Eastern Railroad Discussion > DREI and others in Tuscola, IL

Back on December 22, my dad and I spent a few hours at the diamond in Tuscola IL. The CN crosses the UP and the Decatur & Illinois Eastern (ex-CSX) here, so most Saturdays there are at least a few trains moving through town. This particular Saturday was pretty quiet, but we were able to catch a couple trains.

1. The first train was Decatur & Illinois Eastern RR (DREI) bringing a CSX unit train over to the ADM elevator. The elevator has a balloon track that was built a few years back. Apparently, the elevator has only shipped out about 6 unit trains a year the last couple years. Most carload traffic is handled by the CN connection the elevator has. This photo is the train rolling to a stop just east of town, waiting for a signal to use the UP track across the diamond. Engineer Elvin Rivera's flag can be seen flying on the lead unit.

2. A few minutes later, a southbound (westbound) UP manifest rolls through town.

3. The UP wasted no time lining up the DREI after the manifest cleared. These next couple photos were taken from the highway overpass enbankment. In this photo, you can see the small length of UP track used before switching back over to DREI rails.

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4. Wider angle showing the track layout around the diamond with the old truck-only serviced elevator in the background.

5. Without my longer zoom lens, this was the best shot I could grab of the train beginnning to circle around the balloon track.

6. After waiting over an hour with no traffic, a CN northbound with UP power pounds the diamond.

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7. The northbound cruising on past the diamond and old elevator.

8-9. Ten minutes later, another Southbound UP train rolls through town with an NS sd60 rebuild.

It was a slow Saturday for Tuscola, but at least the sun was out, the temps were nice, and we had a nice variety of power.

Thanks for looking!
   -Caleb

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Great pictures! Is the diamond controlled by UP or CN?

Thank you in advance.

Thanks for sharing these. You have some interesting photo locations there.
Bob

PRR_4859 Wrote:
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> Great pictures! Is the diamond controlled by UP
> or CN?
>
> Thank you in advance.

I'm not entirely sure, but from what I've seen, I think it's whoever hits the block first gets priority.

Great coverage from an area I often visit when in the area all the way from California.

Regards, Jim Evans

PRR_4859 Wrote:
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> Is the diamond controlled by UP
> or CN?

Normally first come, first served, with CN RTC override option to lock in routing for the passenger trains.