Guys- I have been working on some bridge construction on the I-88 Tollway in Lee county and have been seeing a lot of train traffic as you can imagine. Between Rochelle and Dixon, there are some great places to watch. Flagg, Ashton, and Franklin Grove along Highway 38. And with the grain harvest coming up, you really get a sense of America. I have been seeing a lot of the coal unit trains as you can imagine and occasionally I will see a locomotive at the back of the trains, mostly the westbound, when they are empty. My question is about the power at the back of the train. Is that locomotive actually pushing or just in neutral, being pulled along. Is that some kind of pusher, or just power deadheading from Proviso or somewhere else. I can’t imagine needing a pusher in Illinois. Help me out.
Someone else will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the coal unit trains that contain distributed power usually have engines that are dedicated to that train for the whole round trip, and the engine on the rear if so equipped is utilized for power whether or not the train is loaded or empty (the crew runs it remotely from up front). And you’d be surprised at some of the grades that there are in parts of Illinois and Iowa.
There have been a number of threads on the forum concerning Distributed Power and its use on coal trains, and the advantages to having these trains powered front and rear.
I’m surprised that you’ve seen more of these units on empties than on loads–it’s been the other way around for me.
And I’ll echo what Brian said about grades–they aren’t the same as in mountainous areas, but can require some added effort at times. The eastbound grade right in the Dixon area is the ruling grade for the entire Geneva Subdivision.
With a little bit of pride (since it’s my railroad you’re talking about!),
Brian is right. If all things are going normally, a load going east with a DPU usually comes back west empty as a DPU. It might just be a coincidence that he’s seeing more of the return empty DPU trains than the loads.
When a train is equipped with a DPU, the engine on the back is working. Not supposed to run with it in idle. Should you see a DPU in idle for any length of time, it probably is going to either be set out somewhere convienent or another added on the back. I’ve had a couple go belly-up. In one case, we set out the back engine. A relief crew brought out another engine plus an EOT to operate conventionally. The other time, the DPU wouldn’t produce power, but didn’t need to be completely shut down. They added a working unit, using the bad-ordered one to still control the rear consist.
We are only supposed to have 2 working engines on empty hoppers for fuel conservation. If there are two up front and one in back, the second one up front will be off-line.
My instructor at Salt Lake City, who’s home territory had mountain grades, told our class we may not have mountain territory, but we had other concerns to deal with. On his turf, he would usually be either going up or going down, not a lot of undulation in grade. The supposed “flat-landers” have to deal with many places where a train could have the front cresting a hump, the middle going thru the bottom of a sag while the rear end is still cresting a hump. A DPU can help control slack in those situations.
Jeff
Thanks for the imput. I will say that I have to work most of the day, but when I get up on the bridges over there, it’s kind of hard not to spot a train going somewhere. I did notice that the power seems consistent at times, especially on the unit trains. I don’t read all the threads, and i do remember seeing the thread on power somewhere.
Are there good spots in Sterling or Rock Falls to watch, or somewhere out toward Clinton. When I get into Dixon, the trains seem to disappear. I know there is a cut there, but I see nothing west of town.
It doesn’t hug the highway west of Dixon like it does east of there. Nelson is a good place to watch, and the concrete coaling tower over all four tracks is a good photo prop. Someone mentioned good food there, too–check out the “Edelstein Connection” thread.
In Sterling, a high-school classmate of mine (yes, I’m from Michigan, and so was she!) once showed me a park toward the east end of town. Can’t remember the name of it, but believe it was still on the stretch where the highway is on two one-way streets. At any rate, the tracks run at the foot of a fairly steep slope beneath you, with the Rock River beyond them–and looking east you can see around a long curve to the Rick River bridge. The trains are in view for a long time.
Morrison is a pretty photogenic town.
I’m sure that Chris May (a.k.a. CopCar SS) may have a few other places to point out as well.
Hmmm…Sterling to Clinton?
I’d start out at Nelson like Carl mentioned. Who knows how long the impressive coal tower will be there. It makes a great background. Technically, it’s railroad property, but I’ve hiked to the eastside to get morning light before. Just shoot everything from the south side of the tracks, and you should be OK.
In Sterling proper, it can be a little tough to get near the tracks. When I go there, I think I usually head out to one of two places:
-
There’s an overpass on the east side of the steel mill that you can stand on. I think this has been the place to get pictures, dating all the way back to the steam days at Northwestern Steel and Wire. It’s public property, so you won’t be chased out and the security folk at NWSW won’t take your film or memory cards (this dates back to about '95 or so, but I was told by a CNW crew that the NWSW security folks would do that…in today’s liabilty/terrorist freaked out world, it might even be worse (like arresting you for trespassing), so I’d advise you to stay off the railroad’s and the steel mill’s property.
-
There’s a street that parallels the railroad in Sterling. On that street is a VFW (or something to that effect) that has a parking lot that butts up against the railroad ROW. I’ve parked in there before, and wandered up next to the ROW without any probs. Again, it’s been awhile, so don’t take my word for it, but I would imagine that you could still go there without any probs. Afternoon shots are best, since you’ll be looking back at the steel mill. Alas! it’s on the north side of the tracks, so shadows could be problematic except really late in the day during summer. It’s worth it to deal with them, though (at least I think so).
After that, my next stop was always the bridge just west of Galt, IL. Alas! the new bridge that replaced the old one that was destroyed a year or so by a derailment isn’t quite as “aesthetically pleasing” as the old one. Still, the road parallels the railroad for about
DP’s on my road ( that big Green and Orange Rival) are un DP’ed in Galesburg if they are to be sent to the NS and CSX roads. Not sure if or where the UP removes DP’s for roads that dont use DP.
Very nice shot off the bridge there in Clinton. I was there as my first assignment as a brakeman. The GLOW is awesome in the setting sun… One of my favorite views is from behind the old depot looking over at the former DRI line office( now bnsf) I dont know how much longer this area will look residential as ADM is buying a ton of land there looking to build more plant. I hope it is soon that they get it done as it will add more carts going to UP from us also the ICE and maybe another crew put on duty there in Clinton. Already the day job is over loaded going down and coming back.
CopCarss: thank you very much for the info. I am impressed and I’l try to follow up on that in the next few weeks. I’m not much of a photographer, because the picture I take always look sodull in comparison to the live action. But maybe I’ll get the bug one of these days.
pkielty, be sure to wave at my friend Jeff as he drives by in the afternoon! [;)]
I’ve been down in that area the past couple of weekends. I’ll second the remarks about Nelson, though my shots from there are still locked inside a memory card that decided to stop working [:(][:(][:(] The rest of my pictures, though most of them are getting closer to the Quad Cities, are in Sept. 2006 Railfan Trips.
Hopefully I can still get those Nelson shots out of the memory card!!!
Getting back to the DPUs, most of the WEPX and EDGX coal trains that run into Wisconsin have DPUs on them. I think they’re kinda nice, especially since a caboose on the end of the train is almost non-existant these days!