I was curious how many trains run on the Iowa Interstate line that crosses the BNSF main at Chillicothe IL.? Also on this topic, where is a good spot to catch the most Iowa Interstate trains?
there aren’t many iowa interstate trains out there…lol. USUALLY, there’s a train each direction a day on the ‘mainline’ from council bluffs to chicago, sometimes an extra westbound. eastbound (this is in the La Salle, IL area) comes thru mainly mid-morning 7-9 am, westbound typically after dark 8-10 pm. sometimes earlier, sometimes later. the eastbound i’ve seen stopped in Ottawa, IL at CSX’s yard, whether for a crew change, pick up or set out.
sorry i can’t help you much on the line to peoria from bureau jct, although i’ve seen a couple rolling north in the early evening…not much of a train however. i used to live in ottawa in the early 90’s, when i was in my early teens…the trains came thru like clockwork.
There is an Iowa Interstate (IAIS) email group on Yahoo at:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Iowa-Interstate/
Hope this helps.
If you have a Scanner Radio their Frequency is: AAR CH.74. 161.220MHZ. Road Channel.
BNSFrailfan.
The only Iowa Interstate train I ever saw on the Bureau Jct to Peoria line was in Peoria, on a September Sunday early afternoon (I’d been to the train show in E. Peoria). It was a total surprise but fortunately I had been a scout as a youngster (“Be Prepared”) and had my camera. As usual they had about 6 locomotives on the train, hoping I suppose that two of them might still be working by journey’s end.
Of course last summer we also saw a major steam excursion (Milw Road 261) on the IAS. I caught it in Wyanet where I got to talk to a large group of retired Rock Island railroaders.
Dave Nelson
It seems that a few pass each day past my area. The Metra Commuter runs a couple in each direction from Chicago to Joliet so the frieght times are spread thin. I catch a train stopped in Oak Forest, IL, along a large stretch of forest preserve & trail…especially on weedends around noon.
The Iowa Interstate runs to Peoria almost daily in the fall and winter due to heavy grain traffic. A Bureau Switcher will make a Peoria turn in the morning. The weekly CN coal train from Farmersville to Cedar Rapids continues to run. Grain trains coming out of Iowa often become RIPE (Rock Island to Peoria) and are handled by Bureau Switcher crew, IIRC.
BTW, the IAIS line goes under the BNSF at Chillicothe. When the temps get warmer, silica sand traffic out of Chilli will resume to Mokena and to a new customer in Rock Island.
a few people are/were trying to gather support to bring METRA down to the la salle-peru area from joliet, but no one seems to want to cough up the estimated $150 million to do so…
I have seen numerous trains in Iowa City while visiting there. Is it true that ADM owns over half of the IAIS?
I live in Peru, IL and there’s still lots of interest here but it all takes a lot of study and time – typical bureaucratic stuff.
The local paper does a write up now and then when there’s something new to report on it.
This is similar to the “proposed” interstate or whatever it’s going to be called which will run from Chicago to Peoria, and go through this area.
Both works in progress and not dead yet by any means…at least so far! [:)]
so i saw today, an iowa interstate train with 2 ex-UP sd50’s or 60’s but with TTMX (or some variation of those letters) on either side of the cabs pulling a REALLY short train… are the shops in silvis still in operation? NRE i believe it was called.
the chicago to peoria highway is one of the dumber ideas i’ve heard in a while. why build a new interstate when 2 others are 15 miles away and parallel to the proposed route?? i’ll agree that there’s no good direct way from chicago to peoria, but i can find at least 3,000 better things to spend all that money on…
That’s the beauty of Illinois politics – if the right bunch of millionaires give money to the right bunch of politicians, an unnecessary project will be paid for with your tax dollars!