I have confirmed that I can take pictures faster than I can process them. This is the fifth, and final, essay that I planned for the pictures I took May 26.
Back when CB&Q used steam engines, Downers Grove used to be the terminus for some of the commuter trains. So Downers Grove had facilities for servicing steam engines.
The turntable used to be where the base of the microwave tower is now.
The land on the right is where the roundhouse was. The orange to the left of the microwave tower is the caboose of a maintenance train.
There happens to be a westbound commuter in front of the engine of the maintenance train. I was already on the parking lot of the railroad to get these shots. I was reluctant to get closer to the "business end" of the equipment. But I did zoom in.
And in this view I included the top of a stack of new tiles. I'm guessing that this unit cuts old ties and then conveys the pieces back to the gondola car.
To the east of the tower was a high-rail truck. Judging from the gripper on the end of the boom, I'm guessing that they use this truck to carry and deliver the new ties.
I noticed that the parking area was "paved" with ballast rock. I took a picture because it was crushed granite instead of dolomite. There is plenty of dolomite in Illinois. There is no granite in Illinois except for sporadic glacier erratics. I wonder how far BNSF shipped this rock. I cropped the picture to include the rock on the lower right. It caught my eye because it is particularly fine grained and planar.
Update: Andrew Urbanski
posted eight photos with the comment: "Switches in gons, Downers Grove along the BN."
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Dennis DeBruler commented on Andrew's post
At least some of them are still there. Looking West from Main Street at 200mm. I wonder if they are to be used to build the 70 mph shoofly tracks at I-294. |
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