Eastern Railroad Discussion > A BCOL C40-8M appears in Chicago

A pretty consistent CN Chicago train, L536, was way off today, and it's later timing tonight let met catch a huge surprise - a BCOL C40-8M. I say surprise because I saw video of a funeral train of C40-8M's headed to scrap in Ontario, and I haven't seen one of these in a long time.

A little bit about the weird operations today. L536 usually leaves Glenn Yard in late morning, headed to Kirk, and returns through Chicago in the evening between 6PM-9PM. On my morning commute, I saw a Metra SWS train stopped at 22nd St., and then a Metra Heritage Corrider train stop at Cermak as a freight crossed through 22nd St. The was L537 to Glenn, running 12 hours later than usual, and somehow given clearance through the Metra rush. That was extra surprising because this Kirk-Glenn transfer had an an IC SD70 as a DPU, so it was probably huge. I see it without DPU running at 160-170 cars, and on the rare times I've seen it with a DPU, it was about 200 cars. I really wonder if there is another yard-to-yard transfer in the country that runs with a DPU to go 60 miles.

The flip side of that was that when I came home from work, L536 was waiting at Cermak during the evening Metra rush. Light was gone before it got on the move. In the first two aerial shots, you can see why a long freight through Cermak interlocking at 8am is surprising - it is now a single track interlocking, so a movement blocks Metra-RI at 16th, Metra/Amtrak/NS at 22nd, and now also Metra/Amtrak at Cermak. This evening, the limited Metra-HC schedule was already past, so L536 is right up at the signal waiting for moves at 22nd and 16th to clear.

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The floodlights at Ping Tom Park were the best spot I could think of to get a night shot of 4609, which could be the last C40-8M I ever see. (I already thought that had happened before today.)

After that, a shot of the train passing through Kelley were the second main of the Chicago Sub now starts

And then, notching up past the signals at 39th St., headed for Kirk Yard.

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Finally, my model of BCOL 4601 that I did a few years ago, and I'm surprised 4609 looked cleaner than it.

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Seen a few of these in Pueblo Colo over the last year or so. Always a surprise. Nice model too! Ben

 Excellent photos of the prototype as well as the model!

I was able to catch 4609 leading an empty oil can in Meridian, MS in December of 2017. I believe this is the last one, or one of the last ones running around with all of its original BCR equipment. i.e. the Original K5L horn, bell, marker lights, and rock lights should all still be there. If only they had PTC, the could lead in the US. 

It's been running around on trains A488/489 recently and has been hovering back and forth between Memphis and Mobile, AL and it has been online and earning revenue, just trailing. Glad you caught it!

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Great shots of it in the lead!

Nice pics!!  My favorite is Pic 2!!