IC 9613, a GP38-2 that has traded its Illinois Central black for CN red, works a pulldown job with IC 3138, a GP40R which IS wearing the old IC black, second out.
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IC 9613, a GP38-2 that has traded its Illinois Central black for CN red, works a pulldown job with IC 3138, a GP40R which IS wearing the old IC black, second out.
CN 5736 (SD75I) leads a couple of other EMD locomotives on a pulldown auto job at Homewood, IL.
Uniquely a stream goes under this garage. In the background a CPKC train idles on the connection track.
Davis Junction is where the CPKC Chicago and Janesville Subdivisions connect. The north-south track belonged to the CB&Q with Milwaukee Road trackage rights and in more recent years, Illinois Railway. In 2024 the diamond was removed and the Rockford-based IR job no longer goes south of the city.
Today not one but two trains, one on each subdivision, were idling within a quarter mile of each other for unknown reasons.
The Chicago Subdivision is single track from Elgin to Savanna with three passing sidings. I didn't see any westbound trains that would cause the eastbound one to be held for the other one to enter a siding from DJ to Pingree Grove. A mystery.
Davis Junction is where the CPKC Chicago and Janesville Subdivisions connect. The north-south track belonged to the CB&Q with Milwaukee Road trackage rights and in more recent years, Illinois Railway. In 2024 the diamond was removed and the Rockford-based IR job no longer goes south of the city.
Today not one but two trains, one on each subdivision, were idling within a quarter mile of each other for unknown reasons. I used the telephoto lens feature on my camera to get his view from Rt. 72.
The Chicago Subdivision is single track from Elgin to Savanna with three passing sidings. I didn't see any westbound trains that would cause the eastbound one to be held for the other one to enter a siding from DJ to Pingree Grove. A mystery.
Davis Junction is where the CPKC Chicago and Janesville Subdivisions connect. The north-south track belonged to the CB&Q with Milwaukee Road trackage rights and in more recent years, Illinois Railway. In 2024 the diamond was removed and the Rockford-based IR job no longer goes south of the city.
Today not one but two trains, one on each subdivision, were idling within a quarter mile of each other for unknown reasons.
The Chicago Subdivision is single track from Elgin to Savanna with three passing sidings. I didn't see any westbound trains that would cause the eastbound one to be held for the other one to enter a siding from DJ to Pingree Grove. A mystery.
It has been a long trip from Chicago Junction, but we're getting closer to home as the duck-under sun sets at Slinger. Here, I have throttled back to start the downhill drift through Slinger to Allenton.
WC TO49
WC 6531,CR 6829,WC 7528, WC 6516
Slinger, WI.
September 1998
After working Pingree Grove, Hampshire, interchange with the CPKC Janesville Subdivision in Davis Junction, and Byron earlier this train is headed toward Savanna as an icy rain falls.
In the earlier Milwaukee Road era this line was known as the Dubuque & Illinois Subdivision. It later came under control of the DM&E before being reacquired by Canadian Pacific. Just three customers are left between Elgin and Savanna, not including interchange with CPKC's own Janesville Subdivision.
The siding that served this grain elevator is now severed from the CPKC main track with the switches removed for reasons that are unknown.
This CPKC train just finished dropping off cars at Nutrien Ag Solutions and is preparing to resume its trip west. I chased it from Davis Junction where it worked the interchange track with the CPKC Janesville Subdivision but just missed it working the Nutrient Ag Solutions on former Chicago Great Western tracks.
In the consist appear to be tank cars of used oil transloaded from Crystal Clean trucks at the Pingree Grove team track and a bulkhead flatcar from the Hines lumber yard in Hampshire. The covered hopper is probably from Ring Container in Rockford and the BIMX Behr scrapyard hoppers and gondolas of scrap metal from the South Beloit and or/ Rockford Behr scrapyards were brought down by the Janesville Subdivision job and dropped off at Davis Junction. Illinois Railway interchanges cars to/from Ring Container and the Rockford Behr scrapyard with CPKC in Rockford.
Northern Illinois was blanketed with some of the thickest fog I had ever encountered on this December morning in 2021. Driving in it is hard to describe in words. It was like trying to look straight up from under a hat brim. No matter how close moved my head forward, it always felt like something was blocking my upward view. Air temps were hovering around freezing and ice was accreting onto any forward exposed surface. Just south of Kankakee, I punched into clearer air and pulled into Chebanse to wait for my target. Checking out my car, I noticed my 1/8-inch diameter antenna had accumulated almost a 1/2-inch of ice on the front.
Anyway, after the morning hot shots had cleared the Mainline of Mid-America, A408 got the blessing from RTC to depart Otto. Here we see them rolling down the hill into Chebanse, marking the start of an all day 170-mile chase that ended in Kimmundy. These were fun days back when 408 was north of Champaign in daylight.
KCS 4053 (SD70ACe) hustles over Roosevelt Rd in rural Genoa, IL with CPKC 252.
KCS 4704, an ES44AC that has certainly not taken well to sun fading, leads CPKC 181 into Genoa, IL.
KCSM 4551, a "Grey Ghost" AC4400CW, leads CPKC 180 through Hampshire, IL.
Amtrak 393, the south-bound Illini, brakes to a stop at the former Illinois Central depot in Kankakee. The first of the Amtrak Midwest Chargers, IDTX #4601, leads the train of Superliners. CN's minimum axle requirements have forced Amtrak to run these trains with several Superliners, which in turn has led to shorter long distance trains with how few Superliners are servicable.
25 years after the Illinois Central was purchased by Canadian National, one can still find some "Death Stars" running around if you're in the right area. CN has taken to assigning many of the former IC SD70s to transfers and locals in the greater Chicagoland area, many of them still in original paint. Exemplifying this is IC #1020 (along with GTW #5933) leading the Kirk to Markham turn L515 south on the "Mainline of Mid-America" at Olympia Fields. The train is slowing for the connection to the former EJ&E at Matteson, which they will take back to Kirk Yard. The former IC electrified commuter lines, now part of Metra, are on the left.
A Canadian National local is working University Park in Monee, IL with CN 9615 in the lead. We found the train and the rain about the same time, which come to think of it is how all good catchers happen.
Amtrak Train #383, the WB Illinois Zephyr, waves La Grange goodbye after completing its scheduled 1813 station stop. In the last few years, I’ve only seen the Illinois Zeph with P42s maybe three times. So on Friday when I saw roll by, I had to do a double take.
I've lived in La Grange for almost four years, but now my time here has come its inevitable end. It's a little bittersweet as I came to like La Grange a lot. A major perk was being very close to the Racetrack. In fact, when I moved here, one of the first trains I photographed was a lucky catch of RCHI457 with some standard cab power. So it’s only fitting that one of the last trains I shoot here is a lucky catch of a clean Phase VII P42 leader.
This week, I had the immense privilege to witness CP 2816, the "Empress" 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive, make its trek south on the Final Spike Steam Tour celebrating the Canadian Pacific - Kansas City Southern merger that occurred 1 year ago. This is the locomotive's first extensive tour in over 17 years, having sat in storage until being chosen to lead this special anniversary train to Mexico City, emphasizing the new railroad's ability to link three different countries on one continent.
Because of its significance, I chose to chase the train from the Twin Cities to southeastern Iowa - four different states over 10 days, by far the longest chase I have ever attempted.
On this rainy afternoon, the Empress is enroute to Davenport, IA, but had some hiccups along the way, including a run-in with a tree between Byron and Leaf River. The resulting inspection allowed many chasers to get in front of the train and make their way here to this spot west of Leaf River, IL, a popular spot for photographers capturing trains on CPKC's Chicago Subdivision as they round the curve with the towers of Byron's nuclear power plant looming in the distance.
Unfortunately, the rain caused the towers to not be as pronounced as they otherwise could have been, but I'm happy to have this shot nonetheless.
As the morning commuter rush curfew on freight traffic draws to a close, an eastbound grain train drifts through Clarendon Hills IL in 2013.
D3B_3367 efts
Action on the BNSF Railway Chicago Subdivision, a/k/a, the Racetrack during the fall of 2023. This image was taken at the Metra’s Western Avenue Station in Chicago, Illinois. This is a small BNSF holding yard at the end of the Chicago Subdivision.