My father, Dr. Richard D. Leonard (on platform with suitcase), waits to board the cab of GM&O E7 unit No. 100, lead locomotive of the Abraham Lincoln. According to a 1963 copy of The Official Guide, train No. 2 was scheduled to depart Bloomington at 11:51 a.m. after a six-minute stop for crew change and maintenance, as well as to discharge and take on passengers. Dad is wearing his overcoat; the trip was apparently made in cold weather, although the sun is casting shadows.

With today's corporate anxiety about liability issues, few people would be able to get a ride in the cab of a locomotive in revenue service. In the 1960s things were more flexible, especially if you knew the right people. How Dad managed this is unknown to us (he passed away in 1976), but he had come to know a number of active GM&O personnel through his association with the Central Illinois Railroad Club, of which he was the founding president. A lifelong railroad fan (a hobby he passed along to both me and my brother), he was Professor of History at Illinois Wesleyan University and a Methodist minister.