Good morning, everyone! I'm back from my (first) vacation, and I had a great time. Start sending me some maps!For those who are interested, a synposis of my trip follows:My trip can be summed up pretty succinctly: Lots of trains, followed by lots of driving. Repeat ad infinitum. ("We" is in reference to my buddy Ken, who planned the trip, and will be producing a video from the footage acquired during our journey.)Sunday, we hung out on the CSX CE&D Sub south of Terre Haute and caught a lot of trains, including TWO southbounds with a pair of WC SD45s on point! We also took a detour over to CP's Latta Sub to chase the UP coal train from the PRB for a while. Later, we spent a couple hours at Haley Tower watching the usual nighttime mess unfold.Monday, we got a late start due to acquiring and packing a rental SUV, then it was off to Altamont, IL, to railfan the junction of CSX's St. Louis Line and UP's Salem Sub. However, after catching a meet between two hotshots as soon as we arrived, there wasn't another train for two hours, so we headed off to Effingham, IL. There, a contact with the Effingham Railroad hooked us up with an all-access tour of the railroad, including letting us ride in the cab as they switched some industries and delivered cars to the CSX & IC interchanges! After catching an IC southbound in the rain at the Amtrak depot, we embarked upon the 4 1/2 hour drive to Galesburg, IL.Tuesday, we started the day at BNSF's Galesburg Yard. For those unaware, Galesburg is the third-busiest terminal on BNSF (following Chicago & Kansas City), and it lived up to that standard while we were there. After an hour on the "railfan bridge," we headed for Cameron, where the BNSF's ex-ATSF Chillicothe Sub (the famous "TransCon"), a racetrack for intermodals, bridges over the ex-BN Ottumwa Sub, a conveyor belt for Powder River coal. We worked our way west in the afternoon, with the highlights including seven trains at the trestle at Media in 65 minutes, and catching Amtrak's westbound "California Zephyr" and a looong empty coal train at a beautiful sweeping curve in Biggsville.Wednesday, we again started in Galesburg, catching seven trains at Peck Park in an hour and a half. After a brief stop back at the yard, we headed east to Edelstein and the famous hill. Although it was slow for most of the day, it got busy in late afternoon, including one hour-long period that saw six BNSF hotshots and a UP coal train on the Peoria Sub.Thursday was spent in eastern Illinois on CSX & UP's joint line, with a brief morning foray over to the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern to check out their roster of Alcos, and chase their Danville turn for a little bit. Later on, we caught the "Weed Train" in action at Woodland Jct. The train then proceeded to tie up Main 2 north of the junction for three hours when the crew couldn't get an electric-lock turnout to function!Friday morning was almost as nuts as our time on the BNSF: We were shooting at Philo, IL, which lies at the top of a hill on NS' Lafayette District. As soon as Ken would finish capturing one eastbound on tape, he'd look to the horizon and see another eastbound headlight! All told, we shot five eastbounds at Philo, missed two more driving the short distance to Tolono, and caught an eighth coming across the IC diamond (with ample aid from the IC, who briefly interrupted the parade by running a southbound). After getting rained out of Tuscola, we headed to Clinton, IN, and got lucky by catching CP's northbound trackage-rights junk freight crossing the Wabash River bridge. To cap off the trip, Ken caught five trains at Haley Tower while I was off running errands, and I finally ferried him back to Effingham, where he caught the northbound "City of New Orleans" this morning.So that was my trip! I'm about to start scanning from the twelve rolls of film I shot during the trip, and I'll post some photo links later.-Dave
Conrail Albany Division
...striving for "Continuous Quality Improvement"
http://gcdranet.homelinux.com/davehonan/Yard Duty Superintendent of Maps
http://members.trainorders.com/dwhonan/yd/projects.html
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