I had a few days off work so I decided to visit Galesburg, IL. I highly recommend this city. Lots of tracks and crossing gates. If the gate isn’t down when you look at it, it soon will be.
I went out to Cameron, IL. It’s a wide spot in the road surrounded by the green corn and soybean bounty of the upcomming Illinois harvest. There the old Santa Fe double track main line runs over an overpass of the old BN (CB&Q) double track main line. There were three trains in 15 minutes. Two at the same time on the old Santa Fe. An eastbound BNSF intermodal and a WB Union Pacific domestic stacker with DP locomotives. The one I saw on the old BN this morning (8/13/2009) is what puzzeled me.
It was an eastbound intermodal with a mix of stacked domestic (JB Hunt) containers and trailers. There were UPS trailers, an ABF trailer, YRC trailers, one CR England reefer, and a whole bunch of “Central Refrigerated” truck line reefers.
The only intermodal that I know of on the old BN west of Galesburg would be their one Denver-Chicago train per day. This was a healthy train. It was a long one. Did they actually get all this good freight out of Denver, including the reefer loads. If so, they’re hauling meat and that would be a wonderful thing.
Or did the BNSF route an intermodal from the Pacific Northwest though Galesburg? That would seem like a strange thing to do with a hot IM train hauling perishables. The fact that the train didn’t have any steamship containers on it makes me think it didn’t come out of the PNW. But I don’t know.
detour they are doing trackwork on the old C&I between Savanna and Aurora they are detouring some trains for example the Z-STPCHC is now the Z-STPWSP but it comes off the Barstow sub goes around the cameron connector from the BN to the SF
If it came off the Ottumwa Sub it was the Z DENCHI.Sundays it leaves as a Q train.Hits the connection and gets recrewed by a Chicago crew in Galesburg. It its after 5 am when you saw it, its late.
Rennix Yard is where the trailers get loaded, It picks up in Omaha so it could have got the reefers there. Not sure I never had it with anything but Boxes and trailers.
Two different answers and I’m still not sure. Such is life.
It was well after 5:00 AM when I was in Cameron. Forty plus years ago I worked in the Illinois fields. I was paid $1.25/hour since minimum wage didn’t apply to ag workers. I started at 5:30 AM. Those fields are still green and beautiful in the morning this time of year. But I got out of that and I ain’t gonna’ be out there that time of morining ever again.
With no disrespect, I lean to the reroute answer. The train was after 10:00 AM. And if the BNSF is doing work on the C&I a reroute would make sense. Leaning the other way, if it was a Pacific Northwest train it should have had some international boxes on it. Like I said I’m not sure.
The numerous Central Refrigerated trailers on the train are still interesting even if it came out of the PNW and not Denver. Central Refrigerated is owned by Jerry Moyes. Moyes is kind of the Hunter Harrison of trucking, except he owns the company. (People feel the same way about the two people. They’re either visionaries or Devils, take your pick.) Moyes built up Swift Trucking, and then sold it off through an IPO. He went home to count his money, then bought Swift back as he saw it become a failing business. I don’t know how it’s doing now since it’s again a privately owned company and doesn’t have to do public reporting. I interviewed him once. When I was doing market research for International Harvester/Navistar.
Central Refrigerated is a rebirth of Dick Simon Trucking with Jerry Moyes as the midwife. You may have seen Simon’s trucks on the road. His Logo was a skunk. Well, the skunk went broke and Moyes bought it.
If he’s running those reefers out of the Pacific Northwest he’s developing the Washington State Apple/Potato/Onion/Pear business for rail movement.
‘‘1) I was a partner in an orgainization trying to do that and Moyes may have beat us to the punch, 2) I’m glad this business is comming back on the rail where it belongs. There is no good economic reason to truck a load of apples from Yakima to Chicago. If Moyes beat us to the punch, all I can say is that the man’s a trucking guru who knows how to make rail intermodal an integral part of his business plan.’’
Observation: No businessman ever feels comfortable with only 1 ‘sole-source’ of a major input to the operation, esp. not with the vital ‘last link’ to the customer. And, some competition is good for the soul . . . [:-^]
I’ve been to Galesburg a few times but have never actually seen the location of where the Barstow Sub mainline connects with the Q’s Chicago - Denver mainline. Is there a wye there?
Interestingly, I was out at Cameron back in the summer of '83. Very interesting place and a lot of good action. When did BNSF install a connecting track there?
Back in the days of being a traveling salesman, I passed thru Cameron quite a few times on the way to Burlington, Iowa. Interesting location. The connection track was installed after the BN+SF merger, probably around 1996/7.
Ok, here is another possibility (remote). Doesnt BNSF have rights on the old SP out of the Bay area and on to Denver?
Is it possible the refer units are coming out of the agricultural area? I realize that movement would probaby go south on the old Santa Fe, but as I said it is “remote”.
What would the routing be on a Pacific NW intermodal re-route to bypass the work on the C&I? Wouldnt it take the Galesburg - Savanana route to Galesburg and avoid the Cameron area?
Thanks for sharing the link to the article in Refrigerated Transporter.
It was personally very interesting. I viewed the SWIFT/CENTRAL TRANSPORT/ DICK SIMON affair from another perspective. MS CARRIERS (MSC) was another company that came into the Moyes camp at about the same time, as did WESTWAY.
MSC was primarily a dry freight operation with about 5,000 ± power units, and something around about 35,000 trailers. Terminals in Laredo,Tx. Fontana,Ca. Dallas, Tx, Memphis, Tn. Atlanta,Ga. Martinsburg,WV, Wilkes Barre,Pa. We were a major external carrier for Fed Ex ( some thousands of loads a year) among others. We were basically informed that as we were folded into the SWIFT organization that all they wanted were the drivers/Mechanics and a few Customer Service types, as they already could handle the absorption of MSC with their then current organization. I have watched with some interest and a small amount of information from friends how the SWIFT organization has grown. Living adjacent to a major BNSF branch, I see lots of equipment with SWIFT logo’s go by on almost every train. Most from Chicago to the West Coast and back. By comparison not a lot of refrigerated containers are present, but on TOFC type equipment there seems to be a number of carriers utilizing the expedited trains ( “Z’s” for their movement). Again, thanks for sharing.
its about close to The Amtrak station where the Chillicothe sub runs under ther Mendota sub in Galesburg If your at the station and you look up the Mendota Sub towards chicago the Barstow goes off to the left about where the signal bridge is
If it was a Pacific Norwest origin reroute over the Barstow Sub to avoid track work on the C&I it wouldn’t have gone through Cameron.
Gosh dang it! If that was a Denver origin train it was a damn fine train. You could almost see it throwing money to the bottom line. Long enough and not one empty hitch or well. Every well was loaded with two revenue producing containers. And it seems to have been a Denver train because the Barstow Sub line comes in to Galesburg well east of Cameron. Check out the Galesburg detail on this BNSF map.
My only negative is that it was well after 5:00 AM and therefore was way late. Come on BNSF, you’r maketing people got the customers, now have your operating folks give 'em some service.
I’ll discount MP173’s contention that this had a long shot possibility of being a west coast train because I don’t think the Moffat Tunnel can clear domestic double stack. Good thought though on a possibility. Of course, the conainters could have been added at Denver or points east. I don’t think the Central Refrigerated trailers were picked up en route at a place such as Omaha because they all weren’t in a block.
Dang it! If those reefers came out of Denver they were loaded with
If it was a Pacific Norwest origin reroute over the Barstow Sub to avoid track work on the C&I it wouldn’t have gone through Cameron.
Gosh dang it! If that was a Denver origin train it was a *** fine train. You could almost see it throwing money to the bottom line. Long enough and not one empty hitch or well. Every well was loaded with two revenue producing containers. And it seems to have been a Denver train because the Barstow Sub line comes in to Galesburg well east of Cameron. Check out the Galesburg detail on this BNSF map.
My only negative is that it was well after 5:00 AM and therefore was way late. Come on BNSF, you’r maketing people got the customers, now have your operating folks give 'em some service.
I’ll discount MP173’s contention that this had a long shot possibility of being a west coast train because I don’t think the Moffat Tunnel can clear domestic double stack. Good thought though on a possibility. Of course, the conainters could have been added at Denver or points east. I don’t think the Central Refrigerated trailers were picked up en route at a place such as Omaha because they all weren’t in a block.
Dang it! If those reefers came out of Denver they were loaded with beef. Railroads haven’t hauled fres
BNSF Z trains out of South Seattle and Portland routinely handle JB Hunt, Roadway, UPS, and other domestic trailers and containers. Refrigerated ones as well, but I don’t recall whether any have been of the specific type you saw. S (stack) symbols handle the majority of BNSF’s foreign containers out of the PNW ports. With Americans buying far fewer import products than in previous years, the number of steamship containers you expect to see rolling east from the PNW is down, but domestic intermodal has taken less of a hit.
Give you a clue what was in those Reefers. It comes from Golden brewed with Mountain Water. The Product comes in Cans, Bottles and Kegs and the latest ones when cold turn BLUE. Central Refrig is the Largest Carrier for Coors Brewing out of Golden Colorado and they haul about 60-70% of the finished product out of there headed EAST.
Rennix should be RENNICK (Ex CB&Q, adjacent to the former CB&Q Shops) which is opposite DRGW/UP “North Yard”…
With RTD lusting stupidly after Rennick and North Yard, maybe old ATSF “Big Lift” will come back to life as Denver’s piggyback facility, at least for a while.
LOL DOnt ask me why Ihad an x there for Rennik. As for a detour off the Barstow,yes you would use the connection HOWEVER you wouldnt be coming off the Ottumwa sub east bound.From the air Cameron looks like an hourglass.If coming off the Barstow sub you would pass through Gaelsburg and then out of town as if you were headed to Creston.You would then hit the connection and basicly get turned back towards Galesburg on the Chilli sub.
Thing is with the Z Denver it was Boxes on the head end and trailers on the back. Once you spotted Willow you got out on the main ( usually an hour wait or longer) then down to the IC crossing to wait outside of Corwith till you died lol.Fropm Galesbug we could make it there in 3 and a half hours usually. If we got all greens and no form b’s. so then you would have to wait till you were 30 mintes from dying on the law before someone would do something. I had a Q train out of Creston one time with some non intermodal cars but that was a rare deal.
Most of the Beer cars we got in Galesburg were from St Louis. We would get MFRWY cars and old Santa Fe insulated box cars full of wine from California.The wine came in on the Chilli sub( train always died there outside of town and would sit even when recrewed)Beer off the Quincy Sub but I cant find my notes on what train it was always on. Sighs Senility sucks.
So Back to Denver, is RTD really trying to take over all that? I thought they were broke? Plus will they share trackage on the Front Range or build off to the side? I know Dionisio and a few others were wanting to put bids in to be passenger engineers lol.
RTD wants Rennick (BNSF) and North Yard UP) as their staging yard. They want Globeville/38th St (BNSF) so they can hand it (under the table) to Denver and certain developers. They negotiated with both railroads and then failed to follow through (self inflicted money problems), then tried to hold both railroads to an early 1990’s e$timate price which, along with balking by the communities where suburban growth got to before plans were dusted off and new yards were to be located, won’t even build half of the replacement yards needed.
Denver RTD is the poster child for how not to build a rail transit system and allow it to be controlled by bus people and politicians.
No. I’m one of the few that doesn’t do the picture thing.
I’m interested in seeing what the railroad is doing. What types of trains are being run, how many are running, where they’re going, and trying to find out what they’re hauling.
A couple more observations. There still are many gravel roads in the Cameron, IL area. These roads were quite common in central Illinois where I grew up and first drove a car in the 1960’s. They’re pretty much all paved over now “down home” and around this part of northern Illinois. I was surprised to be on them near Cameron. Even more surprising was that the BNSF had lights and gates protecting these rural roads. “Back in The Day” there would have been just a crossbuck.
I followed the old Santa Fe east from Galesburg to Chillicothe and caught up with that now identified Denver Z at Edelstein. I ate lunch at a nice resteraunt in Chillicothe with a view of the Illinois River. I could see the BNSF river bridge in the distance, but I didn’t see any train cross while enjoying my pork tenderloin sandwich and Bud Lite. But while leaving town on Ill. Route #29 the BNSF obliged with two trains at the same time on their overpass. Westbound intermodal and eastbound carload.
Chillicothe, which has no Amtrak service now, was where my family boarded the Chief or El Capitan to go visit relatives in southern California. I did that four times between age 7 and age 17. The last time I got off the Santa Fe in Chilly our train was the Chief and it had just a few more months to run.
Are ALL stack & intermodal trains, including road railers considered high priority trains or are these limited to those that require a guaranteed time?