That's enough of a break--where is it?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Lovely array of signals–three lights each on four tracks–when you face east.

All four tracks go under concrete–and a little coal dust–west of the signals.

Follow the signals east about 25 miles and you might find yourself on camera! I did!

Go south on the tracks and you might encounter some new trackage being built.

Take the tracks west and you’ll cross an ancient truss bridge, and go past a spot where 0-8-0s lived through the 1970s.

Small town, big railroading. Not too much else.

Where am I?

(Not in Michigan this time)

2

So we’re east of Sterling, Illinois. I suppose it could be the C&NW coaling tower at De Kalb, but I can’t recall four tracks going beneath it, only two.

S. Hadid

3

You’re right–it’s not DeKalb. But you may have just given it away to dozens of folks on this forum!

4

Wow! One I knew off of the first post! Yay me! I’ll hold off a bit and let someone else get it.

5

Nelson, IL. (UP, Steam at Sterling, IL steel mill, new UP/BNSF connection, coaling tower, Rochelle?)

6

Hmmmmm…thought I had some shots of the coaling tower there, but can’t find them on the hard drive. They must be on film (man I need to get a scanner!)

Anways, here are some shots of the remnants of the 0-8-0’s that were mentioned:

BTW, I asked before, and no one knew. Anybody have any clue just who Ken Marks is?

7

If the truss bridge you are referring to is at Galt near the 0-8-0s, it was damaged in a derailment in May 2005 and has been replaced by the girder bridge above top. The bottom photo is the wrecked double truss bridge, shot from over 1000 yards away with a 750mm lens. Here are some additional photos of the wreck:

http://s-scale.org/albums/v/friends/philk/galtwreck/?g2_navId=x3b6a8bf7

And here are some pics of one of the former GTW 0-8-0s and the Nelson coaling tower over the UP Overland Route. CTC east into Chicago starts at Nelson:

http://s-scale.org/albums/v/friends/philk/galtnelson/?g2_navId=x3b6a8bf7

Pop Z

8

Perhaps, a cousin of Kilroy?[:o)]

9

Yep–Nelson!

Pop, the bridge I was referring to was the one over the Rock River between Nelson and Sterling. I thought about mentioning the Galt incident, but decided that enough was enough. Here’s a shot at Nelson–the signal array I was referring to was behind this, and facing east. Don’t know if it’s still there–haven’t been west of Rochelle for a while.

Also, Pop, although Nelson is where the CTC historically started, it’s now CTC all the way across the state, and then some.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=143932&PHPSESSID=d97b34f49f017e8ba0bd99f19386aaca

10

That bridge over the Rock River is hard to get to, I think. It is visible east of a street that dead-ends at the river at a boat launch, IIRC.

Thanks for the heads-up about CTC running across the state. So I guess for nostalgia (or via apathy) there’s still a sign at the base of the signal bridge at the grade crossing east of the coaling tower at Nelson that indicates the beginning of CTC (this is an extreme blowup):

11

Or perhaps just for that track. I’d have to look at my tt to confirm, but I believe that at least one of the four tracks has lost its main-track status. There would have to be a sign like that somewhere, for trains coming off the Peoria Sub.

I have to go back to Nelson–my last time there was on a Sterling-to-Lombard bike trip, about nine years ago (oops, scratch that–we came back through there after checking out the wreck at Galt).

Since I’m not a photographer, I don’t worry too much about getting close to the bridge for using it as a prop. However, there’s a park in Sterling (can’t tell you the name; it’s near the east side of town, not too far east of the Dillon house/museum) where the tracks go nearly beneath you on a hillside, and you can see them curve away to the east and cross the bridge.

12

By the way, J-class nailed all of the hints as well, in his correct answer. Congratulations!