Here's a photo I took on January 23, 2012, THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, of a special train operated by Iowa Pacific that made a round-trip from Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN coordinated with a convention of, I believe, the American Public Transit Association. The routing of the train was Canadian National Illinois Central from Chicago to Newton, IL thence the Indiana Rail Road from Newton to their Senate Avenue Terminal in Indianapolis. Before the mergers and shortline formations of the last fifty-years or so, this was Illinois Central's access into Indianapolis.

I rode the train on the return leg and here it is at Newton making a crew change between the INDR and CNIC operating crews. The consist of the train was this E unit in SP "Black Widow" colors from another Iowa Pacific property, the Arizona Eastern; lounge car "Adirondack Club" (800224); full length dome SLRG 511 "Scenic View" (800124); diner New York Central 448; full length dome Iowa Pacific "Sky View" and dove-tail observation "Eaton" (800174), with all equipment being owned by Iowa Pacific.

It was very cold that day in Newton and I briefly hopped off for some photos with inadequate clothing. I'm glad I didn't get left behind.

I rode the return leg so I could see all of the normally-freight-only mileage in daylight. Some of the trip to Indianapolis was in darkness and this made for some nice flash photography shots by other photographers, one of which is shown here of the train crossing Shuffle Creek Viaduct near Lake Lemon. I do not know who the photographer was.

[i.ibb.co]

From my notes, here's some info of the flights I took:

January 22, 2012 WN 0456 ONT-PHX 1245-1455 N285WN I76SBT
January 22, 2012 WN 0131 PHX-IND 1725-2250 N601WN "The Jack Vidal"
January 24, 2012 WN 2232 MDW-DIA 0600-0745 N729SW IPZS9Z
January 24, 2012 WN 0425 DIA-ONT 0850-1010 N660SW