We’re in Clinton on May 21, 1996, to see something a little out of the ordinary. This eastbound CSX train is led by former Grand Trunk Western GP38-2 No. 5715 still wearing its original livery. Note that the trailing unit is a Canadian National locomotive.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Arcola, Illinois, likes to describe itself as “broom town.” That’s because back in the 1920s the area was known for the production of broom corn which led to Arcola being a center for the manufacturing of brooms.
Every year the town of 3,000 population celebrates is broom corn heritage with an annual festival.
Arcola is bisected the mainline of the Chicago-New Orleans route of the Illinois Central Railroad, now owned by Canadian National.
On a Saturday morning a pair of bicyclists watch as a northbound CN manifest freight passes through town.
Some standard cab locomotives have been returned to mainline service by Canadian National after being sidelined or assigned to captive service since early 2021, Trains magazine reported this week on its website.
Some other units, including idled wide cab units, also have returned to service or are being prepared for a return as part of the railroad’s fall and winter surge fleet.
Most of the 134 GE C-40-8 units CN acquired between 2010 and 2012 have been parked or retired since 2020.
The Dash 8s are not expected to be mainstays on CN for long. The Trains report can be read at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/news-photos-canadian-national-returns-dash-8-locomotives-to-service/
Canadian National has begun testing renewable fuel locomotives on its Bessemer & Lake Erie line in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Railway Age reported that the testing is being conducted in partnership with Progress Rail and Renewable Energy Group.
Locomotives in the test use a blend of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel. The locomotives began operating on Feb. 1.
CN officials told Railway Age that the test program will run for approximately two years. One of the project objectives is to gain a better understanding of the long-term durability and operational effects of renewable fuels on locomotives, particularly during cold weather.
The fuel is being supported by Renewable Energy and contains high-percentage blends of biomass-based fuel, including both biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel.
Hickory Street in Warsaw, Indiana, is famous for two blocks of street running on the Marion District of Norfolk Southern, which many railfans still like to call the Marion Branch.
A street project that wrapped up earlier this year changed the traffic patterns on Hickory for vehicles but not for trains. The street is now one lane northbound only with the other lane devoted to on-street parking.
Last Friday I chased the 13Q from Goshen to Warsaw with the objective of getting some fall foliage and street running. There were no colorful trees on Hickory itself, but a pair of tees with gold leaves were visible on Fort Wayne Avenue. The latter comes into Hickory at an angle on the north end of the street running at the crossing of East Main Street.
The 13Q, which was led by a Canadian National unit and had a CN unit on the rear as a DPU, is shown in the top image. However, the first train I saw run down the street was the 14J, whose rear is shown about to clear the street running in the bottom image.
Note that in theory through vehicles are prohibited on the tracks and in the easternmost lane. But during my time waiting for trains I saw a number of vehicles straddle the rails while waiting at the stop light to make a left turn onto Fort Wayne Avenue.
At the time this image was made, this Canadian National unit was leased to Conrail. It is working in Stanley Yard in Toledo on Oct. 14, 1977.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
I met Jeff Troutman in Perry on Sunday evening to catch CSX ethanol train K614. There were three other railfans there as well. What was special about his train is that it was led by Canadian National 8952, the Grand Trunk Western heritage unit. It passed through just after 7 p.m.
Photograph by Edward Ribinskas
Both images above were made in Akron the CSX New Castle Subdivision on the morning of June 16, 2021. The top image shows an eastbound while the bottom image has a westbound with Canadian National motive power.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Old glory waves in the breeze from a bridge in Paxton, Illinois, over the Chicago Subdivision of Canadian National, formerly the Illinois Central.
Shown is a southbound CN auto rack train whose consist also had a few boxcars of, perhaps, auto parts.
The train was captured on July 3, 2021, during a holiday weekend. The train had slowed here for a possible meet with a northbound, but the dispatcher elected to move the meet to the next siding to the south at Rantoul.
In my perfect world the first Canadian National heritage locomotive I would see and photograph would be ET44AC No. 3008 on the point of a southbound on the former Illinois Central mainline in east central Illinois.
As it turned out my first CN heritage unit was the 3008 and it was running on the ex-IC in east central Illinois. But it was trailing and headed northward.
What’s special about the 3008? It’s the Illinois Central heritage locomotive.
Yeah, my first sighting of it was as a trailing unit, but just look at what it is trailing. No. 3008 was assigned as the third of three units pulling train A407, the daily Centralia, Illinois, to Kirk Yard in Gary, Indiana, job.
In recent months this train has typically operated with former IC SD70 units, many of them still in their IC “death star” livery.
So what we had on Saturday, May 1, was a pair of original IC SD70s, Nos. 1028 and 1001, both wearing their “death star” look teamed up with a “death star” IC heritage unit.
This begs the question of which of these units is the heritage unit.
The 3008 could have been the leader on the A407. It’s nose was facing north. I would later learn that the 3008 was removed from the A407 in Champaign and put on another northbound train as a leader.
I don’t know if working with original IC units is a first for the 3008. CN heritage units are allowed to roam the CN system, which is quite vast so the 3008 will be matched with a wide range of CN motive power.
Whatever the case, this motive power consist was one instance in which I didn’t mind all that much that the heritage unit was trailing. Three out of five isn’t a bad day’s work in railroad photography.
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