Railfanning in Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana.

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to let everyone know about some of the places where you can watch trains in Southern Illinois and Indiana. At Effingham Illinois, there's an out of service train depot that is right beside the CN and CSX Diamond. A person can see maybe 40-50 trains a day through there. At Flora Illinois, the Flora City Park sits right beside the CSX main line (Old B&O) that goes to St. Louis. At Princeton Indiana, there is a depot that is currently operated by the Gibson County Tourism Bureau. A separate board of directors is in charge of maintaining and restoring the old depot. The depot sits about 5 feet from the CSX Evansville-Chicago main line and the NS Louisville-St. Louis main line. The depot has several historical books and photos of the old L&N and Southern. At Princeton you could see between 60-80 trains a day!! The Princeton depot is open to tourists on Weekdays from 9am-5pm. At Evansville Indiana, you can park your car alongside The Old Henderson Road and watch trains at CSX's Howell Yard. Howell Yard has about 20-30 tracks with an Intermodal facility and is a former L&N yard.
If you need more information about these places, please post a reply and I'll try to answer any question you have.
Also, if anyone knows of any other good spots to watch trains in Southern Illinois, Indiana, please post a reply.
Thanks.

[MP173]

I grew up north of Olney on the old IC Evansville - Mattoon line. We had 2 trains daily and I thought that was excitement!

Thanks for the updates. Back in the day, I would go to Effingham and watch the IC and PC action. What is the activity these days on the old Southern line thru Fairfield? Years ago there was about 14 trains per day scheduled. Dont know if that has increased or not.

We have discussed I think, the old B&O main into St. Louis. Any updates you have on that line would be appreciated. I noticed on my last trip (early July) that coal trains are now running. Also, lots of work has been done with new ties. It is great to see that line getting some work done.

What can you tell me about the old IC line (Bluford cutoff)? Is Bluford still a crew change? From the looks of Terra Server, it appears the yard tracks are gone.

Thanks,

ed

[Anonymous]

I just want to notify everyone that July 27, 2005, I changed my user name to "Norfolk Southern Railfan", previous user name "Bobby Tennyson". My e-mail address will be the same and will be posted under the "my profile link".

[Anonymous]

MP173:
The Southern Line is now of course Norfolk Southern. I thought that we had only 15-20 trains a day through here, however, another railfan said that he stayed up all night one time and counted about 27-28 trains in 24 hours. The IC line at Bluford is now CN. There is a small yard there with about 4 of 5 other tracks besides the main. Most trains through there go slow, and I don't see a lot of trains on it all the time. They do use it quite a bit however, just not a whole lot. Yes, you are correct, we were talking earlier about the B&O line to St. Louis. Below, I am going to copy and paste my previous response from that topic:

On July 15, 2005:
MP173:
The Norfolk Southern Line through Fairfield carries about 15-20 trains a day. There is no CTC signals. Track warrants are issued by radio and signals are in place that automatically change when a train is on the tracks. The main through here is probably the only main line in Southern Illinois not using CTC. Sometimes it is hard to catch a train going through here, because you never know when one will come. Sometimes, 5 will come all at the same time and it will be another 5 hours before anything else shows up. Most trains through here simply take their time and are not in a rush, however, we do have some high priority Intermodal trains that come through at fast speed. The tracks here are very similar to the way they were back when it was still Southern, NS has simply maintained them good over the years, installed new grade crossing lights, and extended one of the secondary sidings through here. The turnouts here are manual. This slows everything down, because a worker has to get out and switch it and lock it in place to get on a siding. Like I mentioned before, we don't have a lot of fast, priority trains through here, but this line does carry quite a bit of traffic. At Princeton Indiana there is a Toyota plant that this line serves. Long auto rack trains are loaded full and come through Fairfield on their way to St. Louis. At least once or twice a week, a coal train will come through on it's way from Mount Carmel. There is a big power plant over there that NS serves. Overall, these tracks are medium used, which is kind of good in the fact that you can be by the tracks and not have to worry all the time about if a train is sneaking up on you very fast. Earlier this year, NS cut down several trees along the tracks which makes it easier to see the trains. Earlier this year, we had 2 accidents at Grade Crossings. At Sims, a mail track was hit, and mail went flying all over a corn field. In Wayne City, a woman in a car was crossing the tracks and was hit by the local. Both accidents occurred at Crossings with lights. After those accidents, they installed 2 more sets of lights and gates at 2 other crossings. Anyway, a good place to watch trains that come through here is at Princeton Indiana. There's a little depot over there that has the Gibson County Tourist offices in it. It sits right beside the NS main and beside the CSX main that goes from Evansville to Chicago. You can see about 60 trains a day at Princeton. You can also go inside the depot where it's nice and air conditioned and look at all the pictures and things while you wait for a train to come by.

At Bluford, the same NS main crosses over the CN Main line. I think the CN is called the Bluford District. There is not a diamond, the NS crosses over the CN on a bridge. I like Bluford, but there is no really good spot to sit for a long time to watch trains. The 3 spots that I watch trains around here, is south of my Grandma's house on an old farm road, at Princeton IN, and at Evansville's CSX Howell Yard. Effingham Illinois is also a fairly good place to watch trains. At Effingham, the CSX (Former Conrail) main crosses the CN. I think about 50 trains go through there a day.

[waltersrails]

I live in Fairfield. I saw a passenger train today. HA HA HA.

[Anonymous]

Two other locations that I like to stop at in the southwest corner of Illinois are Gorham and the bridge over the Mississippi at Thebes. Both spots can be accessed by following Route 3. Both Gorham and Thebes are on the UP's mainline and host 40-50 trains per day. A branch line heads east from the mainline in Gorham so there is a small yard and a wye. There really isn't a good way to get close to the bridge at Thebes but the views from the river level are great when a train is crossing the bridge.

[waltersrails]

Effingham station is not closed. Thought i add a correction.

[waltersrails]

Trains really sucks through here when theres no reroutes.

[Anonymous]

i live in mount vernon about a half mile from the csx and up diamond. on an average day i would say there are about 40 trains a day pass through. also about a mile away is a company called National Railway equipment where you can see lots of locomotives being rebuilt or salvaged for parts