I was wondering where and at what time would be best to see a Triple Crown Train in Illinois. Thanks
Depends on where you are in Illinois. The Triple Crowns barely make it into Illinois on the Fort Wayne - Chicago line, terminating at Calumet Yard (Southeast Chicago).
TC runs a daily into Calumet Yard, which arrives around 7-9am. It is train 266. There is a daily eastbound leaving around 7pm or so (train 261). Further, they run train 242 several times a week which is an earlier eastbound move…perhaps 5pm.
A train is also run during daylight hours on the IHB from Calumet Yard to the UP at Proviso Yard. I believe this runs 3x weekly and is usually around noon. Assuming it runs 3x weekly, then there will be a return trip the next day (a big assumption…someone clarify). I have seen this train, both NB and SB on the IHB during late morning from the 294 Tri State. I am not sure the routing from Calumet Yard to Proviso, as I have seen it at the curve on TriState (95th Street) and also on the NS at the Dan Ryan near 91st Street.
A possible routing would be (from Proviso)…UP/IHB to NS Metra at Chicago Ridge, north past Landers to Landers on the NS line to Calumet. That would explain seeing the train at 95th Street on the TriState and NS passing over Dan Ryan.
The TC also runs on the Wabash from Ft Wayne to Decatur (then St. Louis or KC). These seem to run thru the Lafayette area in both directions around mid-day. I have spotted the TC at Tolono from I57 around noon.
Ed
Decatur is your best spot–preferably at the NS’ Saint Louis - Kansas City split, that way you would catch both the KC bound tripple crown and the SL bound tripple crown.
Although I do not know what the schedules are, when I used to live along NS’ Saint Louis line, I was pretty sure they ran tripple crown at failrly precise times.
Gabe
I thoght this might be an interesting picture to post here.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=313176&nseq=25
Never saw TC in these conditions before.
Im going to try Deactur Again on Saturday and the train show is there as well this weekend.
Yes Deactur is your best bet. I live near the Indiana Illinois border, and I swear sometimes that if I ever see another TC train I will move to California…. But, any train is better than no train I guess.