Art Peterson has come up with several interesting pictures of destination signs like the one we showed earlier, on both the CO&P (Illinois Valley Div.) and the main lines. These signs were fastened to the sides of the car near the rear door, and there were separate signs for route and class.
In the yard at Ottawa we see the 268, similar to our 277, built by Danville in 1911. The date is Apr 18, 1912. And it's 10:30 in the morning, if you want to set your watch!
And here's a closeup of the signs: it's a Joliet-LaSalle local.
Here are some examples from the central Illinois lines: 232 signed as a Peoria-Bloomington Limited:
And the Bloomington at Cerro Gordo, signed (I think) Limited Decatur-Champaign c. 1909:
And finally, there's this marvelous picture of a group in Decatur boarding the 235 for an outing on a Limited to Bloomington. The date is July 23, 1912.
Watch your step, ladies!!
Art says it appears that these signs were not used after about 1915.
2 comments:
Hi Randall - happened to be going through notes from a November 2002 discussion with Bob Mehlenbeck and in the course of that conversation, he noted the use of the destination boards ended ca. 1925. He also commented on that bent pole on the 268, noting that the "mainline" IT would not let a car go out in that condition. FWIW, Art
Thanks for the update. As for the bent pole, that's an interesting subject. That particular bend on the 268 is so slight I'm not surprised it wasn't changed. But I think I've seen plenty of pictures of cars in service with worse bends, especially on lines that were close to the end.
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