Western Railroad Discussion > Recommendations for freight in the snow (Chicago)

Today I escaped work early in the northern Chicago suburbs mainly in hopes of catching freight in the snow. Sadly, after several hours, all I got was passenger (trains (see here: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2666543) . I'm wondering if anyone knows if CP is experiencing any problems in the region that might impact traffic tomorrow morning... or, what folks might recommend as a place to catch freight action at speed tomorrow morning. I live on the far north side of Chicago, so the CP/UP freight mains leaving the city are closest to me. Unfortunately, they also don't have a ton of traffic... my gamble is always where to go to find freight moving at a good clip without spending most of my time driving. (Southside is definitely out for that reason.) Both the BNSF and UP going west from Chicago are also quite long ways to get freight going decent speed ...Any thoughts?

Other than the CP and to the lessor extent UP to Milwaukee, the only other northern Chicagoland mainline with significant traffic is the CN (ex WC). They move at a good clip through Grayslake.

Andrew

I suppose it is somewhat stupid to pose where to go knowing that... I guess the real information I'm looking for is anything that would indicate I won't get skunked for 3-4 hours on CP like I did today. Part of that was during the evening rush, but from 1-4p.m. I've seen freights before and this time not a one.

My desk and monitor have started rocking several times this evening, which means that freights have been passing as usual on the CP C&M sub. It may be that not quite as many as usual originated today during the period of heaviest snowfall. Or maybe the dispatchers were being especially careful not to run freights during the evening rush in hopes of not compounding any delays. (Unlike the UP-North Metra line, for which I had a whole screen of e-mail messages by the time I woke up this morning announcing delays due to the Waukegan yard derailment, there were no messages about Metra Milwaukee District North line delays until a handful of 15- to 20-minute delays late in the evening rush.)

It is not unusual to see no freights between Rondout and A-20 on weekdays between about 4:00 and 6:30 pm (or between about 6:30 and 8:30 am). But it's also not especially rare to see one or two freights come through during that time, especially if the passenger trains are all on schedule. The fact that about half of the evening outbound Metra trains stop just west of the MP 24.5 crossovers (to let the crew switch ends and do a brake test before returning as an inbound train to Chicago) means that one track is occupied for 7-15 minutes out of every half hour. Outbound Metra headways get down to 7-10 minutes during the peak of rush hour, and inbounds run every half hour. Throw in a pair of opposing Hiawathas in the Rondout/A-20 area just before 4:00 pm, a westbound Hiawatha just after 5:30 pm, and an eastbound Hiawatha around 6:45 pm, and there's just not a lot of opportunity to run much freight traffic.

A non-stop Hiawatha moves at about twice the average speed of an all-stop Metra train, and an average freight train probably takes three times as long as a Hiawatha to travel the ~12 miles between Rondout and A-20, meaning that a freight train probably needs to depart 10-15 minutes ahead of a Metra train and 20 minutes ahead of an Amtrak train to be sure the passenger train won't catch up to the freight and be delayed.

On Saturdays, however, with Metra trains operating no more than once per hour, you can see freights at almost any time.

[And here comes another freight just as I prepare to post this.]