Busy Afternoon in Champaign. IC 9113 North passes both No 8 “Creole” and No 52 “City of Miami” at the passenger station. Train 8 arrived first, however it will be overtaken by the “City of Miami” and will following this fast Florida to Chicago streamliner, as it will make more stops discharging passengers and dropping off mail and express enroute to Chicago

IC No 8 "Creole" is north of Champaign IL in this Dec, 1958 view.  The train was always heavy with mail, express and baggage cars and is a hefty 16 cars long this date. Note the 5 Passenger Box cars, used in express service, which contained steam lines to heat the following passenger cars.

IC 9086 North is in the northward siding at Gilman, IL as train 10, "Seminole" roars past.  The "Seminole" was a daily operation and handled all the Chicago mail and express from Florida, Georgia and Birmingham.  In addition to the heavy amount of head end cars, there are coaches, Pullmans and a Dining-Lounge car totaling a respectable 17 cars on today's train.

The “City of New Orleans” is northbound at the Champaign depot awaiting departure time. The train will be in Chicago in less than 2 hours. Note Champaign Tower in the distance, on the right.  This magnificent photo dates from the late 1950s.

E Unit 4027 is receiving a brief wash down prior to resuming it's run on train No. 2, The City of New Orleans, at Champaign, Illinois.  This view dates from July, 1959.

Highball No 52!  The engineer on No 8 waits patiently as the “City of Miami”, on the left, overtakes the “Creole” and roars out of town on the final lap into Chicago.  Only 127 miles remaining.

The Observation car on “City of Miami” is the original car, built in 1940 by Pullman Standard, once bore the name “Bamboo Grove”.  It lost its name and tropical themed interior during a 1954 rebuild at IC’s Burnside Shop.  Now bearing only the number 3300, the car still looks mighty fine on the rear of the “City of Miami”.

Bringing up the rear of the all Coach Dayliner "CoNO" is cracking the whip and outing running anything on parallel Highway 45 as the train gets up to 100 mph, south of Champaign.  Note the speed blur as Parker gave up the chase when the OBS car briefly drew abreast and then was "left in the dust" as the train was attaining

triple digits.   July, 1959.

IC 4030 "Seminole" is southbound on the Central of Georgia and arriving in Opelika, AL Feb 55.   The IC pooled their locomotives on a Chicago to Columbus, GA rotation on this train.  Note the Nathan M5 horn atop the E8

which was used for a short period of time but was later replaced by the Nathan P5 chime model.

IC 4035 "Seminole" on the Central of Georgia at the Opelika AL depot in Feb, 1955. The fireman is about to board the locomotive after "flagging the crossing" of the Western Railway of Alabama, route of the "Crescent", a jointly operated New Orleans to New York City train.

IC 4001 is on northbound No 8 "Creole" passing Pesotum, IL approximately 15 miles south of Champaign.  It has a healthy armada of mail and express cars, followed by the coaches. A café lounge car was added at Carbondale to serve lunch and dinner enroute to Chicago.