Western Railroad Discussion > Wig Wag Wednesday

When I started railfanning, the nearest active railroad to my home was the Illinois Central Gulf at Freeport, Illinois. I lived in Monroe,Wisconsin at the time and Freeport was only a 20 mile drive south. This was in 1984 and Wallace yard at Freeport was still very active. The branch line to Monroe (at that time was already sold off to the Chicago Madison and Northern) and also the "Gruber" line headed south out of Freeport. I have very few pictures/slides from those years but the " Iowa Division" had and today, still has a fair amount of old railroad character. Up until just a year or so ago, there was still functioning Wig-Wag signals actively protecting crossings. Perhaps the most "famous" was the one at Galena, Illinois, at the crossing west of the depot. I have enclosed a couple of photos of trains passing the signal and a couple of others to show some of the flavor of the line. Enjoy and have a great hump day! Dave

---

---

---

Picture #3 is M338 exiting the tunnel at East Dubuque, Illinois, #4 is M338 heading east at Scales Mound, Illinois and #5 is a meet between 338 and 337 at Scales Mound.

---

---

These photos were all taken in early 2006. It is rare to catch an IC unit anymore and unfortunately, CN has done a number on most of the old IC style signals. There were cantilever bridges at Lena, Illinois and Peosta, Iowa. Those have been taken down and most of the old tri-lights have been replaced. Last year, all of the railroad buildings at East Dubuque were razed as well. Dave

Today's "It'll be here well into the future" is tomorrow's "It's all gone". With digital photography, we can make sure the image will remain, even if the scene disappears.

That's a great bunch of shots.
JB

Nice shots!

Soon Amtrak will be going thru that tunnel in East Dubuque again!

Railfan2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Soon Amtrak will be going thru that tunnel in East
> Dubuque again!


Real soon Train Mountain here in Oregon will have one protecting one of the crossings. Its almost ready to install thanks to a member and his ability to find things.