During my after work sojourn to Eola yard in Aurora yesterday afternoon I came across Burlington Junction #900, an old SW9 sitting at the engine “house” next to the yard office. As old as she is, she still looks immaculate in her red and black livery. Wonder where she is coming from or going to? (BTW, not my photo of #900 at Rochelle, only borrowed for illustrative purposes).
I stopped by there on Tuesday and it was sitting at the same spot.
That locomotive is for the new operation in Montgomery Illinois and is being held at Eola until the start up day.
Thanks friend, do you know if BJRR is taking over for RailNet in Montgomery or what exactly is the story? Thanks again.
That locomotive last came through Eola Sept. 03, 2006 freshly repainted and rebuilt en route to its new job at Rochelle, switching the east side yards. If it’s moving to Montgomery, what replaced it at Rochelle?
There’s a Burlington Junction Geep out at Rochelle. I thought nothing of it until reading this and remembering about the switcher.
The BJRY is a shortline railroad in Burlington, IA. They own a 1 - 2 mile spur in downtown Burlington, and also do switching in Mount Pleasant and Ottumwa. At least in Ottumwa, a BJRY switcher is there full-time. Maybe this is what’s going on in Montgomery.
The BJRY’s locomotive fleet is pretty interesting, IIRC. At one time they had some C415’s from the Spirit of Washington dinner train - they may still have them. YouTube has a few videos of them in action.
BJRY now also operates out of Rochelle, and according to this thread, Montgomery, IL.
Phil
The BJRY operates 6 different operations check www.bjryrail.com operations in Montgomery will involve the old yard and track that goes out to Dial and Home Depot. The only RR they are replacing is BNSF in the switching area.
I think they might have a leased Canac S13 filling in for the 900 at Rochelle. The GP16 has always been there, they have been using two engines in Rochelle. Does anyone know where in Montgomery the BJRY will run out of?
Update, our BNSF friends moved #900 from the engine “house” to the middle of the “West Yard” at Eola and she has been joined by a bright red high nosed Geep (could not get the number or road markings without trespassing on BNSF property by quite a bit). Any information on this new Geep would be appreciated (it is a high nose version, possibly a GP18 rebuild as it has a filter yoke like the ICG used to install at Paducah, KY).
That GP18 was built for the original Norfolk Southern as a low nose unit and had a high nose added after the Southern took it over. It is a unit that BJRY is leasing to use in Montgomery.
Sooo… They sold the Montgomery stock yd. and spurs. Any one know when the Neffi branch is gonna be sold? I’m surprised, out of the Ottowa line, Montgomery and Neffi, it’s turning out to be the last one (well, ok, there’s still the West Chicago branch. too) to go. There hasn’t been much traffic since S-A, B-G, Equipto, and several others shut down in the 70’s and 80’s. I noticed the last time I was in town they had done alot of work on it. double headed geeps on the Neffi, WOW. It was just a decade or two ago that little branch had stock rail from the 1890’s all up and down it, and those solitary SW’s made the rails bend under the weight.