Girard, IL

What’s happening at this stop

This is a brief whistle-stop, not a display: 4014 is scheduled to pause at the Center St. crossing in Girard around midday for about half an hour on its way toward St. Louis. There is no organized viewing area, no ticketing, and no cab or up-close access — it is a chance to watch the locomotive at a crossing, not to walk up to it. Times can shift with the day's operations.

Why this stop matters

Girard owes its existence to the Chicago & Alton. When that railroad graded its Chicago-to-St. Louis main line through northern Macoupin County in 1852, the town's founders laid Girard out beside the tracks the next year, and it incorporated in 1855. The Alton was one of the prairie's classic railroads, its Chicago-St. Louis line a busy passenger route for the better part of a century.

That main line is why 4014 belongs here: after the Alton passed through the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, the Illinois Central Gulf, and the Southern Pacific, the Chicago-St. Louis route became Union Pacific track in 1996 — so the coast-to-coast tour runs south through Girard on rails that are genuinely part of the UP system.