This three-part series from the United States of America takes you through authentic images to places that have now completely changed. The first part features the American railway company CSX and parts two and three Crawford Hill features. Crawford Hill is known as the steepest slope in the state of Nebraska. Enjoy this four-and-a-half-hour series! Credits: Diverging Clear Productions Part 2 will be online on 8th September 2023 and part 3 on 14th September.

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American Heritage Series - Then & Now

The early years of CSX, a railway company in the United States of America, are the focus of these episodes in The Heritage Series. It features scenes of railroading that can never be experienced again. When the Chessie System and the Seaboard System were combined, the new railroad company had two routes into East St. Louis: the former Louisville &amp; Nashville line from Louisville and the former Baltimore &amp; Ohio line from Cincinnati. For a number of years, through trains were routed over both routes before being shifted onto the former B&amp;O. There are many different locomotive models that appear, including models that have now all but vanished: GP9s, GP30s, GP35s, U23Bs, U30Cs, SD45s. GP40s, SD40s, GP38s, C40-8s and C40-8Ws also appear. With the footage in this program filmed primarily over a five year period, it is fascinating to watch how the look and makeup of the motive power roster evolved. Neither of these lines have traffic to St. Louis anymore. The L&amp;N lost its status as a through route, and then was cut off west of Oakawville, Illinois. The remaining 124 miles of the line was later leased to the Evansville Western, which operates it today. The B&amp;O is out of service entirely today, as CSX took over the former Conrail line between Indianapolis and East St. Louis, and shifted all traffic from the old B&amp;O to the former New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad in 2016. Credits: Diverging Clear Productions

Part 1: Early CSX Changing Times on the West End 

Crawford Hill

Crawford Hill is well known as the toughest railroad slope in the US state of Nebraska. Located on the Butte Subdivision, the route over Crawford Hill was once a quiet railway of the Chicago, Burlington &amp; Quincy system. Today, it is a busy railroad. Beginning in the early 70s, the line became one of the primary routes for coal trains from newly opened mines in Wyoming&rsquo;s Powder River Basin. By the late 1980s, the line had been thoroughly rebuilt to handle the flood of unit coal trains traversing the line. Part One shows the line as it was between 1987 and 1989. We start at the division point of Alliance, Nebraska, and head north, stopping in Crawford before heading up the slope toward Belmont. This episode features mainline power now gone from heavy duty service, including C30-7s, U30Cs and SD40-2s heading up most trains.&nbsp;
Credits: Diverging Clear Productions

Part 2: Crawford Hill episode 1

Part Two visits Crawford Hill in 2012, giving us a look at the railroad a quarter-century after the footage in Part One. General Electric ES44ACs see much of the work on the hill, with plenty of EMD SD70ACEs and SD70MACs. Even with today&rsquo;s Distributed Power Units, manned helpers are still stationed in Crawford. ES44s see most of the helper duty and only one SD70ACE was working as a helper during our visit.
We caught a couple of notable items during our visit, including the &ldquo;airplane train&rdquo; hauling Boeing 737 fuselages to the Pacific Northwest and the very first BNSF unit, SD70MAC 9647 (a.k.a. the &ldquo;Vomit Bonnet&rdquo;) as the D.P.U. on a coal train climbing the grade.
Credits: Diverging Clear Productions

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