Ex Illinois Central Railroad Depot, Marion Illinois

this is why I wanted to come to marion, it was because of the crab orchard & egyptian railroad which is famous for being the last railroad to use steam locomotives to haul revenue freight trains, the locomotive that the railroad used before switching to diesel was #17 a 2-8-0 consolidation that was built in 1940 for use in Canada and later operated on the CO&E from 1979 until 1986 when it suffered a mechanical failure due to its dry pipe collapsing but what's amazing about number 17 is that in its entire 46 years of operation from 1940 to its subsequent retirement in 1986 it only hauled freight, it never hauled a single passenger train and in the end the locomotive was sent to Boone Iowa where its is preserved today.

the film below was made by diverging clear video and it shows number 17 in operation: