Wheeling thru Mazon
Grab a bag of popcorn, this is a long one.
I got in an outstanding (literally) day of fanning along the BNSF Chilli Sub today. I was after a Schnabel car move, but that wasn’t all that I caught by far. Add in fantastic weather (Upper 50’s in January?) and it was one heck of a great day of fanning.
First off, just what in the heck is a Schnabel car? Basically it’s a multi-axel, very heavy haul railcar capable of shifting its load in order to make it safely around curves. They’re huge, they’re spectacular, and they don’t get out much, so my ears pricked up when I heard that the biggest and baddest of these cars, the CEBX 800, would be leaving its home town of Duluth/Superior on the 4th for an empty move over the BNSF. Even better, it was headed for the Chicago for furtherance on the CSX. I figured that it would come down the Aurora Sub, but as it turns out the only high and wide link with the CSX is via the IHB, and the only BNSF/IHB connection that faces the right direction is at McCook, so the Aurora Sub was out and the Chilli Sub was in. You learn something new every day.
Now to figure out where to catch it. The car (which was a train in itself: J DULCSX1 04A; I just called it “the J train”) was restricted to 25 mph so there wasn’t much of a chance of it speeding past. It departed Superior late on the 4th and at first I thought that the Barstow Sub would be a good prospect, but by the evening of the 5th they’d only made Savannah, so that was out unless I bought along a really big flash. A railroader on one of the lists had been right on so far about predicting the train’s timing, and by his timing it would hit Galesburg about 4-5 a.m. on the 6th, pass Streator between 11 a.m. to noon, and get into Chicago about 3-4 p.m., all good news except that Friday was the only day that clouds were predicted! My only hope was that the weather would hold off; the clouds were supposed to show up in the afternoon, so maybe I’d just get lucky. I decided to sleep on it and just see what I woke to in the morning.
Friday morning arrived and things did not look good; lots of clouds with just a small open stretch over the lake, which wasn’t any help unless they rerouted by barge. I didn’t write off my chances, morning clouds oftentimes burn off, so I kept an eye on the skies. Bingo, by 8 a.m. the weather situation had turned in my favor. I hit the road, perhaps a bit too hastily because just as I hit I55 I realized that I’d left my scanner behind! Definitely not a killing blow, and better than the time I took off on a long trip without any film, but I’d have preferred to have it along. Too late now, there was no way that I was going back for it, so I just mentally chastised myself and pushed on.
I hit the Transcon at Coal City at little after 9 a.m. and hopefully well ahead of the J train. I’d been casually aiming to catch it somewhere west of Streator, but the more I thought about it the less I liked the idea since the drive thru Streator would put me out of sight of the tracks for extended periods, and I could easily pass the train and not know it. I decided to play it safe and aimed for the county line just west of Kinsman, a wide open spot with excellent light. Definitely not a scenic wonder unless you’re thrilled by corn stubble, but perfect for catching clear broadsides.
I headed west zigzagging along the back roads since the Transcon runs on a diagonal. The weather, which had looked so promising when I left was no longer so fine; high thin clouds dominated the skies, but since they thinned out to the southwest I still felt good about a sunny Schnabel catch. Just east of Verona at Ward Rd I pulled off to check the tracks.
Prairie sentinels
Good timing, I could hear air horns to the west and some good photo angles here, so I hiked down neighboring Mine Rd to line up a shot involving a set of block signals:
Splitting the signals
09:37 a.m. – Grundy Co / Ward Rd
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 7355 ES44DC
BNSF 6890 ES44C4
BNSF 7699 ES44DC
BNSF 7341 ES44DC
I fired off a couple wedgies of the head end and then caught some shots of the passing UPS containers, lots and lots of them, far more than I see on the trains coming off the Aurora Sub.
Lots and lots of boxes...
I headed into Verona to check out the cantilevers even though I had no plans on catching the J train here. A maintenance of way crew was working on the approaches to the grade crossing, not a problem I figured, or at least I did until I paused for a shot of the signal bridge and one guy started shouting, “Hey you! That’s a live track! Get out of there!”
Just before the yelling started
I stepped back, but I was also rather peeved; I wasn’t on the track, I was next to it (but fairly close), in my opinion it wasn’t live since the crossovers were set from M1 to M2 so nothing would be on this track anyway! However I wasn’t going to argue about it, so I simply left. I was still irked though, I felt that I knew what I was doing, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that was the perfect epitaph for a lot of people. Railroads are not playgrounds, they’re a dangerous place where the byword is “Always expect a train” and that guy was quite correct in calling me out. Safety first.
I pushed for Kinsman, I figured that I’d camp out a while there, but didn’t quite make it ahead of the action. I was still about a mile out when the next train popped into view forcing an abrupt change of photo plans:
Bare fields and bare tables
09:54 a.m. – Grundy Co / Burkhart Rd
BNSF e/b bare table intermodal
BNSF 4061 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 6699 ES44C4
I definitely would have preferred to catch the action from a crossing for some telephotos, but as it was I barely had time to catch some across the field broadsides!
Next stop was Kinsman check out the view. Not much was happening, the place was dead except for a ComEd meter man making the rounds, and I didn’t get any photos unless you count the one where I accidentally tripped the shutter while texting!
Waiting on the J train
Time passed and I began to get nervous about the J train, it was getting close to a possible train time, and while Kinsman is nice, it’s not where I wanted to catch it, so I pulled up stakes and headed west for LaSalle Rd on the LaSalle/Grundy County line. Nice spot, as I mentioned earlier definitely not a scenic wonder, but really wide open and with great light, and great timing too; air horns sounded to the west! The J train? It seemed a bit too good to be true, but maybe so since I kept hearing horns but nothing else happened, like the train was going really slow.
There was a break in the horn blowing; had they stopped at Ransom (the next town west) for some reason? I’d probably know if I had my scanner along! I considered driving over, but since it’s a really roundabout route decided to play it safe and stay put. The horns sounded again and a headlight popped up, but it was too far away for a good look. More waiting, by now I was fairly convinced that it was the J train but what I really wanted was visual confirmation, which I finally got when it was about a mile out. Bingo, it was the J train! Woo-hoo, Lady Luck was smiling on me!
Leaving Ransom
Under winter skies
10:56 a.m. – Grundy Co / LaSalle Rd
BNSF e/b high/wide dimensional – train J DULCSX1 04A
BNSF 7909 ES44DC
BNSF 5248 Dash 9-44CW
XTTX 142418 Idler flatcar
CEBX 800 Schnabel car
KRL 74 Bay Window Caboose
Always bring a spare
CEBX 800
Heading for Kinsman
I was caught between a rock and a hard place on how to photograph it, on the one hand I definitely wanted some broadsides, but I could also see a good telephoto, but could I pull off both? I dithered a bit (something I’m very good at), and then compromised by grabbing a somewhat distant telephoto that I could crop down to what I really wanted, and then made a dash down the road to open the angle for my wide wedgies. Bingo, got all of them, although it was a bit too late for good light for my telephoto. Yahoo! (I do tend to be a bit excitable; you should see me watch a hockey game.) It didn’t hurt that I had a spectacular sky to work with too. I fired off coming and going shots, jumped in the car and took off in pursuit.
Despite the train’s slow pace it easily beat me to Kinsman so I simply ploughed on for Verona. I was hoping that the MoW crew would be gone by now, but no such luck, they were camped out in their truck on break or keeping out of the way of the oncoming action, either way I simply didn’t want to deal with them so I moved down State St on the east side where I’d have a good across the fields view of the train coming out of town. One slight problem, the train came in, but didn’t come out! I heard them roll in, the gates went down, but then the train noises stopped and the gates went back up. After that all I heard was the periodic chugging of an air compressor. Well this was a puzzler, what in the heck were they doing? I considered sneaking over for some photos, it would be really cool to catch the train sitting still, but I doubted that I could do that without raising the ire of the MoW foreman so I stayed put. (Another fan did try and was threatened with arrest!) I formulated a number of increasingly bizarre theories as to why they had stopped; they were inspecting the train, taking a break, alien abduction, only to realize that they were probably holding for a meet! Even with double track a slow train can really gum things up so they were probably waiting for traffic to clear before moving on.
Time passed, I drummed my fingers, and finally some out of town air horns sounded. At first I thought that it was a westbound, but I quickly got that straightened out.
Leaving Verona
11:46 a.m. – Verona IL – State St
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 6770 ES44C4
BNSF 6768 ES44C4
BNSF 5199 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 7554 ES44DC
I fired off a five shot series as the train came out of town and crossed the field in front of me. While I’d been waiting not a single car had passed, but the moment the train showed up I had to dodge a mob of cars frantically trying to beat it to the next crossing! One guy held back from the pack, he turned out to be a fellow fan and we had an excellent little chat about fanning including the news that pair of westbound were sitting out by Mazon.
The train cleared, the other fan departed, and wanting a different angle on things I took off for Ward Rd where I figured I catch the westbound and then zip back to Verona for the J train’s departure. Good plan except that the next train wasn’t a westbound!
Prairie power
11:59 p.m. – Grundy Co / Mine Rd
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 4711 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 7407 ES44DC
BNSF 5056 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 5460 Dash 9-44CW
I’d moved down the road to use some high tension towers for photo props and caught another multi-shot series; a couple of shots of the head end passing under the power towers, an across the fields broadside, and then some shots of passing UPS trailers, perhaps an endangered species what with all the replacement containers coming on board.
I was expecting the J train to hold at Verona for the two westbounds waiting at Mazon, a bad bit of reasoning as it turned out because it took off in the wake of the last Z train. So much for Verona, I jumped in the car and flew for Mazon. (Along the way I had quite a start when I passed a house where someone had put a huge Raggedy Andy doll out in the trash; from a distance it looked like a corpse!) Rolling into town I was dismayed to see the crossing flashers going on the east side, the westbounds were also on the way! Dang it, I was on the dark side of the tracks with little likelihood of making one of the downtown crossings before the gates went down, but then I remember a west side pedestrian crossing. Bingo, I arrived to find the westbound still east of Rt47, so I grabbed my gear and hustled across to the sunny side. Another guy was headed the opposite direction, and what are the odds, he was yet another fan. His arrival was purely happenstance, but he stopped to enjoy the view once I told him what was on the way. First up was the westbound:
Merchandise at Mazon
12:12 p.m. – Mazon IL / 7thSt
BNSF w/b merchandise
BNSF 4906 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 645 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 4886 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 1096 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 637 Dash 9-44CW
Wow, a lot of power, far more than I generally see on the Chicago sub. All the trains had been like this, I’m not sure if it’s due to grades on the Chilli Sub or just a need to maintain speed on this priority route. Nice spot, I had some really nice local industry framing for my wedgies.
That was a great catch, but unfortunately it was still going by when the J train arrived:
Passing thru
12:14 p.m. – Mazon IL / 7th St
BNSF e/b high/wide dimensional – train J DULCSX1 04A
We're outta here!
I got a couple shots of it passing the town water tower that would have been a lot better without the backdrop of another train! Definitely a bummer, but since I’d gotten really good shots of it earlier I wasn’t about to commit hara-kiri over the matter.
That was it for the J train but not the day’s action, as the fellow I’d been talking to bid adieu, he crossed the tracks and called out, “Here comes your next westbound!” I followed him across to get a dark side view:
Crossing Depot St
12:20 p.m. – Mazon IL / 7th St
BNSF w/b priority intermodal
BNSF 7249 ES44DC
BNSF 7786 ES44DC
BNSF 7602 ES44DC
I banged off a couple verticals as the train sailed past the town’s elevators.
Figuring I’d exhausted Mazon’s westbound photo potential, and freed from chasing the J train, I headed west looking for opportunities. Coming into the east side of Verona I found the gates down; a surfacing gang was pulling out onto M2. This was a bummer since they were bound to slow down traffic (or were an indication that traffic had slowed on its own), but then I found an eastbound Z parked just west of Prairie Rd, a train I might have missed if it hadn’t been held up. Definitely not the greatest of photo subjects since they were back from the crossing and the light wasn’t at its best (bad angle, thin clouds) so I grabbed a single shot before retreating to nearby Buffalo Rd where I’d have a better angle when they got on the move. I figured that they were waiting on a westbound, good reasoning on my part because a few minutes later air horns sounded to the east:
Departing Verona
12:40 p.m. – Grundy Co / Buffalo Rd
BNSF w/b priority intermodal
BNSF 7827 ES44DC
BNSF 6603 ES44C4
BNSF 7501 ES44DC
BNSF 6614 ES44C4
Crossing Buffalo Rd
I got a mini movie of broadsides and wedgies as the train came out of Verona and crossed the fields on either side of Buffalo Rd.
As soon as the westbound cleared the eastbound lit up and headed my way:
Windmillin'
12:47 p.m. – Grundy Co / Buffalo Rd
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 7282 ES44DC
BNSF 6755 ES44C4
BNSF 6757 ES44C4
BNSF 7444 ES44DC
I fired off a multi-shot series using a nearby wind farm as a backdrop, a far better angle this time!
The clouds seemed to be thickening, so I began toying with the idea of stealing a march on the rush hour by calling it an early day. I idled my way back east, not really pushing it, a good thing since by time I got to Mazon the skies had cleared enough that I decided to hang out for a while. Not much was happening so I dove into a book, probably not the best of ideas since it took my attention off the tracks, so I had quite a start when air horns sounded to the east! Ooops, my bad since I was on the wrong side of the tracks! Luckily the train was still a good distance out so I had time to zip over to the sunny side for a quick capture:
Lucky catch
01:19 p.m. – Mazon IL / Depot St
BNSF w/b priority intermodal
BNSF 5027 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 741 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 4350 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 5483 Dash 9-44CW
I made it, but just barely!
After that adrenaline pumping experience I decided to hang tight with the sunny side. Good plan, poor execution, a few minutes later I was sitting in the car fiddling with the camera when air horns once again sounded to the east. Taking a chance I took off for a spot just west of the business district where I could get a good telephoto, a great plan except that the train beat me there!
01:28 p.m. – Mazon/South St
UP w/b vehicle
UP 8420 SD70ACe
UP 4280 SD70M
Dang it, and it had a DPU that I also missed! I’d really been hoping to catch a UP train today, so I was not happy about this. It was my bad again; I’d parked out of sight of the tracks and hadn’t seen it coming. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!
I was more than a little PO’d about this, so I decided to move somewhere that I’d have to be asleep at the wheel to not see stuff coming. That landed me east of town at Tynan Rd where it turned out that I didn’t have to worry about the view; a westbound was already on the way!
Just in time freight
01:38 p.m. – Grundy Co / Tynan Rd
BNSF w/b vehicle
BNSF 4457 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 744 Dash 9-44CW
I got a dark side telephoto as the train split the signals to the east, and then cranked back for a milder wedgie. Whew that was close, but it definitely improved my mood!
This looked like a good place to camp out, so I pulled off on the sunny side to await happenings. That didn’t take long, air horns quickly sounded to the east. I wanted to get some specific 300mm shots but had a problem with a guy wire that I couldn’t keep out of the way without standing on the wrong side of the gates. I fiddled and danced for quite a while trying to find safe framing before realizing that the wire would probably get cropped out in post processing and that I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Time to catch some action:
Super stacks
01:53 p.m. – Grundy Co / Tynan Rd
BNSF w/b intermodal stacks
BNSF 6760 ES44C4
BNSF 7531 ES44DC
BNSF 5045 Dash 9-44CW
I fired off three 300mm shots at varying distances, nice, but nothing to write home about.
Having used up the westbound possibilities at this spot I started back for Mazon only to stop a short distance down the road when I realized that the train was still going by. Sure was a long one, a DPU perhaps? I quickly pulled off, a good move, sort of; yes the train had a DPU, two of them in fact, but then the train ground to a halt while they were still some distance to the east! This was definitely a puzzler; too bad I didn’t have a scanner along to find out what was going on! I really wanted to catch the DPU’s so I hung tight, but as it turned out the next action was eastbound:
Against the flow
02:13 p.m. – Grundy Co / Tynan Rd
BNSF e/b intermodal stacks
BNSF 5277 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 5243 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 4172 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 7221 ES44DC
I did a grand job of miss-identifying this train; I thought that it was short UP but I got a really long BNSF instead. Blame glinty light and that the white containers five cars back from the power blended in nicely with the stopped westbound. There wasn’t anything I could do other than pop off broadsides, I got five of them, which sounds excessive even to me, but I had issues with the pole line.
I was hoping that this would set the westbound free, but nothing happened. Worried that they were waiting on another eastbound, which would mean another set of boring broadsides, I took off for points west looking for a change of scenery. What I found was the reason why they’d stopped, traffic was backed up ahead of it! Cool, maybe that UP vehicle train was still out there! The odds were low but the reward of pulling it off seemed great so I took off like a jackrabbit. Unfortunately it was all for naught; the traffic cleared and the westbounds were long gone by time I got out there. Bummer.
I was now back at Verona, where I decided to hang out for a while figuring that the train I’d left behind at Tynan Rd would soon be headed my way. I’ve always wanted to get a telephoto of a westbound coming out of Verona, but have always managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time though I was in the right place at the right time; headlight to the east. Time for some 300mm action:
Relics
02:36 p.m. – Grundy Co / Buffalo Rd
BNSF w/b intermodal stacks
Bingo, got my telephotos, now to finally catch those DPU’s!
Lending a helping hand
02:39 p.m. – Grundy Co / Buffalo Rd
BNSF w/b intermodal stacks – DPU
BNSF 4404 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 7875 ES44DC
I got a variety of shots; a wedgie as they came out of Verona, some broadsides, and then another wedgie as they passed the wind farm to the west. Nice!
Having caught a number of trains at this spot I headed for Ward Rd just east of Verona to find some fresh views.
You shall not pass!
I was hoping that traffic might be stacked up behind that last westbound and I could catch some well lit action, so of course what I got was an eastbound parade. First up was a bare table:
Close, but no cigar
02:59 p.m. – Grundy Co / Ward Rd
BNSF e/b bare table
BNSF 783 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 4590 Dash 9-44CW
Not a really great capture, just a set of broadsides across the fields although the red and silver #783 did look nice under the low light, even with the mismatched door panels. Too bad it wasn’t a matched set!
A few minutes later and air horns again sounded to the west. “Great.” I moved down Mine Rd to set up some framing involving the high tension towers:
Crisscross
03:09 p.m. – Grundy Co / Mine Rd
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 7790 ES44DC
BNSF 4606 Dash 9-44CW
I got my tower shots along with a last moment broadside shot of the power with a large elevator complex as a backdrop.
Those last couple of catches were nice, but what I really wanted was some westbound action under the late afternoon light, but none seemed to be in the offing. Time passed and thicker bands of high clouds began to invade the area. Time to call it quits? Yep, it was time to call it quits despite the fact that I had another 45 minutes of sun. I packed up, but decided to take one last look down the tracks before heading for the interstate. Bingo, headlight to the east, and even better, the sun was breaking thru the clouds. I pulled off at the crossing to catch some 300mm action:
Milepost 69
03:28 p.m. – Grundy Co / Ward Rd
BNSF w/b priority intermodal
BNSF 1083 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 4631 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 1049 Dash 9-44CW
I got a three shot inbound series at various distances, and figuring that this was probably my last train of the day, another three shots of the train heading into the sunset. I’d call them glint shots, but the sun wasn’t strong enough for that!
While I had sun at the moment it didn’t look like it would be around for long, so I started for home at a very casual pace, taking my time just in case another westbound popped up. Pulling into Mazon I took care to check the signals on the west edge of town, I had a nice westbound telephoto in my mind, but unfortunately the signals were dark. I rolled thru town on South St and had just about reached Rt47 when to my great surprise the gates went down! So much for relying on the signals! (They’re approach activated, and the reason I didn’t get an indication is that the eastern block break is just a mile east out of town.) I jumped from the car for my last capture of the day:
Surprise catch
03:37 p.m. – Mazon IL / South St
BNSF w/b intermodal stacks
BNSF 7311 ES44DC
BNSF 4091 ES44DC
I fired off a single horizontal wedgie and jumped back in my car hoping to turn onto Rt47 before the traffic backed up. No such luck, just as I got up the intersection a big slug of traffic arrived blocking my way. Bummer. But every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case I realized while waiting that this was a pretty darn long train, long enough for DPU’s perhaps. I quickly backed off from the from the intersection (it was sheer luck that no one was behind me) and baled just in time to catch their passage:
Good day!
03:39 p.m. – Mazon IL / South St
BNSF w/b intermodal stacks – DPU
BNSF 6691 ES44C4
BNSF 7409 ES44DC
I wasn’t in the greatest of spot to catch DPU’s coming towards me, but I did manage a couple nice going away shots, appropriate for the end of the day.
The train cleared, traffic cleared, and I headed on east, losing my light along the way to the clouds. Time to head on home. I have to admit that I find rush hour driving really nerve wracking, and I was hoping that my relatively early start back would spare me the worse. Can’t say that it did, can’t say that it didn’t, but I can tell you that I literally shouted “Oh thank God!” when I hit the off ramp by my house! Still, it had been a darn good day; 105 photos, caught the Schnabel, and a lot more.
Several other people caught this train at different locations, you can see their photos by clicking here and here.
Would you like to see a Youtube video of an S scale model of the Schnabel car? Well I’m sure that you do so just click here.
And back in 2010 I chased a loaded Schnabel train west on the Mendota Sub. Click here to see my post.
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