Anybody know of clear view bridges (as on some country roads) over the U.P. mainline in Illinois west of Chicago? I'd like to photograph U.P. 4014 from an overhead angle as she returns westbound to Wyoming. I'm looking for something without a barrier fence in the line of sight and, if possible, on a low-speed road so I won't be flung off the bridge by 60 m.p.h. traffic (!).
The Galena Ave. overpass over the tracks in Dixon has sidewalks. The Thorpe Rd. bridge just west of Rochelle is a less travelled road. Not sure if there's any side room. It's too bad that the old wooden up and over farmer's bridges were removed along the line. The Hwy 25 bridge in Geneva might work, too. It has a protected sidewalk.
Thanks for your ideas, Gramp. Thorpe Rd. sounds like a possibility, but the satellite view on Google Maps doesn't show a road-level view (probably because, as you say, it isn't travelled much), so I can't see if there's any sort of "shoulder". The Dixon road with sidewalks looks good. The Geneva bridge sidewalk has a chainlink fence...hard to tell from street-view how tall it is. Since there's a scheduled stop for 4014 at Rochelle I looked around there and found the 7th St. bridge has what looks like a roughly 4 ft. shoulder strip, and the speed limit is 30 mph. So, kind of a toss-up maybe between Dixon (safer because of sidewalk, but 35 mph. and further drive for me) and Rochelle (no sidewalk, but lower speed limit).
I'm wondering if U.P. is going to stop 4014 actually adjacent to the rail park as stated in their schedule. That would tie up the 9th St. grade crossing for 45 min. (the scheduled visit time). Maybe they'll uncouple the engine ahead of the crossing so they can position it next to the park w/o tying up traffic.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.