BNSF/SantaFe GM Yard

(Satellite)

These notes are about the yard.

It is called the GM Yard because the UPS land on the other side of I-294 used to be a GM stamping plant. On one of my trips northbound on I-294 they were doing construction and the shoulder was one of the legal lanes so I was able to get some views over the bridge's side barrier that are normally not legal.

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On the right side is a stock pile of "snap track." I assume this is used for emergency repairs of track torn up by a derailment.

The bridge in the above view is US-12 and according to the map the yard extends about the same distance beyond the bridge.


The engines that were shoving a string of cars back and forth were probably switching this yard.

I think the engine on the left side of the above picture, which is at camera resolution to the left, is BNSF 2593. The picture on the right is a screen snapshot after zooming in further with Windows Photo Viewer. The reason for my hesitation is that the resolution is bad and that Diesel Shop does not have this number. The three engines listed in the 25xx series were built in the middle 1960s.

The three locomotives on the right are BNSF 527 and 547, both of which are B40-8W built in Oct. and Nov. of 1990, and 2016 is a GP38-2 that NRE rebuilt from GP40 ( Ex-GTI GP40 1385, exx-NS 1385, nee N&W 138).

What initially caught my eye is how much the orange color for 527 has faded. At first I thought it was a warbonet where the red had faded to pink. Both of these pictures are at the camera's resolution.

Looking at satellite views, engines are regularly parked here. And since they are assigned to yard work, they are probably old engines. But there doesn't appear to be any public roads that allow you to get better pictures of the engines. I'll have to try to do another trip with the minivan and use a longer lens and aim for the engines from I-294 while someone else drives. Note that the older Bing shot has a "warbonnet" paint scheme.

Google

Bing

Jerry Jackson posted the following two pictures with the comment:

Pulling out of the old GM yard in Willow Springs. This afternoon's local has two GP30u's, one GP39-2 and three GP35u's, not necessarily in that order, heading to Joliet. It's funny looking back as you could also see these units on any high priority train too. 1989.

Used with permission. Note that was a local serving industries just to Joliet. And 1989 is a couple of decades after the interstates were built. I wonder how small the local is now.

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Update:
A view from an MWRD tour bus. Note the green locomotive and the yellow Herzog MPM behind it.

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Alex Ertmann posted
Various power in GM Yard in Hodgkins, IL on 1/23/2018.

Ryan Drake commented on Alex's posting
I see GP50 3121 in the left. That unit worked in Nebraska for a few years.