Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Cicero Yard & Yard Power

I had a brief moment to take a look at BNSF's Cicero Yard from an overpass that passes over the yard.

1. A crew was bringing this power into this stub track.

2. A long view of a portion of the yard in the distance, with the diesel shops off to the left. I can't tell if that is just a lot of power laying over, or there is stored power there. When I rode the Metra/BNSF line out to here, there were several tracks of empty well cars near UP Global 1 in Chicago, tracks that I had never seen cars stored on before, making be think they are stored. There were also two tracks of stored gondolas.

3. Looking northward, a stack train with CSX power pulls into the yard.

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4. Another set of power has a GP40X

5. An even wider view shows another set of yard power.

6. Nothing special here, just another intermodal pulling out of the yard and heading west.

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So the yard was paved over for intermodal?

WAF Wrote:
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> So the yard was paved over for intermodal?

Yes, about 20 or more years ago.  It was BN's primary intermodal yard in Chicago, and under BNSF handles mostly domestic and international traffic to and from the pacific northwest.  

Most carload classification is handled at Galesburg, or through the Clearing yard.

WAF Wrote:
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> So the yard was paved over for intermodal?

Yes, at one time there was a hump yard at this location....