Richard's American Train Adventures

[richard carr]

Hi JB

I could only see it in the distance, it didn't move all day, only the GP9. According to their website they have spent quite a bit of money on it to equip it with traction control software.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

View attachment 209524

That sort of 'really simple but full of atmosphere' view is what I've tried to capture on my layout.
Who says American trains are all a mile long with 5 engines on the point??

I agree Jordan, it does remind me of your layout, the battered old engine and crappy track, although that is a brand new Nov 23 built UP boxcar

Richard

 

[Jordan]

I agree Jordan, it does remind me of your layout, the battered old engine and crappy track,

Thanks Richard, I do take that as the compliment I know it is, not as it reads in cold print
You found the boxcar build date in all the graffiti, eventually? Must admit it's a sad indictment that something so new has been vandalised so quickly.

 

[richard carr]

Hi Jordan

Yes it was meant as a compliment.

This was a different boxcar and had no graffiti on one side.



It might not be clear on this limited size one, but it is on the original photo.

 

[richard carr]

On Saturday I met up with Jim, we left the hotel at 7:30am and headed to Deshler. It was cold about minus 6 degrees, ther had been about an inch of snow overnight so it all looked very pretty.



The signal is clear for a stack train to head south, but before it did 2 other trains headed west on the main line.
The first was a stack train, then this manifest train.




It even had this Southern Railway liveried boxcar, I almost missed.



Finally the southbound train arrived





I was mainly videoing the trains, but after about 2 hours stood outside I headed back to join Jim in the car and get warm.

There was steady stream of trains during the morning, here's a southbound manifest, but it wasn't the busiest day I have been there. In fact we saw nothing north bound all day long, and several trains appeared to be running later than usual







As usual things quietened down in the afternoon, but this oil train arrived from the west to head south with KCS power onthe front.



You normally see this one in the morning, it had an unusual DPU on the back an SD70 ACe Tier 4, at least thats what Jim told me.



The last train of the day (for us) turned out to be the coil train going to Middletown, again this one is usually a morning train.








It was now 4:30 and time to head off and get dinner.

 

[richard carr]

I drove back to Chicago on Sunday morning, I did make a brief stop at Chesterton, but I didn't have a great deal of time. This is on the main NS line that passes through Elkhart and from what some locals were suggesting is even busier. There were 5 stack trains in about 40 minutes, here's one that I managed to grab a quick photo of.



An SD70 Ace, it was smoking heavily, hopefully it got to it's destination.

From there it was about 75 minutes to drive to Des Plaines hobbies, they are only 5 minutes from the O'Hare car rental centre, so I had a quick visit there before returning the car.

It was lovely morning in Chicago at about 7am



but something odd was going on , I could hear a very loud helicopter, so I went out on the balcony to try and see what it was.

I managed to grab this



It's not something you see every day, just about anywhere. It was taking something off the roof of one of the buildings, the police had quite a few roads closed.



It flew back again, but this time I didn't time it right




But I waited and was ready for it's next move



It flew off as I was walking to work





Once I got tothe office it returned about 30 minutes later.

 

[Jordan]

Sikorsky Skycrane if I'm not mistaken? Takes some guts (& skill!!) to fly in a concrete canyon like that!! Wow!!!

 

[richard carr]

Here's the link to the GP9 video on the Indiana North Eastern at COldwater

Richard

 

[richard carr]

The Deshler video is now up, there are some full trains that take about 10 minutes to pass, so if you like watching railcars slowly pass by this one is for you.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

Here are two more videos from my last trip, the first is a few stack trains passing through Chesterton, a very busy place.
The second is some more of the Metra trains leaving Union station in Chicago, but this time we get to see 5 of the new SD70 MACHs in action, and all the usual motive power and I managed to get a bit of footage of a GP15 leaving the OTC.

Richard

 

[JasonD]

Thanks Richard. Hairs on the back of the neck time again. Whose is the 2nd loco in the first run-by - the blue one? OK memory time again so apologies: my second time in Chicago in 1976 I rode behind one of their first commuter locos, an F40C (aka Flying Toaster??). You made me stumble on this ... thank you:

Metra EMD F40C diesel locomotives - Trains

Overview of EMD F40C diesel locomotives, six-axle, 3,200-hp units built for Chicago-area commuter service in 1974

www.trains.com

Jason

 

[richard carr]

Hi Jason

After a bit of internet digging, it is an NS loco now but was formerly a lease loco from CEFX the CIT Group/Capital Finance Inc, whomever they may be. The blue livery is theirs.

Richard

 

[JasonD]

Someone must have the patience to look thru CEFX's AC44CW roster on rrpicturearchives for that faded bit of blue paintwork between the white diagonals, I managed about 20 locos (yeah, yeah, recent pic so scroll down each time to 2024 pics and be lucky) before hunger got the better of me.

CEFX's owner CIT Group has a typical American this'n'that Wikipedia entry:
CIT Group - Wikipedia
that includes a pic of a GP20D and a link to GATX which I might follow up AFTER supper

Eastbound manifest starts around the Shoreham loop track

Eastbound manifest starts around the Shoreham loop track

www.rrpicturearchives.net

Jason

 

[Brian McKenzie]

Richard, enjoyed your video of SD70 Machs etc in and out of Union and Ogilvie stations - as it took me back to my gawping from the same spot.

The subterranean nature of Chicago's downtown railroads is endlessly fascinating. There are some very creepy minor access points in and out of some stations - which made me wonder if I should even have been there (from the railroad's point of view), much less for my own safety.

 

[mickoo]

It's NS 3985 (AC4400CW) and here's a video of the same train on the same day but Mr Carr is strategically hidden behind the half barrier.

A small tell tale is the patched number which is on a blue panel, most are black, I've not checked them all but all the ones I've seen are black and only 3985 is blue, but that doesn't mean to say there may be others on a blue panel.

 

[JasonD]

FWIW I did follow up the link to GATX 'cos it's often seen in big letters on freight cars, but with different reporting marks. Another good Wiki this'n'that story:

GATX - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Jason

 

[richard carr]

Another trip is coming to an end, hopefully I should be on the plane in about an hour. Oh but then I fly back on Thursday for the March meet.
Unfortunately thats just how work goes sometimes.

So yesterday afternoon I picked up a car and headed south to Kankanee, to go and explore the the KBSR, the Kankanee, Beaverville and Southern Railway!

They appear to be a fairly successful shortline, independently owned since 1977 and moving 10,000 freight cars a year, more than enough to make money. They are based at Iroquoise Junction about 25 miles south of Kankanee and have a total of 155 miles of track that is triangular shaped between Kamkanee, Lafayette (Indiana) and Danville. It's a shortline so I wasn;t expecting to see any action on a Saturday afternoon, I wasn;t to be surprised, but there were plenty of other surprises. So I drove to the Amtrak station at Kankanee and found these 2 parked nearby. There was no crew but both were powered up.



These are a pair of very tatty looking GP40s, Canadian National clearly doesn't waste money on paint !






I then set off for Iroquoise, but ended up going through there and on to Sheldon. At Sheldon the KBSR is crossed by the TPW, which I thinkis the Toledo, Peoria and Western, the rails look used.




There is also a large grain elevator, that has it's own switcher



Is that a GP9 hiding by the side, actually you can't see in this photo, but yes there is

 

[richard carr]

The other thing you can see is that at some point there were at least 7 tracks at this location



It doesn't show too well in the photos but the rails were still therein the road.

I then went past the elevator and found all this





After this I drove back to Iroquoise to another elevator and found this caboose, it still has oil box bearings



And a snow plpough



I then went back to the junction



I had expected the junction to be a flat crossing, but no it's this.



From what I have found on the net, the lower part is former NYC/Nickel Plate and the upper part was Milwaukee road.

That was it for Saturday. There's no video as nothing was moving !


Richard

 

[richard carr]

Dawn broke on Sunday with a beautiful day, although there had been a few trains during the middle of the night through Kankakee (its on theformer Illinois Central main line) nothing was happening at 7:30 on SUnday morning, nothing was happening on the NS that crosses the IC either. So I headed to Dwight Illinois. Here the UP line to Peoria crosses the NS line that runs through Kankakee to Streator. I was really lucky, heading out of Dwight I stumbled on a stack train heading south on the UP line, followed a good while later by Amtrak heading north.
These are on the video, there are no photos I'm afraid.
After this I headed to Streator, BNSF's Transcon 2 passes through here, so I was hoping to get a few trains, even if they were all stack trains.

This was in the yard.



The crew got on board but faffed around for ages, 2 Autoracks went through, these are on the video, then finally these started moving, BACKWARDS ! I mean I'd been there over an hour and all they can do is move away from me. It turns out the train was split to avoid blocking a crossing and they were putting it back together. As they set off backwards another stack traincame thorugh, it's on the video.

This is then getting going



It did sound good and it's all on the video, but I did screw up the 3 DPUs, I forgot to press the record button
.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

On the way across to Dwight, I came across this in what appears to be the midlle of nowhere.




You have to love those trinity 5161 hoppers, the one Atlas make.




There was an enormous grain elevator there, with a full circuit of track.



That it for tonight my battery is about to die

More tomorrow.

Richard