Western Railroad Discussion > While We're On the Topic of West Chicago...

Between my earlier video clip from a few days ago and inCHI's clip seen here http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3500666 there has been quite a bit of video coverage of JB Tower in West Chicago, IL lately. I thought I'd throw one more into the ring.

I too managed to catch a CN train picking up paperwork "on the fly" at the tower, however in my case, the train slowed down to a crawl to do so. I guess the engineer was nervous about missing it!

This clip features four morning trains from my day at West Chicago, IL.

Train 1: This northbound CN intermodal was the very first train of my visit there and came through just minutes after my arrival. It is also the train that picked up new orders from the tower, and I was completely unaware that it was doing so. So while I did get the engineer reaching out and grabbing the paperwork, I was poorly positioned to get a good shot, so you'll have to look closely. inCHI's positioning was far better.

Train 2: Eastbound Metra

Train 3: Northbound CN manifest

Train 4: Another northbound CN manifest with all standard cab power.

Thanks for watching!

-Tom

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Neat video! What is the maximum authorized speed across this diamond? Also, is the tower still continuously manned?

Thank you for posting this video.

CSXT_8437 Wrote:
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> Thank you for posting this video.

Second that. Nice video, Tom.

~Ryan

CSXT_8437 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neat video! What is the maximum authorized speed
> across this diamond? Also, is the tower still
> continuously manned?
>
> Thank you for posting this video.

It is manned 24/7/365 days a year. I can only speak to the UP side its 25MPH for freight and 30MPH for passenger.

quio05 Wrote:
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> CSXT_8437 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Neat video! What is the maximum authorized
> speed
> > across this diamond? Also, is the tower still
> > continuously manned?
> >
> > Thank you for posting this video.
>
> It is manned 24/7/365 days a year. I can only
> speak to the UP side its 25MPH for freight and
> 30MPH for passenger.


I'm not sure what the speeds are, but those seem consistent with what I observed. CN freights seem to bang across the diamonds at a faster rate than UP's trains do, which is surprising given that they're crossing 3 tracks instead of just one.

Nice video!!

Back in EJ&E days, the crew would hit the UP diamonds at 40+ MPH on occasion.