Ten minutes of great railfanning - General Discussion (Trains.com) - Trains.com

Today I was heading east on route 30 out of Joliet into New Lenox , Il. I take this route because much of it is right along side the old Rock Island main. From Joliet east into Chicago the line is double tracked and operated by Metra. Many years ago now some bright soul decided to eliminate as many of the diamonds at the Joliet station as possible so Metra only has one track crossing the BNSFnow. At one time there may have been as many as four tracks in each direction or more crossing there. Iowa Interstate uses the main to Council Bluffs west of Joliet and has a train that leaves there early in the morning arriving Joliet usually before 10:30AM. It has to wait for the Metra train that leaves joliet at 25 minutes after the hour that is blocking the single track and arrives at New Lenox at 32 minutes after the hour. The Iowa Interstate train then follows it to Blue Island and their yard. If he is late he has to wait for the 11:25 leaving Joliet or later. What makes it interesting is that the crossover to run wrong handed to Blue Island and the iowa Inyerstate yard lead is on the west side of New Lenox and the eastbound main out of town has a fairly good grade. This affects Iowa Interstate trains because they are never overpowered. Iowa Interstate operates pristine GP-38s that are gloss black with a red stripe banded in yellow and are sharp looking and cared for engines. They are always struggling through town to get a run at the hill after slowing for the crossover. Today as I got to the I-80 route 30 interchange at about 1:10PM I noticed a stopped westbound Metra train. The Metra train must have been waiting for awhile as the headlight and ditch lights were off and he was at least 15 minutes behind schedule. Never having seen one stopped there before it struck me he is waiting for the eastbound Iowa Interstate freight. I no sooner got stopped next to the tracks when here came the Iowa Interstate train running wrong handed with three GP-38s in notch eight #710,#720, and #718 doing about 30mph and doing their best to clear the crossing for the Metra train running wrong handed and gain some speed for the hill ahead. As soon as he cleared the Metra F60PH #208 with five cars took off westbound in notch eight also. Rare to see two trains hustling in the span of 5-10 minutes but a great experience.