Eastbound UP

Eastbound UP
Originally uploaded by A Bob's Life in Pictures.

We caught some great train action today! Here's an eastbound UP running the diamonds in Rochelle, IL. We visited the Railroad Park in Rochelle, one of the few spots in the country where two major railroads have double track mainlines that cross each other at grade. The UP line runs from Chicago's Proviso Yard to San Francisco, CA. The BNSF line runs from Chicago to Savanna, IL where it meets up with the BNSF's major north-south line. Almost any UP or BNSF train that leaves Chicago to go west will travel on these lines, and cross at the Railroad Park in Rochelle. Since it was Saturday, things were a bit slower. We only caught one BNSF train while we were there (carrying autos), but we caught probably ten UP's, mostly coal and stacker trains (intermodal). The UP has a major intermodal yard just west of Rochelle, so the stackers are very popular on the UP line here. A typical day will see about 120 trains cross these diamonds.

At 11:30 we went into the business district where there were sidewalk sales. Several places were offering up free food, so we chowed down on hot dogs before going back and catching a couple more trains.

You can see a full set of pictures at my web site.

Originally posted at The Dad's Group.