Western Railroad Discussion > ? on New and Different Unit Trains on BNSF Chicago Sub

One advantage of my daily Metra rides to and from work is that I get a good look at the many trains that travel the BNSF Chicago Sub. Most of these are coal, oil and ethanol unit trains that I often see parked in the Western Avenue Yard or on Mains 3 and 4 between Western Avenue and Cicero. There are also a good number of iron ores to and from the Magnetation plant in Reynolds, IN. 

In the last few months, I have seen two new (at least on the Chicago Sub) types of unit trains. The first of these are unit sand trains that appear to be loads heading east. While sand trains have been common around the Chicago area, I don;t recall seeing any on the BNSF Chicago Sub even during the height of the Bakken crude moves to the east coast. I'd be interested in knowing what the origin and destination of these moves are.Cars are the typical newer 2-bay cars from Trinity, NSC and Greenbrier etc.

The second type is a train of 60-80 LPG tank cars and appear to be loads heading westbound. These are definitely LPG tank cars and not something else. Again, I'm interested in the origin/destination of these trains.

Also with the downturn in oil traffic, NS and BNSF appear to be interchanging manifest freights at Western Avenue again. 

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

Interesting. The other week, I also noticed a manifest freight taking the connection to BNSF at 18th St. and was pleasantly surprised to see that traffic in the area.