Part 1 will cover the section from Joliet to Springfield and Part 2 will cover Springfield to Saint Louis. The full gallery of photos can be found here, the previous Lincoln Corridor video post can be found here and the METRA Heritage Corridor post can be found here.
We begin at the start of UP territory in Joliet with the rebuilt Joliet Union Station and METRA's UD Tower, which closed in 2015. The Union Station at Joliet was situated at the crossing of the Rock Island with the parallel main lines of the Alton and Santa Fe railroads. With the station located in the Northwest quadrant of the diamond, passengers had to access Lincoln trains across active main line tracks via duckboards and METRA Rock Island trains had to cross all 4 main line tracks multiple times an hour to platform. The rebuilding effort added a island platform with grade separated access for Lincoln trains and moved the Rock Island platform east of the diamonds.
Without the need to block BNSF or UP traffic for passenger operations, the historic tower was closed and saved preserved with plans for some sort of use as a museum. A modern Transportation Center replaced the old Union Station building, which has since been converted into an event space. Note the old platform layout, now fenced off.
With the closure of UD Tower the interlocking was also rationalized with north/east end crossovers being eliminated, although some evidence of the old layout remains. The 4-track diamond is now primarily used by Iowa Interstate through trains and the UP/BNSF crossovers have been consolidated south/west of the tower.
Since my last trip over this line in 2005, Union Pacific contructed its Global Four intermodal facility south of Joliet with new interlockings and 60mph high speed turnouts. Here we see UP SD70ACe #8617, SD70M #4060 and two CSX units with a fresh southbound intermodal train ready to depart the Global Four terminal lead.
Slightly to the south a northbound train of autoracks was holding short of a crossing waiting for either the Texas Eagle or the intermodal train to make their moves.
Not all the planned upgrades are complete as one can see with the empty track bed on the new Kankakee River Bridge. Prior to the Lincoln Corridor project, the northern end of the single track route only had 2 or 3 passing sidings with 20 or 30 mile gaps between them.
A mixed freight on the HITT siding featured UP SD70M #4587 up front with some MoW tie flats on the rear.
Towns centered around the rail corridor like Mazonia are one of the major impediments to higher speed service. Fast passenger trains mixed in with slower speed road freight can create dangerous conditions where road users and pedestrians can misjudge the speed of approaching passenger trains while seeking to avoid the prolonged delays waiting for a freight to pass. Much of the improvement money went to securing the right of way in towns with black fencing and installing crossing protections that are harder to circumvent.
We encountered our northbound counterpart, Texas Eagle Train 22, on the Dwight siding.
The old Dwight, IL Alton station was used up through 2016 when the stop was relocated to a new transportation center a few blocks to the south.
The same was true at Pontiac, IL where the old Alton station had also been replaced and repurposed.
The station serving Bloomington-Normal, IL has two platforms to better serve the larger metro area and state University complex.
Power in the Bloomington Yard included UP GP60 #1170 and GP38-2 #697 along with GP40M-2 #1472 an another GP60. Bloomington marks the division point between the UP Joliet Sub and the Springfield Sub.
The Alton station at Lincoln, IL was still making use of its original building.
A string of lite power, including UP SD70M's #5124 and #3796 and an unidentified GE Evo, were on a grain service siding near Elkhart, IL.
The grain silo was being switches by former BNSF GP7 #1317 while UP ES44AC #7493 sat on a dump siding south of town.
Near Elkhart, IL a 5 mile long conveyor belt now connects the head of the Viper mine with its coal processing plant after the mine entrance was relocated closer to the working face of the coal seam. Better known for its corn, many people may not know that Illinois has several notable coal mining districts.
Another old school grain silo in Williamsville, IL.
Passing northbound Lincoln service Train #304 with SC44 power at the north end of the Ridgley siding.
Coming off the siding at Ridgley crossing where the last switch mechanically worked from an "armstrong" type interlocking machine in North America was retired in 2010.
And that's the end of Part 1 as my Train 21 makes its station stop in the state capitol of Springfield, IL at milepost 185 from Chicago.
Next week we'll pick back up in Part 2 and continue on to Saint Louis.
I had a work assignment in Bloomington-Normal more than 20 years ago. On parallel I-55, you could see portcullis-style grade crossing devices that had been installed anticipating high speed operation but apparently were never activated. The problem was that the portcullises could clang down on either side of the crossing but trap vehicles between them in the path of the 110 mph train. This was apparently never solved. What's a few dozen million among friends?
ReplyDeleteThey are desperate for a solution because mixed Class 1 freight and 110mph passenger leads to a lot of grade crossing accidents. Surprised they don't just try to get up to 90mph as an interim measure tho.
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