Since the signal bridges in the area seem to be on short time I’m embarking on a quest to document them before they’re ground under the heels of progress. Today’s goal I was Fairview Ave; at the moment it’s still completely unadulterated, but who knows how long that will last.
I hit the road a little before 8 a.m., and as per usual I arrived just in time to have the gates drop right in my face! Seems to be a regular occurrence as of late. Luckily it wasn’t anything exciting, just part of the inbound commuter rush:
07:57 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX w/b commuter flip
METX 205 F40PHM-2
Not much of a miss, but the next one was; I was out of my car and halfway across the parking lot when this went by:
08:00 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
AMT w/b Carl Sandburg
AMT 821 Dash 8-40BWH
If I’d been on the ball I probably could have fired off a halfway decent broadside across the parking lot, but I was still in the middle of getting myself organized after getting out of the car.
Things didn’t slow down, just as I got to the platform I was treated to a return visit by METX 205; apparently they’d flipped and were ready to take another load of happy commuters downtown. Another eastbound commuter sat just on the other side of Maple Ave, and as the #205 pulled in, it got on the move, switched from M3 to M2, and I caught my first photo of the day:
Get your photos while you can
08:03 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX commuter express
METX 212 F40PHM-2
Got a good shot of it passing under the signal bridge just west of the grade crossing.
Another headlight popped up to the west; there’s a good reason why this is called rush hour! Wanting to vary the view a bit I shifted to the north side of the track, grabbed a couple shots of the #205’s train just before it departed, and then turned my attention an oncoming express on M2:
A view from the sunny side
08:10 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX e/b commuter express
METX 192 F40PHM-2
Like the last train I caught it passing under the signal bridge. Just as I was framing things up some idiot dashed across the tracks even though the gates were down. He probably thought that the express was his train; a good way to get yourself killed.
Time to look around a bit. BNSF MofW crews were hard at work down by Maple Ave; they’d installed a very large circuit box in the SE quadrant on Monday and were now in the process of installing the wiring. I also got the first of many stand alone shots of the signal bridge, who knows how long I’ll be able to do that.
Bent but still standing
The headlight for yet another commuter express popped up to the west; I moved to just east of the depot to catch it passing:
Non-stop
08:19 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX e/b commuter express
METX 197 F40PHM-2
If you think that this is busy, you should be here when the rush in full swing! I was just catching the tail end of it all.
Things finally calmed down. A headlight for a commuter appeared to the east, something I was going to have to take a pass on since the light was totally against me:
08:31 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX w/b commuter
METX 112 F40PH-3
No photo, sort of; yet another eastbound commuter express was on the way, so as the regular commuter headed west I stepped up to trackside, grabbed a couple south side shots of it with the express in the distance, and then moved to the north side of the tracks to catch the two again but in reverse order:
East meets west
08:34 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX e/b commuter express
METX 196 F40PHM-2
A nice set of captures while working with less than perfect light.
That was pretty much it for the morning rush; the next inbound commuter would be running on the midday schedule. I’d caught my last set of photos using my 28-300mm, but looking over the lay of land I figured that something wider would be more appropriate and so I switched over to my 18-200mm. Of course the moment I did that a headlight for a freighter popped up to the west on M2 and I had to juggle back to the 28-300mm! Maybe I should join a circus! At the moment the sun didn’t favor either side of the track; I more or less decided to shoot from the south side simply because I’d caught my last sequence from the north! Time for my first freight action of the morning:
Between the bridges
08:43 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
BNSF e/b merchandise
BNSF 6765 ES44C4
BNSF 775 Dash 9-44CW
At Fairview Ave
Taking advantage of the fact that the roadbed hadn’t warmed enough to be radiating I fired off a long sequence of the train approaching, catching it passing each of the Fairview signal bridges. Nice, and if I could catch a couple more like that I’d be a very happy man.
Right behind it by a few minutes was the first regular commuter of the morning:
Running out of ideas
08:48 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 201 F40PHM-2
I caught a low level shot from the platform of it passing under the signal bridge; quite frankly I was running out of new angles for these trains!
Time for a massive slow down in the action. I kicked back on a bench in front of the depot where I had a halfway decent view down the tracks, and dived into a book. A westbound green popped up on M1, something I didn’t pay much attention to until a headlight to the east caught my eye. Oh fudge, it was a unit coal and the light was still too bad to do anything with it:
09:04 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
BNSF w/b empty unit coal
BNSF 5791 ES44AC
BNSF 5882 ES44AC
I actually did try for a shot, I was in a “what the heck” mood, and besides it’s only electrons, so I fired off a wedgie. As it turned out the picture would have worked if I hadn’t cut off the nose of the lead unit!
I kicked back on the station bench relying on my ears to alert me of incoming action, or at least I did until the folks down at Maple Ave began testing circuits and the gates at Fairview began to go up and down! The third time it happened I didn’t even look up until I heard the distinctive thrum of approaching diesels, got a westbound!
09:20 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
BNSF w/b merchandise
BNSF 5375 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 1026 Dash 9-44CW
No photo, the light still wasn’t up to snuff in my opinion. That definitely wasn’t the case for my next train; as the merchandise disappeared around the curve at Belmont a set of headlights popped up alongside. Cool, another freight! This time I set up on the north of the tracks to vary the view a bit.
Earl Schieb where are you?
09:24 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
BNSF e/b priority intermodal
BNSF 685 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 984 Dash 9-44CW
Doesn't look any better up close
The #685 was really shabby looking; it sure could use a coat of paint. I got a short telephoto series (the day had warmed enough the distant shots were out) and then cranked back to wide angle mode to catch it under the Fairview signal bridge. The pictures looked kind of messy, a backdrop of power poles certainly didn’t help. I should have probably gone for a sunny side shot from down the platform.
The train cleared and I puttered, grabbing some shots of the MoW crew at work down by Maple Ave, and of the shiny railhead on M3; I was just feeling arty I guess.
Shiny
Clipping
A westbound green appeared on M1, most probably for a commuter. By now the light had shifted enough that I probably could get a shot, but in my humble opinion it would be a pretty poor one, so I took a pass:
09:41 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX w/b commuter
METX 190 F40PHM-2
In the end I grabbed a shot of the #190 stopped under the signal bridge; since it was a going away shot the light worked for that.
The next scheduled action was an inbound commuter and the eastbound Illinois Zephyr around 10 a.m. Figuring out a new and different commuter shot involving the signal bridge was a challenge, I poked around quite a bit before finding an interesting angle from right at the grade crossing. Not a bad looking shot but there was a chance that traffic would intrude; I’d just have to hope that I’d get lucky.
Thank you for your cooperation
09:55 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 112 F40PH-3
Good news, I managed to pull off my shot, probably because I made a show of aiming the camera. I also grabbed a couple shots of the #112’s cab and the signal heads on the bridge just for the heck of it.
Sharing the view
Next up should be the I Zephyr; I was keeping an eye on the signals since I had wildly differing plans on how to catch it depending on which track it came in on. Unfortunately the signals were unhelpful; M3 red, M2/M3 flashing yellow, all that told me was that M1 was out unless there was a last minute change. Taking the hint I hobbled down the platform to set up east of the depot where I found myself sharing the area with another fellow on the other side of the tracks. A headlight popped up to the west on M3, and I set up for a low level telephoto involving the signal bridge and the station:
Illinois Zephyr
10:08 a.m. – Downers Grove IL / Fairview Ave
AMT e/b Illinois Zephyr
AMT 53 P42DC
Bingo, got my shot; Illinois Zephyr, depot and signal bridge.
Well that was it for me, I’d gotten almost all the shots I was after and my body was aching, so I packed up and headed for home. That turned out to be a bit of poor timing, crossing the tracks I found a headlight to the west! Ooppss! It was too late to do anything here so I hung a quick right and zipped east with vague plans of catching the action at Westmont. I quickly decided that was dumb, I’d never make it in time, so I hunted up a gap in the trackside brush and I jumped out for a grab shot:
Run thru the jungle
10:17 a.m. – Westmont IL / Roslyn Rd
BNSF e/b grain
BNSF 740 Dash 9-44CW
This was another “what you see is what you get” moment; there wasn’t much that I could do other than point and shoot! The capture wasn’t half bad; I had some elevation, plus digital does a decent job with dark side captures.
A single unit on the head end undoubtedly meant a DPU:
10:19 a.m. – Westmont IL / Roslyn Rd
BNSF e/b grain – DPU
BNSF 4971 Dash 9-44CW
Unfortunately it was totally backlit, so no photo, but it was a pretty cool way to end the day. Now it was time to head for home!
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