I went to Galesburg (IL) Railroad Days this last weekend - a shadow of its former (wonderful) self as a train display and event although the railfanning around Galesburg was as good as ever, both in Peck Park and on the Thirlwell Street Bridge over the huge yard. The only display was a freshly shopped BNSF diesel which, oddly enough, lacked ditch lights on the rear. is this a new interpretation of the rule? Or was the unit borrowed before the shop was quite done with it? The brake cylinders had clearly never once been applied for example. I forgot to check the fuel level but it may well have been on "E"
Monday offered a chance to see the F units in operation on the nearby Keokuk Junction Railway which we followed from Mapleton (or Kolbe as it used to be called) to Bushnell. Unfortunately the B unit was in the shop and the headend was a GP20 with another GP20 between the F units. Ordinarily a GP20 would be an attraction in itself but the F units are the draw. And of course as a east to west to back east run, the sun angle is ALWAYS wrong for photography.
Anyway to return to the topic of the post -- interesting to note two changes noted since last year's Railroad Days. First on the BNSF main and in the yard, one now sees oil trains -- just about as common as ethanol trains were in prior years. The midtrain placement of some buffer cars suggests that the trains are blocked to be broken up en route. One all-tank train featured tank cars that appeared to be on their maiden voyage -- new BLT dates in May and shiny black paint worthy of a new car.
The other change is more sobering. Railfanning the UP east/west main past the "deer stand" in Rochelle west to Dixon and then to Nelson, in prior years you noted the stark and new concrete ties, a major project. This year, one noted that the concrete ties are crumbling before your very eyes -- some shocking damage, huge cracks, and often the tieplate holding the tie to the rail is suspended in air as the concrete tie seems to turn to white dust, exposing the strands of rebar! And off to the side there are crumbling piles of discarded concrete ties. These ties are new! Whether related or not, I also noted that as heavy trains traveled over concrete tie trackage, that track tends not to yield, or depress/rise, as does track with wood ties. I believe the entire subroadbed and track laying process differs from concrete to wood ties -- it is not just a matter of substituting one for the other, so once you go concrete, you commit to concrete.
The UP faces a daunting task here to keep their mainline up to the speed, tonnage, and safety standards they expect of it. Frankly at Nelson IL (within sight of an old C&NW concrete coaling tower -- a certain irony when it comes to concrete technology then to now!) the track looks dangerous even from public access at a grade crossing. When you go three or more ties with nothing holding the rail to a tie, that to me spells a big problem.
Dave Nelson
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