Mendota Sub of BNSF

The bridges of LaSalle and Bureau Counties
March 31 and April 1 2010

Photos by J. David Ingles

With a hi-tech signal upgrade coming to BNSF's Mendota Sub (aka "the main line") between Aurora and Galesburg, Ill., the signature CB&Q- style signal bridges, and what's left of the now-inactive trackside pole line will be coming down in the upcoming months as the railway works east to west. With these items' demise in mind, I followed the lead of Rockford's Lance Wales' March 6 trek to the Mendota Sub with one of my own, driving down on Wed. evening, March 31, and meeting Mike Schafer in Mendota for some late afternoon action. Rick Moser came out from Naperville on Amtrak #383, at dusk, and after dinner at the upscale Whistle Stop restaurant in the old IC freight house, Mike headed for home and Rick and I to our Comfort Inn rooms out by I-39. I chose this view below as the "title slide," taken at Meriden, east of Mendota, at 6:55 p.m. as BNSF 6384 East, a coal train has just dimmed his lights to wait for a westbound coal empty and then Amtrak #383 to pass.

Our first train was at the eastward home signals in downtown Mendota, adjacent to the site of the old tower guarding the CB&Q, IC, and MILW diamonds.

First train, w.b. coal empty, 8970/9731, 5:!5 p.m.

Second train, BNSF 6376/9545 E, 5:33 p.m., Detroit Edison loads.

Some time at Earlville yielded no action, as 6384 stopped to the west of us, but we got some mood shots before having to return to Mendota to fetch Rick off #383.

Killling some time waiting for #383 at the Mendota depot; local engine tied up.

BNSF 6236/8835 W, Wis. Public Serv. empties, delayed #383. 7:21 p.m.

DPU 9987

#383 finally arrives at 7:29, about 10 minutes late.

Rick was unhappy because of a nasty, lazy, ill-mannered two-person train crew, atypical for these Quincy trains (we hope).

Thursday morning, 4/1/10, we begin at "the Electrics" crossovers east of Mendota, between I-39 and the town; Amtrak #381 and #380 are due to meet in the vicinity. We look north here; I'm told the labeling is standard in some places, I s'pose for rookie maintainers? German rail from 1982.

#381 comes thru Meriden, 8:55 a.m., engines 155/190, 5 cars, cab- control (ex-F40) 90224, an unusual consist for this train.

My primary photos are slides, so the digitals tend to be telephotos farther away.

The trains met in town; this is #380 at about 9:10. The sign says "Mendota Electrics," we think the first non-manual crossover set-up in the area. They are inacessible trackside without trespassing. We are at Welland Road to the east. Engine 161, 5 cars, normal for Quincy trains..

Our only merchandise train of the day, GAL-CHI ("Gal-chick") at MP 88 east of Arlington, west of Mendota. Like many signal bridges, it's halfway between back-road grade crossings. Note the solar panels for power. 6405/5612, 103 cars; he'd just worked the Illinois Railway interchange at Zearing.

With no more activity apparent, since the railway will work east to west on replacement, we head east, first passing and photographing two parked coal trains. Loaded trains are often staged out here, depending on the needs of their destination power plant or interchange rail partner off BNSF in Chicago. This is DPU 5829 on the 6384 East we saw stop east of Meriden the night before. He moved a few miles east where his crew ran out of hours. 10:36 a.m. east of Leland.

Head end, 6384/9505

Back to Earlville for BNSF 6160/5955 W, 2nd unit dead, empties, 11:00 a.m. The depot is maintainers' offices.

The eastward Earlville home signals still have the finials (pointed tops).

East almost to Somonauk, when this guy shows up, so we go back west to Meriden, whose signals also have finials, for NS 2749/2538 W, Detroit Edison empties, 11:29 a.m.

West of Somonauk we find the other eastbound parked, sans crew, 5854/6133, by a stretch of old US 34 pavement; 11:50 a.m.

We scout east to Plano, have a Subway sandwich in Sandwich, and retreat to Somonauk to await the next action. It's BNSF 6296/UP 6535 W with FEPX and MBKX empties, 1:01 p.m. These are the westward crossover home signals. The eastward ones outside town were taken down in a Calif. Zephyr/ vehicle fatal grade crossing accident in July 2009.

The next action will be the two eastbound Amtrak long-distance trains, running only a few minutes late and on each other's heels, so we head for Earlville. Coincidentally, Mike Schafer has a 2 p.m. appointment with a vet in Earlville for his dog, so we arrange a meet to return his jacket, which he'd left in my van at Mendota after dinner. He wore an Earlville-appropriate shirt!

My objective for a slide was to include the Earlville depot in the shot of Amtrak #4, so this telephoto at the UP (ex-CNW Troy Grove branch) diamond excludes it. Eng. 195/44, 9 cars, 1:58 p.m.

Note the Track 1 running acct. the two parked coal trains.

Behind him is #6, eng. 47/10, 9 cars, shot at Meriden, 2:21 p.m.

Three eastbounds are out of Galesburg, but not close, so we take I-39 to US 52 and west to Arlington, thru Troy Grove, where we find UP's weekday local parked. It runs from West Chicago to DeKalb and down the branch to serve silica sand producers in Troy Grove and a large elevator complex in Triumph. Eng. UPY 702/713/721, GP15's, 2:38 p.m.

The UP photo stop and some soft (but dry) gravel roads cost us a head- end shot at Arlington of the first eastbound, but we luck out. The train has a DPU, and it's facing rear, so RIck gets this grab shot as we pull up at the crossing. It's unit 5624 on the 6436 E, at 2:54 pm. I shoot only a slide. Arlington also has a neat old elevator, but it's a morning shot.

Since a maintainer is working on Track 2 east of Arlington, the second eastbound, which will cross over at Zearing, holds just east of Princeton for Amtrak #5. We scout around thru Malden and then take a chance and zoom over to Princeton for a quick gas fillup and pit stop, then zoom back to a crossing west of Zearing. It's called "Angling Road," and it's a good shot for westbounds.

Here comes #5, eng. 49/84, 9 cars, MP 97 Angling Road, 3:48 pm

Headlight of the 2nd train is visible just west of Malden, a small town with the nearest signal bridge west inaccessible among fields.

The train advances. It's 8988/6263 E, with VAPX loads, 3:56 p.m. Zearing's only signal bridge faces west, and we are forced into a backlit coming-on view, not wanting to walk into the yard.

The third eastbound stages just outside Princeton too, so with the backlighting and time available to get to Mendota to shoot Amtrak #3, we return to Mendota. We check out the 1st Ave. eastward home signal, but Rick prefers the downtown bridge, so we take this train-less view, about 4:30.

Amtrak #3 leaves Mendota at 4:49, eng. 63/13, 9 cars.

We have only the third eastbound coming. It's 4817/8210 E, 97 cars of ethanol, into Mendota at 5:30 p.m.

Nothing else is known to be out of Aurora or Galesburg, so we call Schafer and arrange to meet in Rochelle for supper. They will return Rick to Mendota to catch #382 at 8:14 p.m., and I will head home. After supper, I go thru town and get this eastbound UP stack shuttle, 4882 E with 39 cars, 6:48 p.m.

The cars on Track 1 are the local job, reefers he will set over to Rochelle Cold Storage on the Rochelle Railroad interchange after the stacker is gone.

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