ILLINOIS TERMINAL #784

Builder: EMD
Build Date: December 1955
Type: SW1200
Status: Inoperable; awaiting restoration

Illinois Terminal No. 784 is one of twelve SW1200 type diesel switcher locomotives built for the Illinois Terminal Railroad (IT). Constructed by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD), it left their LaGrange, Illinois factory in December of 1955.

Historically, the Illinois Terminal was an electric interurban railroad, utilizing electric locomotives and self-propelled passenger railcars that got power from overhead wires (similar to streetcars). However, by the time No. 784 was built, the IT was phasing their electric trains out and replacing them with diesels. The 784 was one such locomotive, and was used for switching and local freight duties that had once been handled by electric locomotives. Interestingly, the 784 frequently operated through Monticello during its career on the IT, travelling over some of the same tracks that our excursion trains use today.

In the 1970s, the Illinois Terminal renumbered their SW1200s into the 1200-series. The 784 became the 1210, and continued to operate with that number into the 1980s. In 1982, the Illinois Terminal was merged into the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W), and that same year, the N&W was merged into present-day Norfolk Southern (NS). NS continued to use No. 1210 until 1994, when it was sold to the Sequatchie Valley Railroad, a short line running out of Bridgeport, Alabama. A few years later, it was sold again to the Knoxville Locomotive Works of Knoxville, Tennessee, a locomotive rebuilding company. In the summer of 2020, members of the Monticello Railway Museum were informed that the 1210 was going to be scrapped, so the museum made a deal to trade some spare locomotive parts to the Knoxville Locomotive Works in exchange for the 1210, saving it from the cutting torch.

Prior to leaving Knoxville for Monticello, the locomotive was renumbered back to 784. It was delivered to the museum by a Norfolk Southern freight train, and the museum sent Illinois Central No. 8733 to pick it up and take it to our campus. Fittingly, the museum’s train crew that day brought our Illinois Terminal caboose No. 806 along for the ride. It is likely that the 784 and 806 operated together on the IT.

No. 784 is currently one of only five Illinois Terminal diesel locomotives in preservation, and one of only two that are preserved as an IT locomotive (the others are painted for other railroads at the present time). Currently in storage, the 784 will eventually be fully restored to operating condition as time and funding permit.

Scroll down to see pictures of No. 784 over the years.