I was near Rogers and Prospect in Downers Grove when I heard some train engines. So I walked down Prospect towards the tracks. A lot of the track in Downers has trees along the tracks so that you can't take pictures of trains when you are away from a station or a crossing. But along Warren Avenue there is a stretch with a clear view of the tracks. So I set the lens to a wide angle because I planned to take a picture of each car if it was a mixed freight. I ended up with 4 pictures---an engine, two covered hopper cars, and another engine.
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I originally was going to include just small pictures. But I increased the size so that I could count the number of bays on the covered hopper cars and because the engines are not your every day road engines.
Even though it had plenty of power, it was moving slowly eastbound. Since the hoppers have 5 bays and since Pepperidge Farm's bakery plant was less than a mile down the road, I assume these cars are carrying flour to that plant. I was walking to take pictures of distribution power lines, so I did not have the van. If I did, I would have gone to Pepperidge Farm to confirm my assumption. They have an engine at each end of the train so that it easy to go westbound back to the Eola Yard after switching the plant. Since I don't know how often Google updates the satellite images, I include a screen shot because there are flour cars in the siding when I looked at the map.
The engines were:
2119 GP38, ex-BN
1501 GP28M, ex-BN
I increased the brightness of 2119 to bring out the details of the trucks and the venting. I notice that 2119 has a Heritage 1 paint scheme. And that the 1501 has a Heritage 4 paint scheme. I normally don't see the black stripe along the bottom.
Update: This local continues to be a good source for "fallen flags." Michael Matalis caught the following on Jan 12, 2014.
BNSF 512 (ATSF red bonnet) Dash 8-40BW, ex-ATSF 512
BNSF 3019 (Cascade green) GP40-2R, ex-BN 3520, ex-BN GP40 3034, ex-CBQ 634
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| Photo by Michael Matalis |
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| Photo by Michael Matalis |
That's the air conditioner. They get swapped out occasionally, hence why they are often different colors or shades.
BNSF assigned the Warbonnets to the same number range that they had on the Santa Fe, so only the BNSF has to be patched. For the BN engine, they had to patch the number as well as the reporting mark.
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| Photo by Michael Matalis |
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Michael Matalis FlickrThe wearin' of the green
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Michael Matalis FlickrFour engines, two cars and a lot of sixes
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Michael Matalis FlickrPreparing for Pepperidge
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| Michael Matalis posted It was twofer Tuesday at Fairview Ave in Downers Grove; SD40-2’s 1795 and 1703 were on this morning’s Pepperidge Farm local. Commuter in background is working to clean up mess after switches froze at Highlands delaying Metra trains up to an hour. |
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| Michael Matalis shared You never know what will be on the local that serves Pepperidge Farm. Yesterday it had a cascade green SD40-2, two years ago I was blessed with a warbonnet! A 2-year old memory Westbound local returning from Pepperidge Farm passing thru downtown Downers Grove a short time later. I had much better luck with the light! |
Marty Bernard posted a 1968 photo of a GP7 in Chinese Red serving Pepperidge Farm. His comment indicated it was the "East-End Way Freight." This is a reminder that back then Clyde Yard (Cicero) was a freight car yard with a hump and Naperville had quite a few line-side industries. Today Clyde Yard is an intermodal yard and freight cars are handled at Eola Yard. (Clyde still handles engine servicing.)
Marty Bernard posted a 1965 photo showing a GP7 handling quite a few freight cars.
Update:
Dozens Laid Off (source)
72 Laid Off (source)
"The jobs are a mix of salaried and hourly employees, Toovell said. A total of 186 people are still employed at the bakery, she said." Pepperidge Farm operates a total of eight bakerie around the country.
More information concerning The Racetrack locals
Stephen Schmidt R CHI452 serves Pepperidge Farms and then flips back west for the West Chicago Branch on weekday mornings.
Y EOL302 is on duty at 2232 and switches the East Yard at Eola and goes down to the BJRY early early mornings.
Ted Fisk does that train switch the Sweetner place in Brookfield also?
Stephen Schmidt That falls on the Congo Job out of Western Avenue. Also runs nightly.
Ken Liesse Thanks guys. Pepperidge Farms was the name I couldn't remember.
Is Post the only thing left in Naper? I know Weyerhaeuser is gone, but what about the other warehouse and the zipper place?
Stephen Schmidt Y EOL305 does that work. Thankfully I haven’t touched that job in a while but from what I remember, they serve Midwest Warehouse, International Paper, Phoenix Closures, Post, and 84 Lumber in that vicinity.
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| Michael Matalis posted Old school. The crew of an eastbound road freight backs down on their train after stopping to switch Pepperidge Farm. 7/9/19 David Daruszka Riding the point, my least favorite activity. Michael Matalis At least it wasn't raining and it was above freezing. David Daruszka At least it wasn't a flat car with bad handholds. Michael Matalis I seem to remember reading somewhere that they've abolished the local that worked Pepperidge and all the switching is now being handled by passing road freights. This one looked like a clean up job out of Eola, they had a little bit of everything including piggyback flats! Michael Matalis The train stopped just west of Forest Ave (there's a holding point there) and the power cut off with cars for Pepperidge, ran thru the Fairview crossovers from M2 to M3 to switch the plant. After working Pepperidge they backed west thru the crossovers and down on their train again. Then they left town for either Cicero or the BRC. Dennis DeBruler Michael Matalis So you took that with a really long telephoto. I didn't recognize the crossings as Main and Forest because they appear to be so close to each other. Joseph Robert LeMay 452 (unless it's true that it was abolished) occasionally takes cars to Cicero or Western Avenue. |
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| Greg Kozlick posted Moving some power around (8/18/21 Downers Grove) Matt Buhlig: That train is H CHCGAL, which almost runs light from Cicero to Eola. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Greg's post It is so sad to see no flour cars on the siding by Pepperidge Farm. 41°47'43.7"N 87°59'26.5"W |
Back when the CB&Q freight local had more business.
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| Marty Bernard posted CB&Q 9227, a 1946 NW2 with a train of Christmas colors, westbound with the East-End Way Freight in Clarendon Hills, IL on December 31, 1969. She became BN 524. |
Yep, that would be the R CHI452 roadswitcher based out of Eola Yard. They split the engines (one at each end of the train) so that they do not have to "run around" the train once they are done switching at Pepperidge Farm. By splitting the engines, they can head straight back to Eola without a time-consuming move to put the engines on the west end of the cars.
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