North Platte or Bust: Part 4, Joliet and Rochelle

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

This day (August 8) begins at the Joliet, IL Union Station.  It
turned out to be a very interesting place.  Some famous, or infamous trial (Policeman Drew Peterson and his ex-wives) was going on in the courthouse across the street so parking was scarce.  As it turned out a station lot across the street was wide open once we found it.  We missed the earliest trains but photographed plenty before we left.   As usual, we chatted with some local railfans, one of whom had been visiting regularly since his childhood in the steam era.

Joliet Union Station

We arrived just as a Rock Island line train was inbound for Chicago. 

Joliet Union Station

Joliet is the terminus, kind of like Worcester, MA on the MBTA.   In fact the depot reminded me of Worcester in some ways.  I took some photos of the depot area.  A few key things make it far different however.  The main commuter link is definitely the former Rock Island.  It may be a single track but the service was far more frequent.  Rock Island line trains simply pull in to the depot and clear the diamonds.  They then reverse course after a while.

The former Rock Island bridge.  Now IAIS.  Joliet, IL

The "Heritage Line" was less frequent.  It meanders a bit north before heading into the city and it's four morning runs are very early in the morning.  It too terminates at Joliet and returns to the city.  I guess that's the former GMandO service.   The tracks carry far more freight though, whereas we saw no freight on the Rock Island.  The former Rock was now run by the Iowa Interstate and the locals told us that one or two freights per day sneak into the city behind one of the commuters.  We were hopeful but nothing played out.  On the way out of town we located the old Rock lift bridge we could see from the depot.  It was raised which might have had something with our lack of freights.

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

We had some opportunities to catch Metra trains crossing the diamonds into and out of the station.  We got a bit of variety on the power and the cars too. 

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

In between the BNSF gave us plenty to watch.  Charles took some shots from a center platform and got cut off from the platform by yet another freight.  The shooting was pretty good.

Joliet Union Station

We got to see some of the newer stuff on Metra after a while as the trains were about an hour apart.   Meanwhile, freight trains were pretty frequent.  The tower operator must have been
a veteran.  Many of the freights were in sight of a Rock Island commuter train yet only one passenger run had to slow down.

Joliet Union Station

The multiple diamonds were another excuse for us to dig out our ear plugs.  They were loud.  No one was slowing down just because they made a lot of noise.  However, we were a bit nervous watching the proceedings.  The middle track's diamond was particularly "bumpy" and watching hundreds of roller bearing trucks negotiate the drop was interesting.  There was no place to go if it gave out.  A Metra crew was out there when we arrived and they tightened those very bolts amidst some rough and tumble banter. 

Joliet Union Station

As we watched the proceedings, the light shifted a bit, so some of my shots are repeats of a sort.

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station

From Joliet, we pretty much negotiated the highways for a direct run to Rochelle.  The drive wasn't that long but it started out pretty urban.  Before long we were in the rural yet busy hinterlands.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

It wasn't long before we were seeing all the industrial parks and mainlines of Rochelle, IL.  The GPS took us to the park from the turnpike exit.  We looked the place over and proceeded straight to Culvers to pick up some butter burgers for lunch.  With lunch in hand we headed back to the shelter where we gathered our gear and ate lunch with the other railfans gathered there.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

On display in the park are two small Whitcomb locomotives.  The

Rochelle Railroad Park.

builder was located in Rochelle, which explains their existence here.  I guess I knew that but I'd certainly forgotten it while we were there.  While a rain cloud passed, we got a chance to check out the smaller one, which was sheltered with a small tool car.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Among the various shots I include yet another Providence and Worcester autorack.  It seemed that about one in three autorack trains had one in the mix.  They are easy enough to spot.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

The diamond area is pretty tight to photograph so angles are tough.  An MOW truck made a good prop while this BNSF eastbound passed.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

One thing about Rochelle is that you will not have to wait long for trains.  If you do have to wait, it's worth it.  The hobby shop located there has an ATCS monitor.  We could see what was in the vicinity if we cared to go in.  It changed rapidly so if we stayed away long to see passing trains we might not know something else was close.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

The BNSF, ex-CBQ line is single track with a long stretch of double track through Rochelle.  The UP is ex CNW and is double track.  Both lines are very busy.  The Q runs to the Twin Cities.  The UP connects to the Transcontinental line out west.  UP's intermodal "Global 3" Yard is on the west side of Rochelle.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park

Rochelle Railroad Park.

 We wandered around in the vicinity and tried some other angles.  One doesn't have to go far to get a radically different shot.  Both lines showed a variety of power too.  CSX made an appearance and in the past NS has done the same.  On the UP side, big power, new power and a few older units added some variety.  Certainly it was all normal for the natives but nice for us visitors.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rain was threatening the whole time we were there so the light was nicely evened out for us.  Rochelle can be harshly lit without the cloud cover.  Although clouds cause their own lighting problems, I don't mind them.  The actual rain only "dampened" a couple of shots. 

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

As far as variety, here are the rest of the shots.  We did catch the Komen "pink ribbon unit" commemorating UP's participation in that charity. 








The rest of the shots I arrange randomly below.  The bottom center shot is of the webcam set up by Trains Magazine.  Charles called home and was able to wave to Diane.  It turns out we were able to do that trick in several places.  Anyway, we left for Galesburg from here.  It was too dark to operate when we got there.

BC

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle Railroad Park.

Trains Webcam

North Platte of Bust: Part 3, Lima to Homewood

WB local Lima, OH

We began the day in the former home town of Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, OH.  We found a few trains moving about and then headed west.  We would end the day at Homewood, Il so we had plenty of road ahead.

Our first mission of the day was to go into town, recon the various diamonds and stations then move west.  Somewhere along the way we wanted to pass the vacant lot that was once the Lima Locomotive Works.  As it turned out, there were a few trains rolling through town and enough local activity to distract us.  

EB entering the city.

Pearl St. Diamond

Lima once played host to several railroads.  The B and O seems to be the most active today.  We enjoyed looking over all the former B and O color position signals guarding the various junction points in the city.  The signals here guard Pearl St. where the PRR once crossed.  An old restored depot sits where the connecting track joins in.  We drove around an found remnants of the DTandI too.  Not much worthy of photos but plenty of leftover infrastructure around.

Lima Locomotive Works

We were watching some passing freights, using some active steel mills as a backdrop when we got our chance to eye the old locomotive works.  The lot is pretty much vacant with piles of old concrete and masonry heaped up and vegetation running rampant.  We spotted some switching in the neighboring yard too.  We drove around to the other side so Charles could go up to the bridge for some video.  I stayed with the car and watched some strikers across the street watch me.  The break gave me a chance to look over the maps.





We eventually found our way out of town.  Lima is full of small neighborhoods with their own grid of streets.  The way west was a small route directly west which would eventually lead to Lafayette, IN.  We passed through countless small rural towns and began to see drying corn fields.  Corn actually looked better in Maine this year.  We kept the SPV atlas handy and our "short range sensors" (Magellan GPS) showed various rail lines crossing our route.  In Gas City, IN we stopped at some crossing gates and encountered this lone TPandW unit crossing our path. 

Getting to Lafayette:  We would have been fine except for detours and a few minor errors.  No harm done but we drove many a mile across the grid road network of rural Indiana trying to go west.  Detour signs led us astray and into Kokomo, IN.  What a dump.  NS was in the process of removing a branch in the vicinity and we kept crossing the branch in various states of dismantling.   We went miles north and into town when the signs seemed to run out and we decided to go back and "play the grid" and make our own detour.   This took us back toward Lafayette finally.  Rural roads are in square grids to we just went one square south and paralleled our original route until we passed the expected detour.  Country roads are pretty solitary but out there they were straight and well maintained.  Some were gravel and some were paved.  Unfortunately, not all are wide enough to pass when you encounter farm machinery. Eventually we arrived at Lafayette.  The "short range sensors" got us to the Amtrak station.

Lafayette, IN is an interesting place.  It's the home of Purdue University so it has that college atmosphere downtown.  The depot area is now a fairly busy downtown transportation hub with some pedestrian infrastructure to tie it in with the riverfront.  The station is raised above track level with plenty of bridge and platform area for watching trains.  We caught a WB autorack and an EB roadrailer while we sat around.

Apparently the depot area once hosted the Wabash and the Monon.  Just out of sight behind some trees and bridgwork was a line now owned by the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern.  We saw all we needed by the time we left.  Not much sight or sound of CSX so we didn't hunt much farther.  Apparently there was some street trackage around.  But, it was that or getting to Homewood. 

The Homewood Railroad Park was worth everything it took to get there.  We started on the west side of the tracks at the Amtrak and Metra station to get our bearings.   Here we found the display unit and the station buildings.  It also had some nice parking.  We began our stay by photographing the frequent electric Metra commuter trains.  We also saw some EJandE units kicking around the yard and a passing CN southbound featured a pair of blue LMS/IC units.  It was just after 5pm so trains were about 7-10 minutes apart.  Eventually we relocated to the east side of the tracks to where the railfan platform was located.  The sun was on the wrong side but it wasn't that bad.

The Homewood platform is a great location to watch trains.  We caught and EJandE local, a couple of CN southbounds and later a pair of Amtraks met at their platform.  The location is relatively clean and safe.  Plenty of traffic and police.  A handy Starbucks is across the street.  Metra has some parking and a bus pull out there next to a pedestrian underpass for the train station.  We were the only ones using the plush platform.  A scanner was squawking constantly, which was helpful.  We couldn't make out much of the meaning but it sounded like there was plenty of car kicking in Markham Yard nearby.   We did get some good clues about approaching freights and Amtrak through the clutter.  For Amtrak, the 800 number was useful too.

The remaining shots are from the area.  I took dozens of shots of the electrics trying to get something worthy or showing off.  The few I have here are from those experimental angles.    The signal bridge shots were tough because the trains flew by and timing was critical.  I tried a few that included the Metra station too but many were badly timed.  Luckily, there were many trains for trial and error.

BC