CN/IC Trains and MoW

During a trip south on I-57, I was able to grab some shots of Canadian National (formerly Illinois Central) trains.

20141209 0002c

Just south of Kankakee, I took this picture to capture a tower that is still standing and to record that CN has upgraded their mainline to the new signals needed for Positive Train Control. Note the signals down the track beyond the tower.

That location beyond the tower is where the signal in this picture is located. Note that there is an engine in the background as well as the foreground engine that is leading a train. These engines were not moving. So these signals must control access to sidings. The following picture verifies that the train was quite short. Unfortunately, the resolution of the pictures was not good enough to get the numbers on the engines.

I could not figure out how many bays are in the covered hopper just behind the last tank car. The other 4 hoppers have 3 bays. A count of the car types is in the first numeric column below.

covered hopper	5	17
tank	4	36
Box/refer		3
coil		1
vehicle		25
lumber		6
bulkhead flat	1
	10	88

When I stopped in Ashkum to check the grain elevator's use of their old ground storage facility, I noticed that CN had some MoW equipment parked on a siding.

North of Buckley, I caught up with a southbound mixed freight. The resolution of the pictures is not good enough to get the numbers on the two engines. I finally went past the train south of Buckley. I took enough pictures that I was able to determine the car type counts. The count of car types is the second numeric column above. The mix is similar to a typical mixed freight through Downers Grove -- lots of covered hoppers and tank cars and a few lumber and fewer box/refers -- except it also had several vehicle cars. What few vehicle cars come through Downers are in unit trains.


North of Rantoul, on the former east/west IC branch, was parked the following -- 2 engines, 20 cars, and a caboose. The cars look like 4-bay covered hoppers. It is too bad the resolution is not good enough to see the logos. The logo does not look like CN. Using two engines for 20 cars seems to be overkill.

And I do wish I had a better shot of the caboose. But there are limits to what you can grab at 70 miles per hour. The following is at camera resolution.

I determined that this branch is now the Fisher Farmers Grain and Coal. The 2014 Illinois map that labeled the railroad west of Rantoul as FFGC also labels a railroad east of Rantoul tpast Dillsburg as ZCGL. But I could not find any info on ZGCL with Google. Satellite maps indicate there is a grain elevator in Dillsburg, but the Google maps show that there is no longer a track past Kentucky Avenue.

Fisher Farmers Grain & Coal Railroad

This used to be called IC's Punkin Vine. (comments on a post)

I grabbed a shot of the following on the north side of Rantoul, IL.

According to my 1928 Railroad Atlas, an Illinois Central branch ran from Le Roy through a couple of towns that I can't find on a 2014 map -- Laurette and Lotus -- and then through Rantoul and Alvin and into Indiana where it connected with the Wabash. (Update: this segment of the IC was the Rantoul Railroad.) A 2014 Illinois map shows a railroad to the west of Rantoul that terminates east of Fisher and west of Dewey, and it is labeled FFGC. After trying various "Google strings", I found that "FFG&C" yielded Fisher Farmers Grain & Coal. It also yielded links for pictures of a SW9 and a GP28 that they use to switch grain elevators. But the above covered hoppers were not 3-bay grain hoppers. They had four pneumatic-unload bays so they were probably carrying plastic pellets. Analyzing a satellite photo revealed an industrial spur to Engineered Plastic Components. The railroad terminates at a grain elevator. Below is a 50-car train I saved because later satellite images may not have it.

Satellite

 

Below I zoom in on the engines and caboose. A video indicates the caboose was ICG 199419.

Satellite

Satellite

Note that the train is longer than the siding at County Road 1200E. That would be why they have a caboose. When they are going westbound they are in "push mode" and someone needs to ride in the caboose to watch for problems.

Update: during a trip north on I-57 on Feb 2, 2015, I saw that there were cars on the tracks as I went over the bridge. But it was late and dark so I had to pass up the urge to get off at Paxton to investigate.

Erik Coleman's posting has the comment: "Another 110 empties got dropped off by CN this morning at Rantoul for Premier Coop's (FFG&C) elevator at Dewey on the former Rantoul District. I suspect the FFG&C GP28 is out and about dragging cuts of empties for much of today and tomorrow! I hope to get off work early to make swing up that way." The elevator is trying to make room for the 2016 corn crop.

Brian Ball posted two photos with the comment: "Some Punkin' Vine action today. Dewey, IL"

1

2

Brian Ball commented on his posting
Brian Ball Many times the CN will shove the cars about a mile and a half to the end of the CN owned track, the elevator in Dewey owns the remaining right of way and they will head to Rantoul and pull the empty cars into the elevator with their GP28.

Lance Wales posted
Fisher Farmer's Grain & Coal 1828 works to load 52 grain cars at Dewey, IL on August 5, 2003. The FFG&C 1828 is a rare GP28. I believe it originally was IC 9437. The loco is still there, but kept in a shed when not in use.
Brian Ball Fisher Farmers Grain & Coal Co, now owned by Premier Co-op.
David Nisbet I pulled 60 loads from there back in the 80’s and derailed 6 hoppers into a small pond , lids came open . I was told the catfish were huge for the next 5 years.

Erik Coleman commented on Lance's post
Just last week I caught this puppy dragging a hopper train from Rantoul for loading. I call this thing "the orange cockroach" because it never stays out in the daylight very long! Pretty much met CN and dragged the train back within an hour span.
Brian Ball Erik Coleman at least they had the headlight burning this time, they've kind of gotten in the habit of running without it lately. Is that not mandated that headlights are to be used when the engine is in motion?
Harold J. Krewer Yeah. but where that gets fuzzy is this is classified as a private industrial operation, NOT a common-carrier, so not all FRA regs apply and can be enforced like on a Class 1 or even a shortline.
Brian Ball Harold J. Krewer there was an older fellow who used to run it most of the time, he seems to have maybe retired, I haven't seen him for a while. That's when I noticed the lack of lights. This line, aka the Pumpkin Vine, was rehabbed about five years ago, entire roadbed raised up 4-6" with all new ballast, it's really nice now. It had gotten pretty sad. This pic above, pulling the cars, is on the portion still owned by CN.
Rick Barnes That section west of Arby’s crossing is still ten mph for at least 6 miles. Terrible track. It might have been good a few years ago. Not too nice now. I still go out there every once in awhile to get tank cars from that industry right east of town. I’ve never seen that locomotive before.. I’ve been out there at least 15 times.lol
Brian Ball Rick Barnes The road bed was reballasted and lots of ties replaced west of the Rantoul industrial complex five years ago, but the rail is too light for the loads that it carries.

Racetrack: Starbucks and Gilbert Park

On November 20th, I tried railfanning from the Starbucks that is right across the street from the tracks. Unfortunately, it is on the north side of the tracks. When the sun is out, not only am I getting the dark side of the train, I was getting glare on the windows. But even though the pictures are bad by railfan standards, the information they record is the same as good pictures in terms of train times and types of engines and freight cars. The next day I checked out Gilbert Park as a viewing location.  My conclusion is that Gilbert Park is a better view, but I can't work on the blog while I sit there. So I still have to give this railfan location issue some thought.

I saw four mixed freights, but got pictures of all the cars in only 3 of them. A summary of the mixed freights is:

A      B     C 3-bay 4 11 6 4-bay 15 5 5-bay 1 1 tank 2 25 5 Hi-cube box box 6 3 refer 13 high gon 6 gondola 10 1 coil 2 lumber 1 28 bulkhead flat 3 22 59 67 November 20, 2014 (Update: all of the pictures I took to and from Starbucks are posted.) 20141120-21 0001 As I left my house, looking down Main I could see that there was a westbound commuter leaving the station. By the time I got my camera out of the case, etc., it was long gone. But I took a picture anyhow to get a time stamp. before 09:50am: westbound commuter. 09:54am: eastbound commuter, Metra 209. This train arrived as I approached Starbucks. In addition to the obvious reason of warmth, one reason for taking pictures from inside Starbucks is that train watching doesn't cost me "blog time." In fact, it forces me to work on the blog :-) Since someone gave me a gift card to Starbucks, I also have plenty to drink and eat. I took a picture of my "train watching office" to document the sun screen I was setting behind. For most of the trains, I had enough of a heads up that I would step to the left and take the pictures through a window that did not have the sunscreen. But since I could not hear the crossing gates, some of the trains caught me by surprise. Sometimes I would hear diesel engines and barely have enough time to grab the camera. And I may have missed the Pepperidge Farm local because it would have been quiet and short. 10:13am: eastbound Illinois Zephyr. In fact, it was this first train that taught me that I will not get a "heads up" that a train is coming because I can't hear the crossing gates. That is why you see the sunscreen and why the locomotive is east of where I wanted to catch the locomotive. This train zoomed through town rather quickly. It should be on time for its scheduled arrival at Chicago of 10:40am. 10:26am: eastbound Magnetation ore train, BNSF 8858 (SD70MAC) NS 8069 (ES44AC) DPU: BNSF 6714 (ES44C4). 10:29:50am: false gate closing that lasted for 50 seconds. 10:54:18am: eastbound commuter, Metra 197. Left at 10:55:40am. 11:00am: eastbound mixed freight A, BNSF 7222 (ES44DC) 4427 (Dash 9-44CW). This train was moving remarkably slow. It looked more like the IHB than the racetrack. The following pictures are spaced 2 seconds apart, so it took a couple of seconds to move the length of a locomotive. Sometimes I see slow engine speeds because trains are now parked just a few blocks west of here since the Belmont underpass was constructed. But if that was the case, the speed of the train would increase as it went past. This train remained slow. And it was not underpowered. In fact, it had two relatively modern engines pulling just 14 cars! Because this train was short and because the mix of cars was unusual, I'm listing them all. The unusual aspect of this train is that it was mostly gondolas, including some high-wall gons. High-wall gons normally occur only in unit coal trains. And they normally have a yellow strip on one end to indicate the location of the rotary coupler. So I did some research on the MLMX reporting mark (Googled "MLMX freight"). From freight.railfan.ca I learned that it is a rotary gondola that is owned by Metal Management Inc. And some pictures, especially one from freightcars.midatlanticrr.com, indicate that high-walled gondolas are used to carry scrap metal as well as coal. And a search of the ARR type J301 produced a page of thumbnail pictures. Unfortunately, I cannot recreate the link that produced those search results. That page had quite a few cars with a white stripe on one end. So the cars are evidently built with and without rotary couplers. Another search allowed me to find MLMX 410. This is the first time I've come across a lot of evidence that not all railfans do just pretty pictures of engines. In the following list of the cars, "high" means the above described high wall gondola, "gon" means the standard low-wall gondola, and 3-bay means a 3-bay covered hopper. 7222 4427 high low low 4*high 2*3-bay low(see below) 3-bay low 2*tank 2*low high 3-bay 4*low Below is the only visible load. I included some of the covered hoppers on each side for scale. This would be an easy load for a model railroader to recreate. The tank cars were ACFX 20000 and GATX 4314, and I did some research to try to find out what kind of product they were carrying. But about the only thing I learned is that ACFX is now owned by GE Leasing. I wanted to confirm they were carrying harmless cargo since they don't have safety shields on the ends. But I still don't know how to determine what cargo a tank car is carrying. 11:01:32am: delayed opening of gates. Specifically, the gates remained down for almost 2 minutes after the above mixed freight had cleared the road. And it was not because another train was coming. The next train came through about 8 minutes later. 11:11am:  eastbound unit tank-car train, BNSF 8219 (ES44C4) NS 2634 (SD70M)  8815 (C40-9). This train was unusual because it was a mix of white and black tank cars. But a rather extensive sampling of the cars indicated that they had half-height safety shields on the ends. Below are a couple of samplings to show how mixed up the colors were. And to illustrate another reason why I need to avoid sunny days for doing Starbucks train watching. 11:22am: westbound commuter. 11:24am: eastbound hi-rail truck. He had to wait a while for a "hole" to develop in the Main Street traffic so that he could cross. 11:27am: eastbound stacks and pigs, BNSF 5250 (Dash 9-44CW) 4136 (Dash 9-44CW). Both engines had the old paint scheme. Quite a few J B Hunt and Swift containers. Only one little UPS trailer. 11:39am: westbound mixed freight B, CN 2305 (ES44DC) BNSF ??07 (old BNSF paint scheme) 1459 (SD60M, really old paint scheme, see below), CIT 6001 (SD60, ex-SOO, see below). I think the BN and CIT were freight rather than active engines. This mixed-freight train was also moving slow. This train not only had a BN engine, but a block of 3 BN covered hoppers. 11:58am: westbound stacks and pigs, 6 BNSF and 1 NS engine. This train caught me by surprise. By the time I heard the engines and grabbed the camera, the first engine was right in front of me. Unfortunately, the sunscreen was also right in front of me and the sun had moved and now the sunscreen made the pictures unusable. And this freight was going so fast that I did not have a chance to step aside to the window without a sunscreen. So as Murphy's Law would have it, this train had a lot of engines, each with a bad picture. I include just one of the pictures to record how bad the sunscreen can be. Of note, all of the J B Hunt containers were in a block near the front. There were no UPS trailers. 12:08pm: westbound tank-car unit train, BNSF 1020 (C44-9W) NS 9119 (C44-9W). The sunscreen was not the only reason for bad pictures. The sun was at an angle that caused glare off each of the cars. The camera is pretty good about adjusting for backlit issues, but the cars create a "foreground lit" issue. 12:49pm: westbound unit coal train, BNSF 6234 (ES44C4) 9987 (SD70MAC). 12:51pm: eastbound commuter. Because of the bad angle of the sun and the long wait from 12:08 to 12:49, I called it quits for the day. November 21, 2014. When I was taking some more pictures of the Belmont underpass, I heard the following train. It had two engines, but by the time I got the camera ready, I caught just the second unit. 10:12am: eastbound tank-car unit train, BNSF ???? 7829 ES44DC. 20141120-21 0134c The cars did not have safety head shields. And then I went to Gilbert Park to check out that location for railfanning. Since it is after the baseball season, the parking lot by the ball diamond should be empty. The village has put a gate across Walnut Avenue to block access to Railroad Avenue so Gilbert Park is the only assessable location I know of that gives me a clear shot of the south (sunny) side of train. Unfortunately, the parking lot was not empty. Someone was running a mower over the grass. I avoiding the phrase of "mowing the lawn" because in late November, the grass was already short. The only justification I could come up with for out taxpayers money paying for that mowing is that he was mulching the few remaining leaves that had fallen. 10:33am: eastbound Illinois Zephyr. Since the schedule indicates it will arrive in Union Station at 10:40am, it is running late. Fortunately, the "mowing" finally finished and left. 10:41am: eastbound mixed freight C, BNSF 6912 (ES44C4) CITIRAIL (CREX) 1429 (ES44AC). I was able to take pictures of 5 cars at a time, so it was easy to photograph all of the cars in the train. The summary is near the beginning of this post. I include one of the photos outcropped to record the view I was getting. Unlike the Starbucks photos, it is easy to count the bays of a covered hopper with this view. I was able to take pictures of 5 cars at a time, so it was easy to photograph all of them. The summary is near the beginning of this post. The newer looking box cars and refers I saw are described in New Freight Car Designs. Wisconsin Central is now a "fallen flag." Wisconsin Central is now a "fallen flag." 10:55am: eastbound commuter. I then left Gilbert Park to get some more pictures of the Belmont underpass. 11:33am:  westbound commuter. And when I was done with Belmont and while waiting for the stop light at Prairie, I saw a train in my rear view mirror so I circled back to Warren Avenue. before 11:38am: westbound mixed freight. Judging from the cars I did catch, it was a rather typical mix of covered hopper, tank, and box cars.

New Freight Car Designs

While analyzing the car types in some mixed freights, a couple of the cars caught my attention.

Update: Trash Containers 

Update: Raymond Kyzar posted a video of a CN/IC unit train of "paper boxes" to the Facebook group "Illinois Central/Gulf Mobile & Ohio/Illinois Central Gulf Memories.". The cars are for use by I.P. Mill in Bogalusa, LA.

Paper Boxes

This box car caught my attention because of the logo. And because it had characteristics of a refer (high and plug-door) but it was too short and I could not find a compressor. So I did some research. IBT is the reporting mark for the International Bridge and Terminal Railroad (Railfan). It appears that the IBT is one of those shortlines that owns more cars than would fit on its own tracks.

From a model railroad manufacture, ExactRail, we learn that hi-cube box cars are still being built.

Growth in intermodal markets had the effect of steering railroads away from box cars in the modern era. However, it became clear that there was a market for the development of new box cars in paper products, as shippers require high-grade box cars. This stands against the trend of declining box car development of the time. Modern builders, such as Gunderson, Trinity and Trenton-Works, set themselves to the task of developing competitive box cars. These cars have a distinctively modern asthetic; they are known as 'Paper Boxes.'

This view clearly shows the car has an excess-height white stripe across the end.

New "paper boxes" explains why the RailBox car that was also embedded in a block of about 20 lumber cars is much more modern looking than the typical RailBox car.

Erik Halstead posted

Update: Eric Halstead posted the following in the "Off the Beaten Track Branchline Railroading" Facebook group.

In Newberg, Oregon the SP Fiber Technologies paper mill has a short two mile spur from the Portland & Western Railroad yard in the center of town. Today P&W also handles the SPFT trackage and intra-plant switching, and here is PNWR 1201 switching cars on the siding just outside the paper mill itself. The paper mill receives boxcars of scrap paper from recyclers, as well as gondolas of scrap wood (a lot of railroad ties!) that is used both as raw material in paper production, as well as hog fuel for the on-site power plant. The mill has historically produced newsprint, but currently one of the machines is being reconfigured to put out packaging paper, which should hopefully keep the plant in operation for years to come.

Propane or LPG Refers

I also had trouble with the last car in the train. The curved roof and fold down platform on the right side reminded me of a vehicle car. But the tank on the let-hand side confused me. Looking closer on the left-hand side you can see part of the compressor on the top. So the compressor, paint-scheme across the top, and the plug door indicates it is a refer. I have concluded that the compressor uses LPG or propane and the tank supplies the fuel. I assume this new design is to take advantage of reduced natural gas prices caused by fraking shale deposits.

I went back and looked closer at the block of CRYO-TRANS (CRYX) cars that was near the beginning of the train. I now see that they also have a big tank under the platform that provides maintenance access to the compressor. I still can't figure out what is on the other side of the car. I have put taking close up pictures of modern refers on my "todo list" since the refer design seems to have recently evolved.

So it seems that mixed freight trains that contain refers join tank-car trains in terms of some exciting derailment scenarios. At least those tanks will burn themselves out a lot faster than a tank-car will. I remember when we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel rather soon after it first opened that no compressed gas tanks were allowed through the tunnel. I see on their rate schedule PDF that they now have rules that allow tanks on non-commercial vehicles -- up to 105 pounds water capacity for non-permanently mounted tanks or 200 gallons water capacity for permanently mounted tanks when used as a moter fuel. I wonder if larger tanks are allowed on commercial vehicles. So I guess it is reasonable that those refer-fuel tanks can go through railroad tunnels.

Helium Cars

Glenn Tammen posted
Ron Sherman Funny thing is, those helium cars weighed less when they were loaded than when they were empty.Dennis Garrett They were very heavy cars, and they had clasp brakes. Around 130 tons I think.Santa Ron The majority of the helium cars were “owned” by the US Navy and transported to the Navy blimp operations, one of which was Moffet Field.
[This basic design could hold other pressurized gases.]Michael Morgan I'd be more worried about one of those things rupturing during an accident. I remember that train wreck in the mid 90's near Valentine Arizona where whatever was in one of the tank cars, got so hot it melted the rails.J Patrick Bray Michael wouldn't have been the Helium as it is inert.

https://sfrhms.org/.../HO/Freight/Helium/HeliumHandout.pdf