At 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of August 20, 1988, a westbound Santa Fe freight climbs Edelstein Hill around Houlihan’s Curve west of Chillicothe, Illinois. The lead locomotive is an EMD FP45 that was built in December 1967 and originally numbered 100, hauling Santa Fe’s crack passenger trains. After a rebuilding by Santa Fe in 1982 into a model the railroad called a SDFP45, the locomotive was renumbered 5990. The big cowl was eventually painted in the “Kodachrome” colors of the ill-fated SPSF merger in 1986 as seen as seen in this view.
