Illinois Railroads – Page 6 – Jim Pearson Photography

Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad 101 EB at Pierson Station, IL

August 29, 2020 – Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad (DERI) 101 with 4235 & 4236 leading the way, passes the Top Flight Grain elevators at Pierson Station, Illinois as it heads east to Terre Haute, Indiana (where they interchange with CSX) on the former CSX Danville Subdivision (now the DERI).

According to Wikipedia: The Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad (reporting mark DREI) is an American regional railroad that is a subsidiary of Watco Companies operating in eastern Illinois and western Indiana.

In January 2018, CSX Transportation announced that it was seeking offers to buy the Decatur Subdivision and the Danville Secondary Subdivision as part of a system-wide sale of low-traffic routes, and in July, Watco, via the DREI, was identified as the winning bidder. Following regulatory approval from the Surface Transportation Board, The DREI began operations on September 9, 2018.

The DREI operates two intersecting routes totaling 126.7 miles (203.9 km)—the former Decatur Subdivision between Montezuma, Indiana and Decatur, Illinois, and the former Danville Subdivision between Terre Haute, Indiana and Olivet, Illinois. It interchanges traffic with CSX, the Eastern Illinois Railroad, the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Canadian National Railway, and the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad is headquartered in Decatur, Illinois.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 31mm, f/5, 1/1000, ISO 100.

CN L533-91 passes Total Grain Marketing at Newton, Illinois

August 29, 2020 – The glint of the early morning light rakes across the landscape and illuminates the scene as Canadian National 9634 and 8879 lead CN L533-91 past Total Grain Marketing at Newton, Illinois.

A fresh crew had just boarded the train and were taking the train to Effingham, IL on CN’s Effingham Subdivision after picking up interchange work from from the Indiana Railroad in Palestine, Illinois.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/5, 1/500, ISO 110.

Norfolk Southern 9385 leads a loaded grain train…

August 29, 2020 – Norfolk Southern 9385 leads a loaded grain train past the Premier Cooperative Inc grain elevators at Tolono, Illinois as it heads east on the NS Lafayette District.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/11, 1/800, 1/800, underexposed 1.3 stops (exposed more for the highlights), ISO 100.

Amtrak 393 pulls into the old Illinois Central Depot in downtown Mattoon, Illinois

August 29, 2020 – Amtrak 393 (The Illini) pulls into the old Illinois Central (IC) Depot in downtown Mattoon, Illinois with 4624 leading the Sunday evening southbound train from Chicago to Carbondale, Illinois as the last bit of sunlight lights up the scene. According to the Amtrak App the train was running out of Chicago at 44% capacity during this COVID-19 days.

According to Wikipedia, The Mattoon station is housed in the former Illinois Central Railroad Depot. The depot was completed in 1918 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. At its height, the building housed a power plant, mail room, luggage room, and restaurant, in addition to the main hall where passengers waited to board trains. As many as ten trains a day departed the depot in the 1950s.

During 2010, a $3 million restoration project, paid for from a mix of private, state, and federal funding, was undertaken, replacing paint, flooring, and other interior fixtures.

The station currently serves as a stop for the Illini, Saluki, and City of New Orleans passenger trains. The tracks themselves, formerly part of the Illinois Central Railroad, are now owned by the Canadian National Railway (CN). Freight trains run by CN pass through frequently as this is on the CN Champaign Subdivision.

Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Fuji 18-55mm @ 18mm, f/8, 1/180, ISO 800.

Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway, Mount Vernon, Illinois

July 15, 2020 – Progressive Rail Inc. 33 sits idling outside a engine house as it prepares for a day of work at the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway in Mount Vernon, Illinois.

According to Wikipedia: The Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway (reporting mark COER) (formerly American Rail Heritage, Ltd. d/b/a Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad Company) is a Class III common carrier shortline railroad that operates in the cities of Marion and Herrin in the Southern Illinois region. It is most historically recognized by the FRA for being the last U.S. railroad of any kind to use steam locomotives exclusively in regular revenue freight service up until 1986.

The present-day shortline currently operates a total of 13.5 miles of track across the industrial centers of Williamson County in two separate railroad districts with a fleet of two diesel switcher engines. One line being known as the “Marion District”, which is the railroad’s main working division with roughly 8.5 miles of track; and the other division being the “Herrin District”, which mostly serves the city’s manufacturing industries along a 5-mile stretch of track.

t also has three different interchange points with two Class I railroads. Near their main offices in downtown Marion, the railroad has a junction with Union Pacific’s Marion Subdivision; another interchange is located in the nearby Marion suburb of Bainbridge with BNSF Railway’s Beardstown Subdivision. A second BNSF connection with the same line is also present in the Herrin district. Most of the CO&E Railroad’s revenue freight products primarily consist of coal, lumber, petroleum, grain, steel, paper, chemicals, manufactured goods, and railcar repair service.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/5, 1/640, ISO 100.

UP intermodal IDLC NB at Mount Vernon, IL

July 15, 2020 – Union Pacific 7074 leads UP IDLC as it approaches the Green Street overpass at Mount Vernon, Illinois as it makes its way north on the Mt. Vernon Subdivision. Fellow railfan, Cooper Smith and I spent the day railfanning in southern Illinois today and while we got a few nice shots and had a great time, the trains just didn’t cooperate!

We went from Kentucky to Bruceton, Illinois to catch UP and CN action through the diamond there, as well at Christopher and Du Quoin. However, after spending the whole day trackside we pretty much caught one train we each like at each location. Turns out after the one train on the busy UP line we caught at Mt. Vernon, that line was shut down the rest of the day till 9pm. We had no clue it was scheduled, but that’s the way trains roll sometime!

The other lines we railfanned were just having a very slow day, however we did catch at least something everywhere we stopped… eventually! The last stop of the day was at Anna, IL where we caught CN A431 being led by CN 2460 (a “Blue Devil” unit) as the very last light of a stormy evening stole the light from the day.

I’ll be posting a few others from the trip along with a couple videos for everyone’s viewing pleasure!

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 370mm, f/6, 1/640, ISO 320.

Norfolk Southern Railway Wabash heritage unit at Mt. Vernon, IL

May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern Railway Wabash heritage unit 1070 passes through the NS/UP Diamond at Mt. Vernon, Illinois, as it leads NS 224 westbound on the NS Southern-West District under stormy skies.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 360.

NS 223 eastbound at Centralia, Illinois

May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern crosses the diamonds on the CN Centralia Subdivision at Centralia, Illinois as NS 9481 & 9635 lead NS 223 eastbound on the NS Southern-East District.

Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 150, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 500.

White Pass 3003 at NRE, Mount Vernon, IL

May 27, 2020 – Not a real clear shot of it, but today I found White Pass 3003, one of six new locomotives for the White Pass & Yukon Route, attached to an old switcher at National Railway Equipment Company in Mount Vernon, Ill.
According to CBCNEWS, the Scenic railway out of Skagway, Alaska, is replacing their 50-year-old locomotives with these new units.

“The White Pass & Yukon Route scenic railway runs every summer on the 110-kilometre historic route between Skagway and Carcross, Yukon.

The new locomotives will replace the railway’s aging fleet of locomotives from the 1960s. They’re built by National Railway Equipment Company in Mount Vernon, Ill.”

I’d love to catch this power move when it happens, so if anyone knows when it’ll happen I’d love a heads up!

For me the old switcher is just as interesting as it has, what appears to be, Chinese writing on the voltage plate under the right light. Anyone know anything about it? I wasn’t able to get a good side shot of it while I was there, so I don’t have a number.

BNSF 9259 heads up loaded coal train…

May 27, 2020 – BNSF 9259 heads up loaded coal train as it comes around a curve just south of Centralia, Illinois as it heads south on the BNSF Beardstown Subdivision.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 400mm, f/6, 1/1000 at ISO 320.

Norfolk Southern Railway Wabash heritage unit…

May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern Railway Wabash heritage unit 1070 passes through Golden Gate, Illinois, as it leads NS 224 through stormy weather on its way west on the NS Southern-West District.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO 160.

Norfolk Southern New York Central heritage unit 1066…

May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern New York Central heritage unit 1066 passes Consolidated Grain & Barge Co. silos at Wayne City, Illinois as it heads west on the NS Southern-West District. It was running engine light, with two other engines in trail, as NS D51as it headed down the line to pick up empty grain cars.

This was one of of the last three NS Heritage units that I haven’t caught till now, so only 2 left till I’ve photographed all 20 of the NS Heritage fleet. Now I need to catch the Savannah & Atlanta Railway and the Pennsylvania Railroad to complete my NS Heritage picture set.

Today was a great day of railfanning with Ryan Scott and Eli Noble!! Many more shots from the day yet to come!

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO 125.

Norfolk Southern Wabash heritage unit…

May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern Wabash heritage unit 1070 approaches milepost 147, just west of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, as it leads NS 224 through the rain on its way west on the NS Southern-West District.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 600mm, f/6.3, 1/640sec, ISO 250.

Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) 2920 at Riverdale, IL

February 22, 2020 – Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) 2920 (SD20 backs into the Blue Island Rail Yard at Riverdale, Illinois, past the old control tower, as it works on building a train. From what I find online the unit was built in 1959 and was rebuilt by Illinois Central in 1980 from IC 2010. Then it went to NRE in 2/95, and was leased to IHB 9/96, before being purchased by IHB 6/2007.

According to the IHB Website: The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is the largest switch carrier in the U.S. with 54 miles of mainline track (24 miles of which is double main track) and 266 miles of additional yard and siding track.

The IHB provides a wide variety of services, including industrial switching with 160 customers, generating 170,000 carloads of business annually. The IHB interchanges daily with 16 other rail carriers in Chicago. A growing fleet of approximately 1,400 freight cars is geared predominately to the steel industry. The industrial traffic base includes 4 of the 5 largest steel producers in the U.S. and a large aluminum processor, oil refineries, corn millers, grain elevators, chemical plants, warehouses, lumber transloading, and bulk transfer operations. IHB’s industrial traffic consists of 38% primary metals, 12% chemicals & petroleum products, 11% food products, 8% scrap iron, 7% coal & coke, 6% whole grain, as well as a variety of other products including lumber, paper, and aggregates. The IHB also operates as an intermediate switch carrier between the 12 trunk-line railroads for traffic interchanged between them in Chicago, generating an additional 475,000 revenue cars.

The IHB main line circles Chicago from near O’Hare to Northwest Indiana and roughly parallels Interstate 294 (Tri-state Expressway) and I-80/94. Its primary yard, Blue Island (a 44 class track hump yard) at Riverdale, IL lies in about the center of the railroad. Other major yards includes Gibson (in Hammond, IN) which only classifies cars of new autos and Michigan Avenue Yard (in East Chicago) which serves the extensive steel plants which accounts for IHB’s primary business. From East Chicago, the IHB operates east for an additional 16 miles on trackage rights to access Burns Harbor, IN and Portage, IN, which includes Indiana’s International Port.

BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois

May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois on BNSF’s Beardstown Subdivision as it crosses over the Illinois Subdivision.

From what I gather from the web, CSX closed the Illinois Subdivision through here at one point and used it for car storage, but then I find references to the line being used now by The Prairie Line, a shortline out of O’Fallon, IL (I’m now told the shortline hasn’t materialized yet). BNSF still owns and uses the Bardstown Sub. I’m also told that the diamond was removed in 2019, at least temporarily.

In the past this tower controlled the movements of trains on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad along with the B&O Railroad. It was closed sometime in the 1980’s and from what I can find on the web it was torn down in late 2014. I’ve also found reports where it was bought by a collector and moved. Whichever is correct, this picture isn’t to be replicated again today since the tower is now gone.

If you’d like to read a great piece on the tower, check out this article on The Trackside Photographer by Tom Gatermann, who visited the tower the same year as me.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/tag/shattuc-tower/

Photograph the towers when and where you can as they continue to disappear from the railroad landscape.

The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag…

May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag on his engine in the yard at Salem, Illinois.

According to the Union Pacific Website: When we added the flag to our locomotives more than a decade ago – at the suggestion of an employee after 9/11 – we followed the tradition of having the Union (the blue field of stars) lead the way, such that on the right-hand side of the vehicle (“passenger side”), the flag would appear reversed.

Further, the flag was painted to convey the motion of forward movement as if it were billowing with the speed of the locomotive. Having the Union forward on both sides is the overwhelming choice anytime the flag is portrayed on a transport vehicle, from NASA space shuttles to Air Force One.