Bloomer Line Veteran leads corn train
At 64 years old, Bloomer Line 7549 South blasts past old code line alongside the former Wabash mainline that once hosted the streamliner "Blue Bird", engineer Paul Jones, a 25 year veteran of the railroad, has his 40 car corn train well in hand. This was the first time in over two years that the 7549, a former Conrail GP10, x New York Central GP9 5943, has led a train on the mainline. ''Damn thing still runs good!'', said Jones of the oldest locomotive on the roster, built in October 1955. The train is shown at Strawn, Illinois.
Steve Smedley
Photos showing the railroad pole lines. The pole line used four basic electrical circuits - telegraph, telephone, signaling, and power. Modern technologies of fiber optics, microwave, radio, satellite, and computers have been replacing the pole lines.
