I had an unusual chase after an unusual move today; I caught a freight extra hauling a Schnabel car west along the Mendota Sub. Good chase, good catches; definitely one of the better days of fanning I’ve had in a long time.

A Schnabel car to quote Wikipedia is a “…specialized type of railroad car designed to carry heavy and oversized loads in a such a way that the load itself makes up part of the car.” It’s an unmistakable car; multiple trucks (The one I went after today has eighteen!), huge even when unloaded, and is designed to not only hold and support massive loads, but also shift to and pivot so as to maintain the car’s balance while going around curves. The loads typically are transformers (electrical, not the movie kind), reactors (chemical, not nuclear) and power plant equipment. Due to the size and nature of the loads the cars are usually handled in special trains with a crew riding accompanying cabooses to protect the load and work the car as needed. Very cool cars, and if you want to know more about them click here.

These cars have always been high on my “I want to see” list, but anytime there’s been a move it’s always been either five states away or I found out about it three days after the fact. This time around I got lucky on Friday when I was given a heads up that a loaded Schnabel car being handled by Specialized Rail Transport would be delivered to the BNSF at Congress Park around noon on Saturday. The car would then wait until after the last commuter run of the day and then head west at the breathtaking speed of fifteen mph, ten if they had any kind of meet.  Great news, although there was a fly in the ointment and that was the timing. Since the car was going to arrive on a sunny Saturday afternoon the place was bound to be swarming with fans. Now I’ve always believed in “the more the merrier”, but with one major exception and that’s with photography. With photography the more people you have around the more people you have to dodge and accommodate with a net result of twenty people getting exactly the same photo. I like to get different angles and try odd stuff, and so in the end I decided to take a pass on catching Saturday’s delivery (and regretting it, take a look at this YouTube video of the move) and aim for a chase on Sunday where hopefully there would be more room and fewer people.

Sunday dawned and my first question was, “Where are my slippers? As you can see I’m not a morning thinker. After resolving that crisis I moved on to checking the railroad news groups hoping to find an update on the train. Good news! The train had passed thru Downers Grove about 4:20 a.m. That was cool, but it was now about 7:20 meaning that if they were keeping to their fifteen mph schedule they were now somewhere around Earlville, and probably out by Zearing by time I got my act together. Should I go, or should I stay?  I may not be a deep thinker, but boy am I good at dithering! Luckily a little after eight another post popped up that the train was at Bristol waiting on a new crew. Now that was definitely good news; Bristol is just west of Aurora putting the train within easy reach. Time to hit the road!

I grabbed my gear, loaded the car, went about three miles down the road, and came right back; I’d forgotten my scanner, which I figured was going to be fairly essential. I knew that I should have had a nice cup of tea to get my brain going before I left!

My second attempt worked much better and I was soon wending my way west on Rt34, a real pain in the you know what drive due to all the suburban sprawl. Bring back the cornfields! In the mean time I had no idea what was up with the Schnabel train, my cell phone is just a cell phone, so I didn’t have an internet connection to keep up with postings, and the scanner was silent on the matter. Stopped at Orchard Rd for the light I heard air horns in the distance, but the tracks were out of sight so I had no idea what it was or if it was coming or going, although I gave good odds that it was the inbound Illinois Zephyr. I opted to push on rather than investigate.

Just east of Plano the tracks finally came into sight, although I could only catch glimpses of them thru the rows of ticky-tacky houses, strip malls and corn, what a combination! Arriving in town I pulled off at the station for a look down the tracks. Nothing, and the signals weren’t terribly helpful either. Then air horns sounded to the west, but whose were they? Something coming east? The Schnabel train already past me? Time for another dithering session; hang tight or head west? I finally decided to head west, a decision fueled by the fact that I was the only person around; I sort of figured that if I was ahead of the train that other fans would be trackside too. Just as I hit the road I picked up some scanner chatter from someone reporting that they were at MP 49.something-or-other, so I zipped over to the nearest crossing to see where I was. Good move on my part. First off I was at MP 51 meaning that I was ahead of whatever had radioed in. Even better; there was a headlight to the west, so the air horn question was now resolved. Best news of all, there was now also a headlight to the east, and I was ready to bet my bottom dollar that was the Schnabel train. I did a quick circle of the block back to the station parking lot and set up to catch the action. First up was the eastbound:

09:54 a.m. – Plano IL / Center St
BNSF e/b unit coal

BNSF 5626       AC4400EV
BNSF 5715       AC4400CW

Wow, pretty interesting power on this train, especially the lead unit, which is sort of ES44AC test bed. It’s unusual to catch two AC4400’s together, so this was quite a treat. I popped off a four shot series as the power went by, great light!  Figuring that this was going to be a short day of fanning (it was going to be hot, and I don’t do hot very well) I also used up some electrons on some of the passing coal cars, including a couple motion blur shots. The train slowed considerably, great as long as it got of the way in time!  Rather to my surprise the train had a DPU on it, cool, especially since it was a Grinstein green SDMAC and its passage warranted another four shot series:

09:59 a.m. – Plano IL / Center St
BNSF e/b unit coal – DPU

BNSF 9709       SD70MAC

Then it was over to the grade crossing to check on the progress of the Schnabel train.

It was still a fair distance out, but still waddling (Schnabel waddle?) along so I moved to a spot opposite the platform shelter to open up the view a bit and wait on the action, although in this case maybe weight might be a more appropriate term.  It was movie time; first off I got a couple shots of the train crossing Center St…

10:07 a.m. – Plano IL / Hugh St
BNSF w/b Schnabel extra

BNSF 7908 ES44DC

…a shot of the brand new BNSF 7908 (the BNSF putting on the ritz)…

…coming and going shots of the Schnabel…

…and then a couple going away shots.

Wow, talk about a big car; eighteen trucks and a half a block long, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why it had a fifteen mph speed limit! Note to self; one thing that you’re always warned about with photography is to watch your background, but in this case I broke an even more fundamental rule; watch your foreground. I was so in awe of the sight of this train that firmly planted a crossing signal box in the middle of the Schnabel car I got my full train shots! Not a disaster, but a pretty dumb thing to do, I was still regretting not having that cup of tea before I hit the road.

One nice thing about this train was that at fifteen mph it wasn’t going anywhere fast so this wasn’t going to be a mad chase. Good since I quickly found myself cooling my heels at a “No Turn on Red” intersection watching the traffic go by, including a long line of Hulcher trucks loaded with bulldozers. I was wondering if this was some sort of odd coincidence, but once I got the light I quickly overhauled the Hulcher convoy, which was rather obviously pacing the train. Not a problem here on the four lane, but what were they going to do when the road narrowed down to two? I doubted that people would be thrilled tagging along at fifteen mph!

I was looking for a spot where I could pull off and get a shot clear of obstructions since I knew that a pole line started just to the west. As it turned out the end of the four lane was just what I wanted since the curbing ended there and I could pull off. Cool, time to catch the action:

10:14 a.m. – Plano IL / Tara St

Nice spot, wide open, no poles, no crossing signal boxes although I did attract the attention of a guy on the trailing rider caboose who was rather obviously catching me on video! Security? Home movies? Who knows.

I jumped in the car and headed west aiming for Sandwich. Along the way I came across a nice shot at Little Rock Creek, but the BNSF had a number of trucks parked along the road, apparently to keep an eye on the bridge as this massive load went by, and I wanted to keep out of their way. I settled for second best by pulling off at Sandy Bluff Rd just to the west, a task complicated by a driver ahead of me (a local, not a fan) who stopped about twenty feet short of the gates, which didn’t leave much room between his car and highway for others. No matter there was room enough for me so I pulled off for a quick capture:

10:18 a.m. – Kendall Co / Sandy Bluff Rd

Just two shots this time, a vertical and a horizontal as it went across the bridge.

As soon as the train cleared I crossed the tracks, hung a uee and headed west into Sandwich.  Not being terribly familiar with the place, I headed for the one spot I’d shot at before, the Stone Mill Museum on the corner of Lafayette and Railroad where I found parking and a clear view to the east. I also had my first fan encounter; something I was honestly surprised had taken so long. Apparently he was coming from the west since he asked where the train was. He was somewhat concerned about security since he wanted to get videos at UP crossing at Earlville, I assured him that everyone had been friendly so far. By then the train was close so we set up right at the grade crossing to catch the action:

10:26 a.m. – Sandwich IL / Lafayette St

Not a really exciting encounter; all I got were coming and going vertical/horizontal wedgies sandwiching (appropriately enough considering the location) a shot of the Schnabel car. Maybe I should have looked for a new spot, but I just didn’t have the time; the train may have been slow, but it was close!

I hit the highway and headed west. Rolling along I picked up an interesting report from a defect detector that had issues with the train’s speed:

BNSF detector milepost 56.9 Main 1
Train too slow
Repeat
BNSF detector milepost 56.9 Main 1
Train too slow
Out

Now that was a new one for me!

My next stop was Somonauk, a town that I knew. I was planning to catch the train passing under the midtown signal bridge, but I quickly discovered that everyone else had the same idea so I circled the area and landed at Gage St on the east side where I had a nice water tower to play around with as a photo prop. Good thing that I arrived with a long enough lead to look around!

10:40 a.m. – Somonauk IL / Gage St

Good catch! I got a couple wide angle shots of the train passing the water tower and then swung around to shoot it as it passed under the soon to be replaced (the new signals are already up but not in service) signal bridge. I probably did better here than I would have on the other side of the signal bridge.

OK, that was it for the Schnabel and me. It was getting pretty warm (it would eventually hit 94), the fans were gathering, and while I really wanted to get a clear broadside shot of the entire train, the height of the corn argued against being able to do that. (As it turned out I spoke too soon, a day later I saw a photo of exactly what I wanted taken just west of Earlville!)  So, OK, what to do now? Back in Plano I’d heard the dispatcher tell the Schnabel train that they’d have a clear track to Somonauk implying a meet of some sort there, so I decided to hang around for a bit and see what might turn up. I was expecting an eastbound, but as it turned out it was a headlight for a westbound that popped up. I pitied the poor souls that had to follow in the 15 mph wake of the Schnabel train, but the dispatcher had an app for that, she advised the newcomer that they were going to be routed into Main 2 at Somonauk and to pass the Schnabel at 25 mph. The latter info was a surprise, I’d heard that all movements except passenger trains were to pass at 10 mph, but since the new train was also told to contact the trainmaster before passing (who I assumed was riding the Schnabel) I figured it would get sorted out then. The dispatcher also asked a rather odd question, “How fast are you going today?” Now that seemed pretty strange, but less strange than the answer of “70 mph”! Definitely didn’t sound like a coal train! Whatever, at least I had a train to catch. My only problem was that I didn’t want to duplicate the water tower shot I’d just gotten with the Schnabel, but since the other fans had departed in pursuit of the Schnabel car I headed over to Green St to do a signal bridge shot. Good spot, I could see why it attracted everyone, not only did I have a classic signal bridge to play with as a photo prop, but I also had curbside parking courtesy of a lot behind the town’s business district.  Time to catch the action and get a surprise:

10:51 a.m. – Somonauk IL / Green St
BNSF w/b track geometry train

BNSF 2852       GP39-2

Plus two cars, BNSF 85 and BNSF 86, both ex-passenger and the latter with a classic rear platform. What in the heck was this? At least I now could see why it had been authorized to pass the Schnabel at 25 mph, I guess it rated as a passenger train.  Checking on the web after the fact I found out that the BNSF has been running this train about twice a week and today just happened to be one of those days. While it’s a track geometry train I really doubted that it was being used for that purpose, why would you need to physically check the tracks twice a week? More likely it was being used to test and tweak the signal system, probably for the upcoming switch to Positive Train Control. That would also explain why they were running at 70 mph. Whatever it was, it was pretty cool and I got two quick shots of passing under the signal bridge, and then two more shots as it sped west in pursuit of the Schnabel train.

Well that was definitely it for me, I decided to call it quits and head for home, cooling off along the way courtesy of the car’s air conditioning which I’d left off up to now in order to avoid fogged lenses at very inappropriate times.  My only stop on the way back was Plano where I spotted a headlight to the east. I set up in the shade of the passenger shelter to wait on the action. And wait. And wait. Taking another look I discovered that it obviously wasn’t moving.  Hmmm, waiting on an eastbound?  I waited some more, but my desire to get home was higher than my desire to wait on a meet so I headed off to investigate. Surprise! It was the coal train I’d caught passing thru Plano first thing in the morning; apparently the crew died and the headlight I saw was on the DPU! Oh darn, and too bad, that would be a nice end of the day catch even if it was the middle of the day.  Time to head for home for good.