Publications

My father had in his collection a September 1933 edition of the Illinois Central company magazine. That date is significant as it is the month and year in which he was born in New Orleans. Although his father was not a railroad man, one of his uncles was in fact an IC man: the bridge tender for the IC's drawbridge at Pass Manchac on the northwest sife of New Orleans. Although I cannot verify it now, I cannot help but wonder if his uncle saved this copy of the company publication on his behalf. Regardless of its origins, my father kept it in cellophane for decades — which is a good thing, as the newsprint is brittle at this point. I've included one article from the Sep 1933 edition here on this page: an overview from the IC's perspective of the Chicago World's Fair. Incidentally, my father's birthday? September, 1933.

The Illinois Central was a pretty big deal in my father's family. As noted, his uncle was a bridge keeper and, prior to that assignment, had played a role in labor in double-tracking the southern end of the mainline, through the Louisiana parishes. My dad told me stories of catching the IC local after church on a Sunday to go see the extended family in Ponchatoula, La, only to catch a returning local after sundown in order to get back into the city for work and school on Monday. Although, to my knowledge, my dad never rode the Panama in his childhood (a businessman's train!), he clipped and saved two articles about its demise just before the Amtrak era, which I have likewise included below.