June 2011 Trip to Illinois
Photos by Dave Ingles
| On the extended weekend of Friday-Tues., June 10-14, 2011, Carol and I drove to Chicago to participate in the southbound annual tour of the Illinois Route 66 Association, down the old road as far as Litchfield, on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday and Monday we visited our friends the Wallins in Springfield, and drove home on Tuesday. Friday afternoon, after lunching at a Culver's in suburban Schaumburg, Ill. (I "collect" Culvers and have three-quarters of its 439 restaurants), we encountered, without consulting a timetable, two Metra trains on the Milwaukee District West Line at the Hanover Park station. It would be the first of four serendipitous Metra encounters. We were on our way to our motel in Warrenville, next to Naperville. |
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| Train 2219, eng 414 and 7 cars, arrives at 1441 hours; passengers are waiting for an inbound. |
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| If you look REALLY closely, to the right of the approaching inbound train, and to the left of the yellow speed restriction sign, you'll see the rear cab-car on the outbound, as the meet occurs. |
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| Driving on south, we were halfway between trains on the UP West Line at Winfield, but in leaving we did see the rear end of a westbound coal empty. |
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| After freshening up at the motel and before adjourning to the Dell Rhea Chicken Basket in Willowbrook on old Route 66 for dinner, we paid an obligatory visit to the BNSF Raceway and got a couple of Metra trains at Clarendon Hills. This is train 1245, eng 192 and 7 cars, at 1648. |
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| A gaggle of pre-teens were heading downtown. |
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| Train 1247, eng 189 and 7 cars, roared thru without stopping at 1656. |
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| "Here comes the train, kids, stay back from the tracks!" |
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| Train 1276, eng 209 pushing 8 cars, leaves at 1658. |
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| Metra usually operates the RI District "left-handed," not sure why. This is train 528, 8 cars pushed by eng 409, at 1915 hours. |
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| We are 34 miles from La Salle St. station (the old one, of course). The 9876 I assume means stop trains with 6 to 9 cars at this point. |
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| The crew was using only the lead cab car. |
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| A half mile or so east of New Lenox station, the RI District passes underneath the old Wabash Chicago-St. Louis main line's thru truss bridge, and these two Metra trains met just underneath it. The old Wabash now ends at Manhattan, and is leased by Metra as its Southwest Service route, with NS running a local freight at night, if needed; there is a customer in Manhattan, and a handful of others. The two trains to Manhattan were already tied up there by this time of day. New Lenox has a SWS station at Laraway Road a mile or so south of the east-west main drag just to the right of this station, which is Route 30 the Lincoln Highway. This is train 421 with eng 179 and 7 cars, at 1918. |
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| On Saturday, we joined the Route 66 Motor Tour at its Joliet beginning, about 915 a.m. The Route 66 Tour photos are in a separate file. We did not ignore trains this day when we saw them or knew they were scheduled, but this file will have only Saturday's trains in it. Just north of Dwight, after visiting a 66 site in Gardner, we set up for Lincoln Service train 302 at a grade crossing, eng 18 and 5 cars. He is slowing down for a red signal at 1043; we determined he would meet train 303 here, but we had time to go on in to Dwight. |
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| For this "higher speed corridor," all the crossings are 4-gate-protected. |
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| Engine 18 stopped, with some of the new pavement on the old road, 66, in the foreground; this is now the I-55 access road here. |
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| In Dwight, we were at the front of the tour group, so after lingering a bit at an old gas station that's been restored, we heard Amtrak and hustled trackside for these photos of train 303, engines 86/517 and 5 cars, at 1103. It has left the Dwight station downtown and is passing the site of the junction of the old GM&O "Dwight Branch" to Streator, Varna, Lacon (on a branch), and Washington, Ill. Way back in history the Chicago & Alton had thru Chicago-Peoria service using this line and TP&W trackage rights into Peoria. Just before the ICG merger in 1972, Dick Wallin and I chased the Dwight Branch local, an RS1 and a few cars, from Washington to Dwight, then followed mainline freight 97 behind SD40's. Seems like only yesterday! We would see this same Amtrak trainset, same engines, 2 more times on this trip! |
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| This is Cayuga, Ill., a grain-elevator (and not much else) along the old GM&O north of Pontiac. The building is the old C&A depot, which for decades, moved away from the tracks and turned 90 degrees, served as the grain-elevator office. The elevator is long closed, too. For decades, it didn't dawn on me, or a few other GM&O historian friends, what this building had been. But just look at it. (DOH!) |
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| We had had lunch in Pontiac (provided with the tour), and explored parts of the town we hadn't seen before, east of downtown where a big park has "swinging" pedestrian bridges over the Vermilion River and a chatauqua event building, and forgot all about the Texas Eagle. We were driving toward the tracks and saw it stopped at the depot, so sped (literally) north on old City 66 for a grab shot in action at the north end of town, engine 76 and 8 Superliners at 1147. |
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| For work on the line improvements on this Amtrak CHI-STL route toward "higher speed rail," UP has assigned a bunch of SD70M's to the work trains. Working during some alternate weeks, the line is closed to Amtrak, which buses the Lincoln Service and runs the Texas Eagle via the old C&EI, non-stop. This weekend the work trains were idle and the Amtraks were running. Engines 4693-4945-4068 are parked south of Pontiac on a passing siding, at 1255 pm. Again here old 66 is the I-55 access road, a corner of the pavement showing at lower right. |
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| At the old site of Ballard, in modern times only a small country elevator now razed, engines 3871/5071 were parked; it's 1318 hours, and we are south of Chenoa. |
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| Also at Ballard, a train with concrete ties aboard. |
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| OK, one old Route 66 pic here, of our van, with a now-railroad-appropriate license plate for this route, on an original-pavement section of the old, old 66 into Lexington, Ill., opened for traffic only for special days like the Route 66 motor tour; the pavement is in bad shape and can't take much traffic. Lexington also opens it for two or three car-show or "local whoopie days" events. |
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| The C&A-Alton-GM&O depot in Lexington has been moved to along the main street a couple blocks east of the tracks, and added on to by the business. |
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| In Normal, we heard a UP freight ask for clearance north, but he had to hold for track and time from a maintainer up the line. Turned out to be a 5-car work train taking supplies north to a work site, engines 5060 and 5100 at 1450 hours. He'd move at 1500. |
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| An historic 66 underpass in Normal, still in use. |
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| At the yard, a few units were parked opposite the yard office. The old Alton shops, with stone buildings, sat west of the yard where the grain storage bins are. |
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| An overview of the yard, looking north. This is on Bloomington's near west side; the high-rise buildings are in Normal, part of Illinois State University. When I walked up here I heard something, and the grain company's Geep, operated by remote control, I think, was moving the cut of grain cars at left. UP engines visible at middle right in the distance. |
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| AgRail's Geep is obviously ex-Boston & Maine, note the lighting box on the long-hood end, but its Guilford number, ending in 6, is not readable. I had shot this before and somewhere have a slide showing the number. |
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| The depot from Shirley, Ill., first town south of Bloomington on the GM&O main, was moved years ago to the next hamlet south, Funks Grove, where it operated as an antique store for a short time but now sits vacant. |
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| The Funk family has sold maple "sirup" from its extensive grove of trees along US 66 for decades, and we've been occasional patrons. Three or four years ago when we drove in from the old road we found this next to the family home and sugarhouse/sales shop, and so inquired of Aleta Funk, wife of the current generation Funks (she's probably in her 50's?), and said her Dad had used this for a storage shed for decades off in the woods, but when Route 66 became such a nostalgia rage, he moved it up into the yard, spruced it up, put the ORIGINAL SIGNS back on each end (which he'd apparently saved), and here it is, on a new foundation! The cement "patio" had a US 66 emblem engraved into it, in front of the flower pots you see. |
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| Here's the sugarhouse; we've watched it boiling away on March visits. |
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| Between Funks Grove and Atlanta, on the old road along the tracks, we saw this billboard to our east on I-55. |
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| The C&A/Alton/GM&O depot at McLean was moved a few blocks over to Route 136 in the 1970s IIRC, and was an antique shop, then vacant, now a hobby shop of sorts. |
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| Atlanta, Ill., about 1600 hours, one of the sharper curves on the line, showing current construction. The depot was at the left here until the 1970s; we look south. |
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| A small grain elevator in Atlanta has been preserved, and a Wabash box car moved in, on the old PRR Peoria branch right of way just west of where the PRR-GM&O diamond was. Illinois Terminal was the last user of the old PRR track, into 1981 or 1982. The home signal for eastbound trains has not been moved. The elevator is open for tours at times. |
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| Lincoln, Ill., was the only town named for President Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime. The old GM&O depot has been a restaurant, and apparently still is open for group events only. The shelter at right is what Amtrak uses. Until 1956 or so, Illinois Terminal interurbans, which ran in the street beyond the depot (to the east) also "used" the GM&O depot for its passenger station. |
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| Train 21, the southbound Texas Eagle, caught up with us at Williamsville, at 1720 hours, engine 75 and 9 Superliners. The "Billtown" depot survives in place, with some boxcars (storage) placed in on its south side. |
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| In the middle of a golf course in Bergen Park on Springfield's east side, to the east of Eastside Ave. south of Clear Lake Ave., is a cement milepost marker from the old B&O. One side has "S 2" (vertically), while the other side has a "C" and a 200-something number (I didn't go up to it this time to note specifics, as I have done so when I shot slides), for the mileages from Springfield Union Station and Cincinnati. This was the former Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western. Thanks go to the late Jim Springer of Springfield, a rail historian who specialized in depots and such items as this, and was a fan of the old Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis and its ne'er-do-well suceessor from Springfield to Alton, the Chicago, Springfield & St. Louis. The CS&StL was created when CP&StL went belly-up and Chicago & Illinois Midland bought it from Springfield north to Pekin. The B&O here was abandoned in the early 1960s when I-55 was built; B&O built a connection to its other line southeast from the city, to Flora, an old B&O Southwestern line. That's been gone since the 1980's. |
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| Although this is old "Bypass 66" in Springfield (now Dirksen Parkway), this is neither rail nor US 66 related -- it's just a gaggle of geese holding up traffic! |
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| On Sunday morning, we went into Springfield proper to photo a train along 3rd Street, where the track goes down the middle of the street from South Grand Ave. north to almost downtown, around Lawrence Ave. This is train 22, engine 125 and 8 cars, at 10 a.m. sharp. The street is essentially all still red bricks, but a sewer line on the west side (southbound traffic lane) has resulted in much newer concrete. High-speed rail proponents are pushing for a relocation thru the city, but it would involve razing many homes on the north side of the city to change from the old GM&O to NS's ex-Wabash right of way, so it'll probably be a while. Meantime, UP redid all these track and crossings thru the city on this route a couple of years ago. It was, of course, double track in GM&O days until the 1960's. |
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| The Eagle met Lincoln Service #301 up at Ridgely; we were on the south side of town, so went to Hazel Dell on a now-dead-end road to photo the train coming off the joint NS-UP section, dispatched by NS, south of Iles, the result of the only true rail relocation Springfield has done after talking about it for half a century. The interlocking makes it look like the Northeast Corridor without wires! This is our old friend 86/517 and 5 Horizon cars, at 1035 a.m. The hopper cars are on a customer lead still served by CN (IC), which kept the rights here from ICG days. |
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| We left Springfield doing the Motor Tour on our own, ahead of most of the cars, since they began in Lincoln and toured the State Fairgrounds in Springfield, which we also did. We went on ahead on Route 4, the 1930's Route 66. This is the former Illinois Terminal depot in Girard; it's 1242 pm. |
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| From Carlinville we went over to Litchfield, where the Tour would officially end with an early dinner at the Ariston Cafe, on the old road on the west side of town just south of Route 16, and we had a late lunch there, instead. It is excellent and worth a stop, but closed on Mondays. |
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| Here's the scoop. | On a car parked out front. |
| As soon as we finished lunch at the Ariston, we began to hear radio talk, then horns. Here is NS train 301, eng 2517/8850, with only 12 cars, on the Decatur-St. Louis main line near Winston Jct. south of town, at 1438 hours. |
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| Winston Jct. crossing: BNSF from Beardstown foreground, crossing NS (Decatur left, St. Louis right), and going on toward Centralia; I'd ridden thru here on BNSF only 3 weeks before. A new connection links NS and BNSF about a mile south, for Coffeen-bound coal trains. The tower was at this diamond, although IC's St. Louis line paralleled NS (then N&W) to the east and also crossed the BN. |
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| The ex-Wabash Litchfield depot survives, with business(es) in it. |
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| Carol snapped this at an inopportune second, trying to include both train and depot, but you get the idea--NS 302 with 6692/2554/6047, 57 cars, 1524 hours. |
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| On Tuesday we drove home, with the first train Amtrak Lincoln Service 301, our old friends 86/517 and 5 cars, at North Lincoln passing siding at 949 a.m. |
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| In the siding was a northbound UP grain empty. 5065/5717/5772, 73 cars, on its way at 9:54. |
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| After North Lincoln, we took our next break at Toluca, on the BNSF "Transcon" just west of I-39, a gas and potty stop and a check of signals. A westbound BNSF was lined up, but we had insufficient time getting to the crossing west of town (there is one at each end of the community) to work both cameras on the coming-on shot, for digital, only a going-away of the stack train, 7287 West, with four units at 1145. M-of-W crews were out on the south track, evidenced by the hi-rail in the distance. |
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| Next up was a westbound UP Trackage Rights intermodal, at the east end of Toluca, 8611/4525, 59 wells with DPU 7870, at 1154 hours. A merger-related rights, UP may run a certain number of intermodal trains on the old Santa Fe to or from Chicago each day. |
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| For now, an old ATSF signal gantry and bridge guard the Toluca crossovers. |
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| Rochelle often can be a "trap" on the way home, ensnaring one and one's cameras for much longer than intended. This was such a day. Off I-39 at Steward and thru that community into Rochelle the back way, we found SAV-EOL, the long-distance local from Savanna to Eola, waiting at the CP 800 (MP 80 from Chicago) crossovers, a relatively recent installation. Time is 1330 hours; units are 5691/770/4316, with 63 cars, as we would count them ultimately when he left town. |
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| En route into town, a hurried shot at 1st Ave. grade cossing east of downtown, of 7246/9486 with a 40-car eastbound intermodal at 1337. He'll run by the local in a couple of minutes. |
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| From the Railroad Park at the diamonds in town, a UP eastbound with 84 refrigerated boxcars, 8481/7608/3988/4124 at 1355. |
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| The refrigerated-boxcar train met this westbound at Dement. He's at the Railroad Park at 1401 with 53 cars behind a nice and different consist: 4522/3809/4053/KCS 4616/697. The last is a local type engine, and this is the first KCS unit I've seen in Rochelle on the UP. |
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| BNSF customarily has a recent rebuild in this series stationed at Rochelle for local work. Used to be, two sets of two GP units "lived here." |
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| Coming by the local unit and the former depot site is a 79-car westbound intermodal behind 4519/4802, at 1412. |
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| Having just met the westbound up at Flagg Center, this eastbound cruises past MP 84 at t he bottom of the grade and slows for the curve at the UP diamonds: 4024/698, with 85 cars at 1424. |
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| UP and BNSF seem to be alternating usage of the diamonds this afternoon quite nicely, vs. playing the game of "hold the diamond" as one train will dog it thru to allow an opposite-direction train to not get stabbed by the other railroad, as often happens. Afternoons are frequently busy here, and the diamond interlocking is automatic -- first come, first served. This eastbound has 8547/5183/4184, 113 wells, and DPU's 4550/8644, at 1434. He got slowed west of the diamonds, but not stopped. |
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| Two young railfans with cameras watch the action -- what the Park was intended for. |
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| DPU's on that eastbound. |
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| Finally things quiet down enough we can begin to leave town, and the Lee detector goes off as we head for Steward to bid farewell to the local, which has to wait for one more westbound, 4194/5225/4818/4654 with 66 cars at 1504. |
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| Finally, at 1516, we shoot SAV-EOL coming thru Steward on its way to Eola, 1 hour 45 minutes after we got to town and photographed him waiting at CP800. Such is life on the C&I (Aurora Sub), we finally are able to get back on I-39 and head for home at 1520. We would be home by suppertime after a gas fill-up at South Beloit. (Chicagoland gas prices are outrageous, but the South Beloit truck stops still are lower than the Milwaukee area.) |
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