Bruce,

Were you in the gondola just behind the Firestone auxciliary water tank car? I was at 21st St. (that is what I noted on the color slides) with a group of picture takers. Got a good photo of the Reading 4-8-4 2102 just before the train went into the shadows. As the locomotive went by, heard a strange noise. Then the train stopped about 100 yards past me. That was at 7 P.M. on Sunday July 28, 1968.

The first set of drivers had derailed. By 7:30 P.M. the gondola was empty. A large number of passengers were around the steamer.

Took my last photo at 8:35 P.M. Had a 7:30 A.M. "call time" at the Caterpillar Tractor Co. Research Center in Mossville, IL.(10 miles north of Peoria, IL.). In those days, it was a 3 hour 45 minute drive to Peoria on mostly two lane roads but the speed limit was 65 m.p.h.

Ed Johnson
Peoria, IL.