3 CN/IC Trains

On October 13, 2014, I took US-45 instead of I-57 between Kankakee, IL, and Gilman to take pictures of grain elevators. While doing so, 3 trains came through on former-IC's mainline between Chicago and New Orleans. So I was also able to do some train watching.

Train 1: Southbound in Ashkum, IL

20141013 0109

From the Diesel Shop, we learn:
CN 2457: In the IC section: C40-8W, Ex-LMS 730
CN 5443: SD60, Ex-Oakway locomotives

I took pictures of all of the cars. But I'm going to summarize except for the heavy-duty flat car.

There was an End-of-Train device, but I did not see a red light, blinking or otherwise.
The consist was:

tank	12
covered hopper	21
open hopper	6
gondola	8
coil	1
lumber	3
flat	1
heavy duty flat	1
box	25
refer	3

There was an old tower still standing. I could not figure out what it used to control. The only thing I could see was a single siding for the grain elevator. Views of the southeast and southwest corners.

And the old depot from the track side -- passengers on the left, agent in the middle, and freight on the right.

Train 2: Southbound in Danford, IL

 

Again, we get the locomotive facts from the Diesel Shop:
CN 2168: C40-8W, Ex-BNSF/ATSF 815
CSX 659: AC6000C, Powered by 16-cylinder 6000-hp GEVO engine

Below are screen grabs of the fallen flags that I found.  The GT refer was so long that both GT screen shots are of the same car. There were 3 of these GT cars in the train.

I also extracted a Cargill (CGOX) covered hopper because I can use it in my Grain Elevators posting.
The consist was:

tank	45
covered hopper	45
open hopper	0
gondola	15
coil	1
lumber	7
flat	3
heavy duty flat	2
bulkhead flat	1
vehicle	6
box	9
refer	4

The depot in Danford seems to be a mirror image of the one in Ashkum --  viewed from the track it has freight on the left and passengers on the right. Views of the southwest and northeast corners.

 

 

 

 

 

Later, when I was going south on I-57, I caught the train just north of Ludlow. The reason I was able to catch it even though I spent quite a bit of time taking pictures in Gilman was that it was put on a siding to wait for the train described below to pass it.

Train 3: Northbound in Gilman, IL

From the Diesel Shop, we learn that CN 2832, 2812, and 2831 are all ES44AC.




The consist was: 

tank	105
covered hopper	17
gondola	7
lumber	8
bulkhead flat	1
box	3
refer	9