Passenger Trains > #5 and #3 today in Ill.

Well the weather was crummy but that's never stopped me before, and since I was going to Ft. Madison today on another errand I took the camera along of course. Santa Fe was running westbounds like nobody's business, but I also wanted to get Amtrak 5 at Biggsville IL. #5 is supposed to be out of Galesburg at 440pm, Julie said they left at 455pm but I was waiting forever at Biggsville; finally when an EB coal load came grinding up the hill wrong main I realized BN was single tracking (so that's why there's that sheen of rust on main 2...). So I raced the coal train east of town to CP1896 and sure enough, Amtrak was there waiting for the coal train to cross over. That's his pusher in the first shot, and once Amtrak got the signal they wasted no time getting a move on towards Burlington, probably pushing an hour late.

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Here's the head end of the coal train at Biggsville; that ACE looked and sounded good!

With the delay on the BN I was seriously concerned about getting my next shot, but didn't need to be as I had plenty of time to get back down to the Santa Fe for Amtrak #3. I've been wanting a shot of Amtrak on the Media, IL trestle, and it will be worth another trip to get this when the sun is shining. Shooting from the north side of the trestle is strictly a summer evening (or cloudy day) affair; this bridge can be aggravating with brush on the south side and power lines on the north, but I guess we'll survive.

Andy

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