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| Galesburg, IL |
AUGUST 9, 2012:
We stayed in Galesburg so we could start right out at the Amtrak station in the morning. This is near one of the nations largest rail yards and we were sure to see plenty of traffic. We had to give up sitting on a busy "by-pass" route to do it and could hear many more trains passing through town a few blocks away. However, we wanted quality rather than quantity. Downtown Galesburg was just right.
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| Galesburg, IL |
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| Galesburg, IL |
When we arrived at the depot we immediately spotted the rail museum collection. They had their own building adjacent to the Amtrak depot. The area had a couple of picnic tables where you could watch trains and the depot itself had large overhangs on the roof where you could seek shelter from the sun and sit on benches. We chose a table with some shade from a small tree. The platforms were modern and segregated a bit with a short metal fence. We expected to see three Amtrak trains and hoped for a bunch of freights. We were not disappointed.
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| Galesburg, IL |
Walking around you were treated to the collection of old
CB&Q equipment. We did not go into the museum but it did look interesting. We didn't take time for another museum though. There were plenty of things to see trackside. Of interest was a "cabbage" unit from the west coast. It was sitting next to the platforms and seemed to be in operating condition. It was on an active track too. We figured it developed a problem and was set out temporarily.
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| Galesburg, IL |
Our first passenger run was a southbound "Carl Sandberg" train.
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| Galesburg, IL |
It's a state of Illinois train and had the single level cars to prove it. Apparently it has several runs per day. An ethanol job came out of the yard after this passed. It featured a GP38 and GP39.
We also saw a few freight come in from the other direction. The first was a unit grain train with
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| Galesburg, IL |
mainly BNSF covered hoppers. It was long and gave me a
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| Galesburg, IL |
chance to study the hoppers. Many of the brown ones had recent upgrades to the corner panels. My guess is to strengthen them a bit or to prevent corrosion. This guy seemed to be following the Carl Sandberg since it headed south toward Quincy.
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| Galesburg, IL |
Westbounds were next. The eastbound Zephyr and Chief were due soon so
we didn't expect much from that direction. Among the trains was an NS freight. While this was going on, an Amtrak employee was doing water tests on two watering stations along the platform. He had the hardhat and testing kit with him as he opened the spigots to run a while. He didn't say a word to us and I think I even saw him take a picture of a train.
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| Galesburg |
The Amtrak parade was interesting. The depot area was filling with people anticipating its arrival. Announcements were made that The Chief was arriving soon and that it was for de-training only. The Amtrak depot employees came out with baggage carts and such and the depot area was quite busy when the train arrived. Twenty or so minutes later the Zephyr arrived in duplicate fashion, almost down to the consist, but when it stopped the train crew began unloading their trash. Many more people de-trained too. This time some of the local police were on hand. Apparently they were to check on one of the passengers. It was quite a busy time on the platforms. The trash stacks were almost leaning on the train when it departed so the conductor was checking clearance at they were moving.
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| Burlington, IA |
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| Burlington, IA |
Once we had had our fill of Galesburg it was time to visit some towns along the Mississippi River. Our first encounter would be at Burlington, Iowa.
The highway had a new cable stay bridge to greet us with and we immediately headed for the Amtrak station once we hit the west shore. As with any town in this region, a large CB&Q steam locomotive sat nearby in a park. The park was strategically located so you could see the yard. And, it was next to the station platforms. If anything moved, we'd see it.
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| Burlington, IA |
As it turned out, we did see some action. A unit coal train came through as we arrived. The tight curves in town prevented our getting much of a shot though. But, as we
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| Burlington, IA |
wandered the area, we heard the horn of a local. It didn't sound quite the same as anything else around, so I looked for a way to photograph it. Lo and behold, out of the buildings comes an Alco switcher pushing a couple of reefers. Not just any Alco either. It was an extremely rare C-415, BJRY #701. This one was originally built for the Columbia and Cowlitz logging road on the west coast. There is even a sister C-415 BJRY #702 that was originally SP and has AAR trucks, but it was elsewhere. This one was lettered for the
Burlington Junction Railway but apparently the circle logo on the cab has worn off.
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| Burlington, IA |
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| Burlington, IA |
The area had plenty of artifacts and relics to view. I found a Burlington Hotel, and next to the tracks was a tavern with a Burlington Route bench. Next to the bench was some kind of social center with a Spiderman mannequin as a door greeter/bouncer.
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| Burlington, IA |
The station building itself proved interesting Charles had wandered around while I was in the park. It was undergoing renovations to restore some of its historical features. I remember that large "Burlington" on the side of the building from ancient trips on the Zephyr back in the late 1970's. It's about the first thing you'd see in daylight eastbound. Charles had noticed that the early Amtrak clowns had partitioned a smaller area inside the building. They had drywalled a lower ceiling and closed off access to the framed glass signboards. They were frozen in time. The station was quite spacious outside the partition so the restorations may cure this problem by restoring the ceiling.
Down the river a bit was Fort Madison, Iowa. We were interested in seeing the river crossing of the
AT&SF. We'd also heard there was a depot or other relics to be found. Again, we were not disappointed. The depot was not only in place, but there was a ton of railfan infrastructure there too. Apparently the city wanted to do something with its riverfront and the
CB&Q as well as AT&SF stations were strategically located to join in. Most intriguing was a pedestrian overpass next to the AT&SF station.
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| Fort Madison, IA |
We grabbed some lunch "to go" from a Hardee's down the street
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| Fort Madison, IA |
and returned to the overpass to eat. We hardly started when an eastbound made an appearance. I hustled up the bridge and Charles stayed low. It was worth a cold burger. I don't think we waited too long and I could see a westbound crossing the river. In fact I caught the meet from the overpass.
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Fort Madison, IA
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| Fort Madison, IA |
This spot was a goldmine and we'd only been there a few minutes. As things settled down we looked around a bit. The Q station was smaller but housed the local museum. Later the attendant came over and told us that they might move back into the larger ATSF depot. Apparently there's been plenty of wrangling over who can do what and of course, who'll pay for it. The area is in pretty good shape and the parking area is clean and neat. The far end of the ATSF depot had a nice alcove which built in concrete benches where we could see the bridge. Meanwhile the Q line was quiet. As we were taking a departing swing by the bridge we saw the headlight of a southbound on the Q line. We found a great vantage point by the bridge in the process. There's nothing like shade in a park to enhance the railfanning experience.
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| Fort Madison, IA |
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| Keokuk, IA |
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| KJRY Keokuk, IA |
Our next stop along the river was Keokuk, Iowa. It was another river crossing town. This time we had intel from the DT&I Fan that the
Keokuk Jct. Railway was located there and easily seen.
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| KJRY Keokuk, IA |
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| Keokuk, IA |
We found the depot, found the
KJRY headquarters and even found some of their units up in their yard. We also found that the BNSF came through as well and had their own presence just beyond.
For 'fossil hunters' this was a good find. The old depot had all kinds of character and the yards look the same as they did back in the old days. (I'm guessing Rock Island) The river crossing is all KJRY
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| Keokuk, IA |
now and we found the park by the bridge for a few photos.
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L.A.R.F. KJRY, Keokuk, IA
(lazy a-- rail fan) |
The headquarters building just looked like other Rock Island buildings I'd seen in Kansas, but I could be way off.
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| BNSF Keokuk, IA |
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| KJRY Keokuk, IA |
Not to be left out, BNSF gave us a view of these local units, which Charles shot from the window for me. This wasn't exactly the best developed riverfront area we'd ever seen and the tight quarters meant we'd be tresspassing on someone's land unless it was an obvious park. Interesting area nonetheless with a chemical plant dominating the BNSF yard area next to KJ's.
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| La Plata, MO |
We pretty much had to cross all of Missouri in order to get to Kansas City. The state was a gridwork like every other mid-western state. We located a couple of promising roads and headed west. Along the way I noticed that we could zig-zag through La Plata without skipping much of a beat. As it turned out, we were less than an hour from the time the westbound Chief would be stopping. We drove by the Depot Inn and settled in at the depot.
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| WB Chief at La Plata, MO |
A couple of freights passed as I gabbed on the phone with my friends at our next stops. The station parking lot was quite busy for a small town. Apparently the market for this station is large.
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| "Federal" |
Eventually the Chief made its appearance. This time it featured a private car on the rear. "Federal". I would see it parked at KC Union Station with other private cars on Saturday. This interested the whole crowd. You can see that the crowd also interested one of the riders. As the Chief faded in the distance it wasn't long before an eastbound intermodal zoomed by. This is full speed territory here. If you parked in a legal spot next to the tracks, you'd be bouncing inside your car as the 60-70 mph freights passed. I've done it in the past.
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| La Plata, MO |
The station attendant came out and chatted for a bit. She offered a tour of the depot. We went in. It was an interesting art deco sort of place and full of life. There were all kinds of information holders with local and railfan information. There were also brochures for various preservation groups. A small layout or two were scattered around. I'd call it railfan friendly, as was our guide. She had to run but took time out for this tour. We made sure we purchased some of their local items.
As the light faded we again headed west. Next stop Kansas City, Kansas.
BC
To find the T station we simply had to follow the road signs. We were barely out of the car and noticed the platform signs telling us that an outbound train was due in a few minutes. That was plenty of time to scope the place out and yet not delay the day much. Perfect. It wasn't long before an MBTA GP40MC showed up towing a Lowell bound "purple train". This was my first time seeing the "hunter orange" bags over the couplers. I'll have to look up what that's supposed to accomplish. 
The DeLorme Atlas told us how close the town was to our route, and helped vaguely otherwise but was pretty limited on the local streets. From the station we did a lot of driving to find "Iron Horse Park" by dead-reckoning. It had to be hemmed in by two lines and near the splitting point. We missed the correct turn on our first pass through the neighborhood. But, we found a cross street after establishing that there is a large "wilderness" and water supply area south of town. We found the correct street "bassackwardly" but we found it. There wasn't much to see legally and again we were foiled by snow banks. We settled for a picture of the sign on High St. and a quick look at the sheer size of the former B&M shop complex.
