Friends,



The board members of the Illinois Traction Society are pleased to provide
everyone with updated information for the upcoming Annual Meet to be held in
six days at Staunton, Illinois on Saturday, April 24, 2004. You will find a
direct link from the home page for complete information including detailed
maps and directions. Please check us out at:



http://www.IllinoisTractionSociety.org
<http://www.illinoistractionsociety.org/>



Of particular interest to members of the Steam Era Freight Car list and
specifically members modeling in the march 1930 to 1941 time period is
information that we have uncovered confirming that Sunshine's Illinois
Terminal Automobile Box Car kits released at the 2003 Naperville Prototype
Modeler's Meet. These cars were built directly for Illinois Terminal in
March of 1930 in the series 51500 to 51599. As they were rebuilt in 1940
and 1941, they were renumbered into the 8200 and 8300 series. These cars
were not purchased second hand from Southern Railway.



For further information, please direct your attention to the Modeling
section on the aforementioned web site. There, you will also find
information on the new AMB IT Bay Window caboose kit. These 'cabeese' were
rebuilt from existing cupola 'cabeese' using a cast steel bay window
supplied by General Steel Castings of Granite City, Illinois. It is quite
possible that other railroads also availed themselves of similar or
identical cast steel bay window "kits". And, for AMB, this marks the first
use of their own cast resin underframes, end platforms and steps. In
addition, AMB has also developed a cast resin "leaf spring" to modify Tichy
arch bar trucks for use on the caboose. This is certainly another item of
interest to the Steam Era Freight Car modeler even though they may not be
specifically interested in the IT.



We are particularly pleased to announce an added attraction to the day's
events. John Lee of Badger Air-Brush Company has graciously accepted an
invitation to join us and share information about the Badger line of Air
Brushes and MODELflex line of paints including the "NEW" MODELflex IT Green
paint. So, have your questions ready! This, along with John Hitzeman's
(American Model Builders) discussion, grand debut of the AMB IT Bay Window
caboose kit, and display of the latest efforts at AMB should prove to be
very interesting and inspiring to everyone. Add in Kevin EuDaly's
discussion and insights to Dale Jenkins's Illinois Terminal book, The Flyer,
and more should provide something for everyone and make for a very full and
enjoyable day!



For those of you who may not be as familiar with the Illinois Terminal as
other Class I railroads, we would suggest a brief tour of our site and
perhaps joining us online at one of three Yahoo! groups listed on the Rail
Joints page. The Illinois Terminal literally has something to offer
everyone. The Illinois Terminal ran the gamut of Turn of the Century 4-4-0s
and interurbans, well developed industrial switching, through freight
exchanged with other Class 1 railroads through second generation diesels
culminating with EMD GP38-2s and SD39s. And, with the depth of published
information available, it makes for a particularly attractive subject for
prototype modelers including operations in Proto87, Proto64, and Proto48.



If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact any of
our board members listed on the Rail Joints page or through any of the many
links throughout the site. We hope you enjoy your visit and will stop by
often.



Best regards,



David Jobe

Illinois Traction System

1926 - 1928