Seen Around St. Louis, June 1954

Although he was a truck driver, my father grew up in a railroad family and was a railroader at heart,. For many years he was a road driver for Transamerican Freight Lines out of Columbus, Ohio and by 1953 he held down a regular run between Columbus and St. Louis. During the first week of June in 1954 (I got the year wrong in the movie title) he took advantage of an extended layover to ride the trolleys on the Illinois Terminal Railroad. And of course he had his trusty ol' Cine-Kodak Eight 25 movie camera with him. He mailed the film exposed that day to Kodak to be developed, and then headed back to Columbus. Near Cuba, IL he was involved in a head on collision with two other trucks. There were no survivors. A few days after the funeral the processed film arrived. It was a treasure to us. We knew that he had spent his last free day on earth doing what he loved to do. Many years later, when I showed this to my friends at the Ohio Railway Museum, I finally learned the identity of the line he rode.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Electric
• Illinois_Terminal
• interurban_cars
• railfan
• railroad
• railway
• streetcars
• traction
• trains
• trams
• trolley_cars

[Silexrifl2]

Is that camera you show exactly the one he used? The one with fixed focus?

[gothpapa]

@Silexrifl2 Yes and No. It is not the actual camera he used (my brother has that) but it is identical to it. I found it on ebay a couple of years ago -- in the original box with the manual!

[ALS2001]

Only video I have ever seen that has TRRA Steam in action!

[gothpapa]

@ALS2001 I have always wondered exactly what that was. What is TRRA?

[sickmessiah]

My grandparents whom helped raise me both passed away this year .> i found this camera in there bedroom and now own it .. I was looking for a video to see what the quality of video is that it can produce because i make music and soon will make music videos with this camera as a alternate angle camera with a different style of video .. Anyhow .> I AM A HUGE Nine INch Nails fan and this is the first video i found .. Kinda like a sign maybe .. IDK ..

[gothpapa]

@sickmessiah Wow, I actually used NIN in one of my videos?! I can't believe I did that! ;-)).

About your camera. Exactly what is the "this camera" that you found? If it is an old Kodak 8mm/Super8mm you might have problems finding the correct film and getting it developed. If its possible to do that it might be fun to play with it -- kinda like restoring and driving a Model T Ford.

[gaycowboy31]

nice vintage IT footage

[stevenfd123]

This is great film!! Even has the IT Streamliners at 1:23. That is the only action footage of them I have ever seen.

[pm0501]

WOW... When I was a kid I rode on the IT from Springfield to Auburn. It shut down when I was 4. After 1956, my uncle had to pick us up from Springfield and drive us to Auburn. I lost a brand new "Blondie" comic book at the station on my last ride. The station was a musty heating oil smelling place I remember all too well.

My Aunt lived about a block from the tracks in Auburn and I was always warned not to wander off. Of course I didn't listen and my older cousin had to fetch me.

[LostOzarkRambler]

Cool. My uncle used to work for the IT in St. Louis. He would have loved to have seen this.