Hey all
The wife and I went down to Starved Rock State Park in Utica IL to do a bit of hiking, on the way home we stopped in downtown Utica to get some building refference and skin shots(for MSTS of course) imagine my surprise as the gates dropped and I found two CSX locos(got pics,I'll post once the wife gets them off the camera) switching the local cement plant.
The first time I've caught a train on that line since 79 when the trains were more frequent and of more varied colors.
In a related bit of info, some of you may be saying to yourselves that Utica Il rings a bell, that's because Utica made the national news earlier this year when an F5 tornado came though town taking seven lives,from where the damged area was this thing did minimal damage(roof chunks gone etc)just a block SW but landed square on the one block where the fatalties occured and then lifted leaving minimal damage NE, however that F5 claimed one more victim(though a far less important one in light of seven lives)on it's way out of town, the Utica Rock Island depot, the depot was still standing(IIRC you can find pics taken in 00 or 01 on the Fallen Flags site)though a bit ratty around the edges, as it stands now huge chunks of the roof are gone and on closer inspection(as pics will show when I post)structural damges that while not warenting imeadiate demolition may doom any restoration plans that Utica may have held for the depot.Gary S
42 year old future curmudgen(Hey you kids get offa my lawn!!)
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