the last SD70 ordered by the Illin... (more)

Keokuk Junction Railway's B unit is missing from the classic A-B-A lashup as a former CSXT GP16 fills in. The Westbound train crosses the Spoon River Bridge on Thursday afternoon. Steve Smedley

Today's UP special is running on schedule as it flys through the former double track at Shirley, Illinois just after a crew change in Bloomington. STEVE SMEDLEY PHOTO

Iowa Interstate's Peoria Rocket trundles past the restored Rock Island depot, home to the Chillicothe Historical Society in Chillicothe, Illinois. Hard to imagine this scene 35 years ago, when pas... (more)

Cruising along south of Putnam, Illinois along Iowa Interstate Subdivision 2, the Work IAIS 156 is heading Northward as it drags a Cedar Rapids Coal Loads on this former Rock Island line between P... (more)

UP ONCE A FAST 40 SAS Once a ''Fast 40'', bracketed by two Centennial Locomotives and numbered 8037, the locomotive is now in a more pedestrian environment as Union Pacific Railroad SD40-2 rebuil... (more)