So about 1-2 weeks ago I spotted a BSNF coal train on the BRC main north of BNSF’s racetrack (around Chicago Ave actually). Was that a CP train with BNSF power? If not what in the world was a BNSF train doing there? BNSF has no trackage going north from Chicago at all - only their main going west which then curves north to Minneapolis along the Mississippi. Was there a problem or something on BNSF’s main that they were rerouting via the ex- Milwaukee Road line to the Mississipi and then joining their main?
Probably en route from BNSF to CP and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Interesting… so if it was going to the coal power plant at Pleasant Prarie, was it a BNSF train or CP train with just BSNF power then? And also, why would they take that routing, as the BRC routing would necessitate for them to reverse direction at the galesburg yard? Routing via the IHB would seem more logical…
I have no idea which routing they take–they could go on out west to Bensenville before heading north.
As far as whose train it was, don’t judge it by the motive power. Whenever it gets taken over by a CP crew, it would be a CP train, regardless of whose engines are on it. They might change at Bensenville, or closer in. By the way, it’s Galewood–Galesburg is over on the other side of the state.
If this is a PRB to Pleasant Prairie train, operating over IHB would not be feasible without a back-up move at Congress Park, there aren’t any connecting tracks in the northwest quadrant. Operating over BRC is probably the best routing, running west to Bensenville as suggested above.
In the late Milwaukee Road Era BN units would run through on Coal Trains from Chicago and then Milwaukee to the Coal Fired Plant in Portage (Columbia II?). Green BN UBoats and a Green BN Coupola Caboose were common. This might be the same.
The trains to the Columbia powerplant are interchanged from BNSF to CP at St. Paul, MN. The Pleasant Prairie trains are interchanged in Chicago.