Western Railroad Discussion > ICE in the Windy City

The last few trips to Franklin Park, I have run into a early afternoon ICE westbound. The trains are identified by unit number so I need your help. What is the symbol for this train? I assume they came from Clearing Yard on the Belt? Both trains were 90-95% grain.

Here's a shot of the first westbound I caught last Sunday Jan 15. Nice variety of power on the ICE; a neat railroad I'm going to have to spend more time on!


-Stefan

Chicago, IL

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Next shot is a closer look at the power.

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Yesterday, same time same place. A westbound ICE led by a DME unit passes Franklin Park. The ICE trains really move through here, bypassing Bensenville Yard on the Metra main. Again, an interesting motive power consist.

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Having more time yesterday, I decided to give chase. I headed out to Elgin and caught the same westbound at the Metra station. Again, the ICE freights really move on this mostly Metra line.

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Two Metra train sets tied up for the weekend at Elgin

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Don't know for certain which one you're seeing, but this link will help you:

http://illinirail.com/icerail/symbols.htm

Since the train seems to run at the same general time, hopefully one of the locals will know.

With the amount of DME power on those trains, I am wondering if that is the relatively newly established DME run through from the BRC Clearing Yard to Huron, SD.

Mike Derrick
http://www.shortlinesusa.com

My guess the trains you saw were the MBRCHU trains that go the DME at Huron, SD. Its usually a mid afternoon train going west on the D&I west of Elgin.

Nice photos. Thanks for sharing.

MILW86A

Here are some ICE locos that were tied down in Davis Jct. IL. Saturday the 21st. You can ususally find them there on the weekend.
Dan Rockford IL

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Nice shots! I agree, those ICE trains do really move through Bensenville. Must've made for a fun chase west to Elgin!

Nick S.

http://www.nicksuydam.com

I shot a westbound at Franklin Park on Oct. 30 in the early afternoon and it was indeed the BRCHU, mostly grain cars too.

If the trains were mostly grains cars, you saw the MBRCHU. Its eastbound counterpart is the MHUBRC. These run between Huron, SD and the Belt Railway in Chicago. The other regular trains through Franklin Park are the MNABR/MBRNA trains between the Belt Railway and Nahant, IA. These trains are more general freight.

And before anyone asks, I do not know why one train uses 'BRC' and the other uses 'BR' to identify the same destination. I suspect that since the HUBRC/BRCHU trains are DME trains, they use 'BRC' because 'BR' is used for another location on the DME. I queried the ICErail list on Yahoo about this and received about six replies that BRC stood for Belt Railway but nothing about why there are two different symbols....

You can see a third freight west of Spaulding daily except Saturday. The local from Davis Junction delivers cars to the EJE at Spaulding. This usually runs in the morning and is easily identifiable being mostly coil cars, gons and petroleum tank cars.