Tracking the Light remembers the Chicago, Central & Pacific.
On April 23, 1995, Howard Ande and I chased this westward CC&P freight through the Missouri Valley to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
CC&P was a short-lived 1980s-era Illinois Central Gulf spin-off.
This mixed consist of former Illinois Central Gulf Geeps, a former Chessie System unit, and one of the few CC&P painted locomotives seems to sum up the state of affairs.
In my book North American Railroad Family Trees (published by Voyageur Press in 2013) I described Illinois Central’s tree pruning:
Among the most unusual 1980s-de-constructions was the result of Illinois Central Gulf’s compulsive trimming of most of its network outside the former IC principal north-south core. Among the new regional railroads created were: Chicago, Central & Pacific in 1985 on the old IC Chicago-Omaha route; Mississippi-based MidSouth in 1986; and the former Alton network spun off as Chicago, Missouri & Western in 1987. All were short-lived creations, and within a decade had been absorbed by other major carriers. In 1996, IC (having dropped ‘Gulf’ from its name in 1988) bought back the CC&P, MidSouth went to KCS, while C&MW routes were divided between Southern Pacific and Gateway Western (which was later absorbed by KCS). Also created from the ICG network was Paducah & Louisville in 1986, which continues to operate as a independent railroad in 2013.
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