Eastern Railroad Discussion > Iowa Interstate IAIS working the "Hill Track" at LaSalle, IL 2014

The Iowa Interstate Bureau (ILL) local job (BUSW) switches the interchange with Buzzi Cement (ex-IC trackage) in LaSalle, ILL. Summer 2014.

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As background to the video (thanks for posting that, BTW!), Buzzi Cement is the current owner of the former Marquette Cement/Lone Star plant in nearby Oglesby, IL. When the ICG abandoned the Freeport-Clinton Amboy District through here in 1986, Lone Star purchased the line from their plant in Oglesby north across the Illinois River to LaSalle and the connection to CSX's former-RI New Rock Subdivision.

In 2006 CSX sub-leased this portion of the New Rock to Iowa Interstate and shortly thereafter Buzzi decided to cease quarrying and kiln operations at Oglesby and use the facility as a distribution center for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Now instead of shoving empties uphill and bringing loads down, it's the other way 'round as cement is brought into Oglesby from a Buzzi facility in Greencastle, IN on the former Monon, interchanged from CSX to IAIS at Utica, 5 miles east of here.

In the video the IAIS has just arrived westbound from Utica with the loads and is shoving east up the hill to the former site of the IC yard, where two tracks remain for interchange. That hill is no joke: Less than a mile east of here the former IC passes over the former RI with roughly a 50-foot separation, railhead-to-railhead.

Buzzi has two locomotives to shuttle cars back and forth to Oglesby: a GE 80-tonner and a rebuilt, chop-nosed GP. I caught the 80-tonner at work one April morning in 2009:

1. Gathering the first of several cuts to go to Oglesby (the former IC is uphill to Oglesby, so the GE is only good for 6-7 loads.)

2. Heading out southbound onto the Illinois River bridge. The IAIS is out of sight, even farther down the hill next to the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Told you that connection was steep! Side note: Prior to 1934 a division of the Illinois Traction System operated thorugh here and ran right up the middle of the street I'm standing on.

Anyway, hope the extra info was helpful.

NZ

 
 

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Thanks NZ!!

-Mark