Dark Day on BNSF at Naperville, IL, Oct. 24th
Photos by Dave Ingles
| Our local Tuesday night slide group had an "Extra" on Saturday evening, Oct. 24, when Rick Moser, our regular member who comes the farthest, hosted a session at his home alongside the BNSF's "east end" (aka, "the Raceway") in Naperville, Ill. He did this on Saturday so getting home late was not a problem for anyone, although one or two folks stayed overnight in the area. We were welcome to arrive anytime after 3 p.m., and supper was included. I drove down with Brian Schmidt, a TRAINS staffer, in my van, and we spent some early afternoon time on the BNSF. The whole late-morning trip down was in sunlight, as was lunch at the Steak n Shake in Downers Grove, but en route to West Eola, our first photo stop, dark clouds rolled in and stayed there. So I shot no slides at all, but digital doesn't mind.
At West Eola at a closed-off grade crossing at the yard office and old roundhouse area, our expected good vantage point was marred by a new signal bridge that is to be erected, and an employee "flagging" for nearby m/w workers was parked in his hi-rail pickup where we wanted to park (it was a cold and windy afternoon), so after a few shots we adjourned to the Naperville Metra/Amtrak station for the duration, as Brian wanted to shoot the outbound Amtrak California Zephyr (#5) and Southwest Chief (#3). These impediments are obvious in our first shot, of BNSF 4698/8957 West, an empty ore train, at 1:04 p.m. To the west, in the going-away view, track panels are visible as M/W and/or contractor crews continue to work on revamping the West Eola interlocking as a third main track into Aurora is being added to the current double-track main. Some call the track extension an "extra eastbound coal-train staging parking lot." |
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| Brian zooms in his camera -- tho whether taking a movie or stills I don't recall -- as Amtrak #6, the eastbound "CZ," passes the workers and then us, units 142/144 and 9 cars, at 1:34 pm. |
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| After #6 we drove back to Naperville for the duration. On weekends, there is always ample parking on the north side lot, at the far west end by the Washington St. underpass, and you're at the west end of the platforms, which are more wide-open than the east end, thus better for photos, and of course especially in the afternoon when the sun is out! At 2:38, almost an hour after our shots of #6 at West Eola -- and if we missed anything in between, i didn't note it -- a westbound empty-container-well train passed behind units 4730/CREX 1329. |
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| Inbound Metra #1326 was next, 17 minutes late at 2:50, with F40M 209 pushing 7 cars. While he was stopped, Metra #1309 rolled in on Track 1, also 7 cars behind F40M 201 at 2:53, 16 minutes late. (Opinion aside -- in the "old days," suburban timekeeping, even well into the Metra era, was top-notch through the "Land of the Burlingtons," but then a lot of things about Chicago and Illinois have really gone to hell in recent times.) Note some of the cars on the westbound, from the original Burlington Route 700- and 800-series, have had either "Burlington" or "BNSF Railway" restored to the old letterboards; I've never heard a reason, so it must just be "heritage nostalgia." |
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| Next up, already late, was Amtrak #5, the California Zephyr, which rolled in following Metra #1309 on the same Track 1 at 2:58. His scheduled departure time was 2:34. He had 9 cars behind units 195/18, and departed 27 minutes late at 3:01, so it was at least a short stop. The baggage car was one of the new ones, 61048, apparently just recently becoming regular on this train. We've seen them for months on the Empire Builder in Wisconsin, but having seen the new 'bags" only at speed, i'd been unaware of the word "America" on the emblem. The cars have the old "tri-stripe" Amtrak scheme from years ago, but it's very nice. |
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| Soon after the Zephyr left, a fast intermodal approached on Track 2 and I was a bit late getting out of the van into the cold and around the hedge for shots -- units 8369/7405/4021/8392, at 3:06. |
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| We warmed up in the car for a while awaiting Amtrak #3, which Brian wanted to shoot -- Naperville was one of the few "Raceway" stations between Halsted St. and Aurora where he hadn't taken photos! The train toddled in on Track 1 right on-time, with units 115/163 and 9 cars, at 3:34. I'm including a close-up of the numerals on the rear unit because they are a bit thicker than normal on all the other (non-Heritage) P42s. This is, I think, because the 163 was at one point tabbed as a member of the "Heritage" fleet representing the current "Shamu" paint scheme, but it never got any "birthday/anniversary" lettering, so i'm not positive of the validity of that claim.The lead unit coughed out some smoke as it was throttled down to make the station stop. |
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| Another outbound Metra, #1311, soon was lined up, so we stuck around for it, and I'm glad we did as it had the "doubleheaded" units, 119/191 in this case, on an 8-car train. At least on weekdays, if not Saturdays, usually one afternoon rush-hour outbound will have 2 units, more as a protection move for the fleet, I believe. The lead unit here may not be a regular assigned to BNSF, but Metra does swap some regular F40s around sometimes. In the past, the BNSF fleet was the early F40M's, beginning the mid-180s and going up into the low 200s, plus the last regular F40s, from 180 up, but time has passed and things do change. After #1311 departed at 3:48, so did we, headed for Rick's place a couple miles east, for the evening's festivities. At Rick's thru the social hour, supper, and slides until after 10 p.m., we heard and saw a seemingly constant parade of BNSF freights, giving some audial help to some of the slides. |
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