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  • Chicago & Alton Railroad

  • This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.
This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #1034886  by The tram man
 
I have long been looking for pictures of the C&As car and engine fleets. Does anyone know where i can find some, or does anyone here have any own pictures you would like to share?
 #1034960  by The tram man
 
Sorry! I meant the Alton Railroad. Not the Chicago & Alton. I've allways thought they were the same railroad, until today. Anyway, the question still remains.
 #1035032  by edbear
 
The Chicago and Alton and Alton are the same company. The C & A was once quite prosperous but fell under the control of "outside interests" in the early 1900s. The Baltimore & Ohio gained control about 1930 and renamed it the Alton RR. During B & O's tenure, many of the Alton's offline traffic offices were moved into B & O locations. The B & O rotated its early diesels to run Jersey City/Baltimore/Washington/Pittsburgh/Chicago/St. Louis/Cincinnati/Washington/Baltimore/Jersey City or the reverse. Two early B & O streamliners, the Royal Blue and Columbian wound up the the Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln on the Alton. B & O couldn't make anything of it Alton acquisition and about 1947 it was acquired by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio.
 #1035135  by The tram man
 
Really? Well i'll be... I wasn't as wrong as i thought. But then again, you can't allways trust Wikipedia.
 #1039318  by 2nd trick op
 
The Alton never got much attention, and I suspect that, as with Chicago Great Western, it was because a lot of competitors ran to just about everywhere it went, and usually did a better job of it.

The one exeption to this was the Chicago-St. Louis passenger route, where the Alton''s direct routing via Springfield (the state capital, and at a distance short enough to negate any air-travel advantage from both end points) gave it an advantage, and the inception of Amtrak service via that route helps to keep its memory alive.

The Alton never owned any "late-model" steam power along the lines of, for example, a Lima Berkshire, and while that diminished its attraction for railfans, being the first "major" system (albeit as part of GM&O) to deselize completely, and{/u]n early use of CTC on much of it's mainline, proved it wasn't as "backward" as some people were led to believe.

I suspect that the Alton's "early" demise, linked in turn to the relative obscurity of data on the 'Net, makes it a more-intriguing study for some of us.