| Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad E8 656 at Eola, Illinois on October 11, 1964, Ektachrome by Chuck Zeiler. This is the remains of Rock Island's E8 number 656, built in June 1940 as E6 627 (c/n 1063) on EMD Order E305A. It was returned to EMD for wreck/rebuild to E8 656 during December 1953 (EMD Order 8028A). It was the lead locomotive on a detouring Rock Island train which was holding at Montgomery, Illinois on September 27, 1964, when CB&Q Train #3 was mistakenly routed into the standing Rock Island train, causing this unit to leap up over the lead CB&Q E7 9920A on impact at approximately 52 mph. Marty Bernard's recollections of this incident at this address: http://railfan44.blogspot.com/2014/01/major-passenger-train-wreck-montgomery.html |