| ICG GP38-2, 9639, Chicago, Illinois, March 1980, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Number 9639 was built in December 1974 (c/n 74646-40) and named "Wayne A. Johnston, who was president of Illinois Central Railroad from 1945 to 1966. When he stepped down from the presidency of the railroad, he was named Chairman of the Board for IC, a position he held for a year. In 1967, he was also named president of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, of which he had been a member since 1950. In 1949, Johnston served as the Treasurer for the Chicago Railroad Fair. Illinois Central's Johnston Yards in Memphis, Tennessee was named after him. The bridge in the background passes over an unnamed fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River, nicknamed Bubbly Creek. Gases bubbling out of the riverbed from the decomposition of blood and entrails dumped into the river by the local stockyards in the early 20th century gave the creek its name. |