Richard's American Train Adventures

richard carr · 5 January 2026

Yesterday I was processing all the photos I took in Japan and realised that I hadn't done anything with the photos from the journey back to Chicago in November.
I had set off early in the morning, it was a beautiful day and headed back towards Chicago on US route 6, I ended at Edgerton OH about an hour after leaving Toledo. There's a Marathon gas station as you enter the town and right by the Norfolk SOuthern Mainline.
I was busy filling up when I hear the horn of a train, typical, the last time I was here I was using the bathroom as a train went by !

I just had time to grab the camera and get this

So I carried on filling up with gas and then getting a coffee etc etc. Route 6 is closed just west of Edgerton so sat nav takes you round some even more country roads to by pass it. Next you get to Butler where the NS Wabash line from Detroit to St Louis crosses the NS main. Nothing was happening there so I carried on and just a few miles past there, I saw the train ahead. So I went on to Waterloo, turned off the main road and down over the rail road crossing to wait for the train

Here it is in the distance

I don't know why the train had slowed down, it crept gently into Waterloo

Then finally it got going again.

Then an east bound manifest arrived with BNSF power.

The next stop was Kendallville, famous for it's mile and a quarter Kendallville railroad, but nothing was happening on a Sunday on the shortline nor on the mainline. I then headed for Blue Island, IL.

richard carr · 2 February 2026

I was in Chicago last week, it was cold, even by Chicago standards. Walking to work on Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday it was 2 degrees F, about minus 17. Friday was a bit warmer 10 degrees, but then there was 6 inches of snow so the cab to the airport took 80 minutes and the plane was delayed by 90 minutes. But in the end I made it to Houston Texas, now this coming week the temperature will be in the 70s but yesterday morning it was minus 4 C, at 9am it did warm up by lunchtime and reached 10 degrees in the afternoon, but I did get to see plenty of trains.

Not really knowing where to go when I planned this back in October, I had picked a Holiday Inn near the airport, s the nearest rail fanning spot on google was Spring Junction about 10 minutes from the hotel.

On the left is the track from the north, so this is looking south, a track then comes in from the right to form the Junction. In the distance is a yard adn the town of Spring to the right.

Nothing much seemed to be happening but I did see that the junction signal for the right hand track was yellow over red. I headed down to the yard as there was clearly something happening there. Three locos were working as the yard swither, 1591 is an SD40N a rebuilt SD40-2

1391 is a former SSW GP40 again rebuilt

And 2187 is a SD62 rebuilt from a UP SD60

They soon disappeared off into the yard and out of view, to be honest you couldn't see much in the yard as the mainline was a few feet higher and was blocking most things. So I headed back to Spring, only to pass the coal train heading south that had come in on the junction line.

An ACe was doing the pushing.
The switchers appeared in the yard

I got back to Spring and checked the signal again, it was back to yellow over red again, so I assumed another train wasn't far away.
When I head the horn I went to grab the video camera but that was all over the place and I had to put it back and grab the camera and manged to snatch this as went past. I should have set the video camera up properly before I set off.

A third train came through about 10 minutes later but I still managed to cock that one up too, so once it had gone by I figured it was time to head to Tower 26. It was about 30 minutes to drive into Houston to Tower 26.

I was almost there but had to wait for this train to go past first

richard carr · 2 February 2026

Once the train was out of the way I pulled in to park by the diamonds, I'd only been there a couple of minutes and this CPKC train arrived to head west.

This gives a better idea of the layout, a double track set of diamonds with connectors in each quadrant except the south east where I'm parked.
The housing to the north might look ok as it's fairly new but drive further along the street and it's all a bit grim. There were a few other rail fans there so safety in numbers

Next a south bound container train, I had just enough time to get the video camera setup before it arrived

In the meantime this train had been sitting there since I arrived, waiting to head east.

Then BNSF appeared from the east with a manifest and headed west across the diamonds

Next another CPKC train arrived from the south and headed west, but with BNSF power.

While an ACe had arrived from the north and was doing a crew change. To the north is Engelwood yard, the former Southern Pacific classification yard.

A huge long train of empties.

The CPKC train heading west had a pusher on the back.

All this has happened in an hour of arriving, so I had certainly timed this right.
I shot lots of video too, but I'm still busy processing all that.

simond · 2 February 2026

that track...

richard carr · 2 February 2026

Simon, it's the telephoto effect, that last shot was at 400mm, even UK track looks bad at that kind of compression.
But yes it's not quite the billiard table that we like to see in the UK.

richard carr · 2 February 2026

Once the ACe had gone by it seemed to go quiet, but here are afew close ups

It took over 10 minutes for the entire train to pass by

So next I moved on to Tower 87. The Tower of course is long gone, but the location still goes by the same name. Liberty road runs right by Engelwood yard, so I headed for there, at the south end I found the loco servicing facilities.

Tower 87 was located at Settegast junction, basically there are 2 yards Engelwood, and Settegast. Engelwood was Southern Pacific and Settegast Missouri Pacific, the two yards basically one very large, certainly today as UP runs them both. Then through the middle runs a double track mainline with interconnectors into each yard which runs down to the Texas Port Terminal yard.

This is looking towards settegast yard, the hopper cars are about to go over the hump for classification

The downtown skyline in the background

This ones about to take the inter connector and head north

After this it was about 3:30 and time to drive to Flatonia, it looked about 60 miles west of Houston on the map, but the sign said 108 miles. Texas is big !

richard carr · 5 February 2026

So on Sunday morning I was up at dawn (about 7:30 and minus 4!) and headed down to the tracks after buying breakfast at McDonalds. I did wonder if this was going to be a wasted trip and have to drive to San Antonio to see anything.

When I got tothe tracks this was waiting in a siding.

Flatonia has a small yard 4 or 5 tracks but it is about 2 miles long so can accommodate the longest trains, this was the back of one of them.

One of the east bound signals was on green, so something was coming, and although the town crossing are no horn, those outside town are not and I got a good 5 minute warning of something approaching.

I wasn't expecting this, it only runs 3 days a week, I think it's the Sunset Ltd to New Orleans from LA

I thought the freight might head off now but no it didn;t move

In the middle of the Y there was a small building with a crew car next to it, so something was going to happen, then a light loco arrived from the east.

The crew parked it up, then got in the crew car and drove off towards the front of the train in the siding.

A feathered friend arrived to watch the action too.

Another rail fan arrived from the west and told me that there was a stopped stone train in the single line section. so maybe the crew were going to that. Anyway about 20 minutes later the stone train arrived and headed east, I got it on video but didn't have time to get a photo as well.

Stephen · 5 February 2026

That Baggage car on the Sunset Ltd was clearly the inspiration for the Tesla Cyber Truck!

Amtrak Train 14 is the Coast Starlight, that runs LA to Vancouver.....wonder whether the driver just forgot to change the Train Number on the lead loco?

Cheers,

Stephen

Mike Walker · 5 February 2026

14 is the locomotive number, Amtrak do not display the train number on the locos, that practice went back in the 1960s.

richard carr · 6 February 2026

Once the stone train had gone by I decided to drive down to the front of the parked train, it was seriously long, probably over 2 miles and they had had to split it over a crossing so that the crossing wasn't blocked.

I found another spot just after the beginning of the siding.

There's the front of the train parked at the top of the hill, but before he could depart, this train of autoracks came steaming through at about 60 miles an hour ! It was time to stand very well back. I have it on video and just managed to grab one shot of it going by.

I was expecting the 1st train to go first but no another train arrived, now there's two parked at the top of the hill.

The first train did go next, although it waited quite a while, probably more than 30 minutes after the autoracks went through.

Yes the second loco is still in SP livery, so it hasn't had a repaint in 30 years.
Then 2 mid train DPUs, and don't forget there are 2 more pushing on the back, 7 locos in total.

So now I was expecting the second train to arrive (on the right) to go next, but no another one arrived, and the other one had shut down.

richard carr · 8 February 2026

SO the left train was a rock train and it set off quite soon after it arrived. It's an ACe on the point.

And now another train has arrived, and it's going first too.

This looks like coal empties

Complete with 2 pushers on the back

Finally that train that's been waiting patiently gets going, half of it is a manifest and the other half containers

Here's the DPU, yes another ACe

richard carr · 9 February 2026

After this train had gone by I headed back to the junction, here I found 2 locos turning on the Y

They parked these up in the siding and then another one arrived from the east and parked up.

Then 8095 came out of the siding and turned on the Y before it disappeared off to the east.

At this point it all went quiet so I finally went into town to look at the caboose and Tower 3. Of course this caboose is a southern pacific one.

It's quite a modern one a C50-90

The view inside

I've got plenty more detail shots if anyone wants them

I drove a bit further down the road to see where the line went, there lurking was 8095 at the head of a train, then I heard a horn from the west so either something was coming into the siding or it was going to turn north and take the former cotton belt route to Pine Bluff Arkansas.

I hurried back to the junction, just in time to catch this heading north.

This of course meant that I had missed it coming up the hill !

richard carr · 15 February 2026

Here is the first video from Houston TX, I'm at Tower 26, it's fairly close to the downtown core, but is definitely a less desirable neighbourhood to live in. To the east is Engelwood yard the former SP yard in Houston, just to north of that is Settegat yard formerly of Missouri Pacific.

UP has the line into Engelwood and Settegat and CPKC seem to appear quite a bit too,

richard carr · 15 February 2026

Back to Flatonia.

After the BNSF train went through I headed back out of town to the previous spot. The loco that had disappeared earlier (UP 8095)now came down the hill with it's train.

Complete with 2 mid train DPUs

Finally an east bound train appeared in the distance

An awful lot of smoke.

A loaded stone train with an ACe type pushing on the back. Is that one of the new Tier4 locos ?

It went into the siding, so I headed back into town. This was parked in the other siding waiting to go down the hill

I caught the stone train again as it made it's way through the town

And that was the end of the day for Flatonia, a very enjoyable day with far more action than I had anticipated.

I did drive down to the track at dawn on Monday morning, but all the signals were out so nothing was likely soon. I then headed off to back to Houston and back to Tower 87.

richard carr · 18 February 2026

So I was up before dawn on Monday, it was still chilly to say the least.

I went down to the tracks but the signals were all unlit so nothing is coming for quite some time, it would be about 30 minutes after they lit up on Sunday before a train arrived.

I did take some photos of the crossing, and no I'm not stood in the 4 foot, I'm on a road crossing, this is looking south with the main east west route going across the photo. This is another Jump Frog crossing and most traffic from the north turns right here and heads west to San Antonio.

The north south line is running diagonally across in this photo.

It was then an easy 2 hour drive back to Houston to Tower 87

The yard users sets of 3 SD40s for switching over the hump

This one was parked there on Saturday

The last car from that cut has just gone over the hump, the locos will follow.

A local came in from Settegast yard and headed across this yard to head south.

419 and it's othe locos are taking a cut of cars to the east end of the yard, while another cut are going over the hump and being classified

A train arrives from the east

and then heads round the corner to Settegast yard

More switching going on

I was there for about 90 minutes, then it was time to drive back to the airport and fly home.

richard carr · 18 February 2026

I'm back in Chicago this week, thankfully the weather is a lot warmer than the January trip, it was 18degrees when I landed on Monday evening.

Yesterday I decided to go for a lunchtime walk to my favourite local railfanning spot, Canal Street just after the junction with Fulton Street, here the lines from the northern end of Union station emerge at street level.

As I walked down the street the barriers went down and the first train appeared, one of the new SD70 MACH locos, still looking shiny and new
It's about to pass under the tracks out of the OTC (the Ogilvie Transportation Centre)

Taking a train out of the OTC was this.

I walked under the tracks to the next grade crossing

And another MACH doing the hard work

richard carr · 18 February 2026

A few more minutes and the next train arrived out of the OTC

Then another MACH arrives from Union Station

I then walked up to the super market to get some lunch, on the way back Amtrak turned up

and one of these on th eback

A very enjoyable lunch hour.

Yorkshire Dave · 18 February 2026

While in Chicago do you ever manage to capture the L (elevated) and/or the NICTD South Shore Lines or are you in the wrong part of the city?

richard carr · 19 February 2026

Hi Dave

There is an L station in our office building on Lake Street, you can see the green line out of some our windows. I'll take a few photos later today.

The South Shore lines arrive at Millennium Park Station, it's about 15 minutes to walk there from our office, but it's all underground and there is almost no above ground signage for it. Van Buren station, which was Rock Island is still there and has the Rock Island Metra services but it's hidden away too, you would never know it was there walking along Van Buren street.

Richard

richard carr · 19 February 2026

Yesterday was warm sunny day, very spring like, almost summer by our standards. So some more lunchtime railfanning was required.

I walked down to the Roosevelt Road overbridge, about 25 minutes south from our office. It's one of the classic views of train in Chicago.
The tracks lead into Union station from the south, Metra uses the lefthand platforms and Amtrak the right hand which are through running to west with the exit in the phots I posted yesterday.