Hey all,
I'm headed for an overnight trip to Galesburg in a couple weeks for some railfanning action and this will be my first time. I'm pretty aware of the hot spots from my research but I was curious as to what train frequency looks like at Peck Park since I will be basing much of my activity there. Any idea about how many trains per hour to expect? Also, are there any facilities at Peck Park itself (shelter, bathrooms, etc)? I'm really looking forward to it and any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
Scott
There is a small covered shelter and a porta-potty:
Peck Park is pretty good. Usually 4 trains an hour is the norm these days. But they are doing some work like building the third main on the Mendota Sub from Galesburg. Rumored to go all the way to Wataga. I was just there this weekend it wasn't all that busy though. It was pretty dead compared to what it usually is. every line was dead. Of course the Chilli Sub was shut down in Galesburg for awhile after couple dogs got hit right at Peck Park. Couldn't find one of the two dogs and the one was in the middle of the tracks alive but was put down due to its injuries. I was one of many people including children to witness it. So sad. So sorry for the owners since I had something like this happen to my family few years ago when my sister's dog got killed by a car. So that did slow it down for awhile. Also they did cut the brush down along the Barstow Sub there at Peck Park so that it an improvement if you take pictures or videos. Still not the greatest places for pictures though.
I was just there last month & the anyplace along the old ATSF route will get U good shots besides Peck Park. There is also a lot of action at the train station with no hassling whatsoever
Most of the intermodal/Container trains ply the old ATSF route thru town & that is where U will catch the UPRR trains using there trackage rights on the BNSF
SWChicagoRailfan Hey all, I'm headed for an overnight trip to Galesburg in a couple weeks for some railfanning action and this will be my first time. I'm pretty aware of the hot spots from my research but I was curious as to what train frequency looks like at Peck Park since I will be basing much of my activity there. Any idea about how many trains per hour to expect? Also, are there any facilities at Peck Park itself (shelter, bathrooms, etc)? I'm really looking forward to it and any information would be appreciated. Thanks! Scott
Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub
Consider Cameron, IL
there is a road that crosses over the yard on a bridge. Was there two years ago, bridge was 4 lanes wide two for traffic and two wide shoulder lanes, spent twelve hours there over 2 days with no harassment. hump yard on one side, storage tracks, refueling, maintenance on the other side. you should have a great time.
I was just down there on this past Saturday too and I thought it was fairly busy. As I usually do in Galesburg, I monitor yard control (160.875) and the Chili Sub (160.380) and move around town looking for good consists and locations. Sure I don't see every train, but I still photographed more than 25 movements--and saw about that same number that I didn't photograph. That also included an afternoon run out to Media Trestle about 25 miles west of town on the old ATSF, so all movements on all the ex-BN lines were missed for about 3 hours.
A sample of what I thought worthy of sharing is up on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/
You'll have to go back to the second page for the earlier stuff from that day.
Lance
You folk are sure nice to have taken the time to respond, but the OP has stated that this is his FIRST trip to Galesburg so I doubt if he will have any idea where Peck's Park is located, nor which is the old ATSF line. (My first thought when I read "Chilli Sub" was to wonder if it came with crackers and whether it would be too sloppy to eat while sitting in my car.)
I realize that a 1st time visitor could stop and ask directions to some of these landmarks, but I have found that I am as likely to get the answer of "I don't know." as to get the equally useless answer of, "Well... Go down the street, oh... 6 or 8 blocks and turn toward the old school where the Dairy Queen burned to the ground about 6 years ago and go a few blocks more, it should be off to the left someplace...or is it on the right? Well.... Maybe you should turn where the office building used to have the green awnings?" (That is not a direct quote to a queery I made once, but it is pretty close!)
As for considering a different city... Why? What does it offer that is better? Is it a larger city with more train tracks that might be difficult to understand which is which? Or is it so small one could not miss the only grade crossing in town?
A little more EXPLICIT detail would greatly releave the 1st time visitor of the need to wander around and wonder if they are looking at a busy line or are going to miss most of the reason for the trip.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper,
Thank you for your response but I know exactly where Peck Park and most of the landmarks are in Galesburg. Even though I've never been there, it doesn't take me long to study a Google map and figure it out. My hotel is right off I-74 a few blocks east from Peck Park and the Amtrak station isn't much further. I know all the subdivisions and where they come in and out of Galesburg. I was just more curious about facilities and train frequency than anything. I know that the "Chili Sub" is the Chillicothe Sub because I live about 6 miles away from it near Chicago and I just railfanned it on Saturday. :)
Thanks for the info everyone! It is really appreciated. Looking forward to coming down!
Yeah, Scott, you may know Galesburg, IL enough to know what they were refering to, but I have been there several times and I have no idea what they were talking about. And there have been 116 views of this thread (so far) and I'd bet there are those in that count that looked because they wanted to learn, too.
I think traffic may have slowed down from that 4 a hour as when I was there I did not see that type of volume.
I met some fans who had come in from WISC & they to were awfully disappointed with volume. In fact in the 2 hours I left Peck Park to go to lunch & go to the train station they saw no trains there at all during the time I was not there. The fellows from Wisc left shortly after my return to try Rochelle
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quote user="TPWRY"]
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Galesburg is the place to be, to hell with Rochelle.
On my last trip we had an even 100 in 24 hours, trip before that was 124 in 24 hours.
Finding peck park is easy.
Saturday is the best day of the week.
Acquire a map of Galesburg.
Find where the old BN goes over the Transcon
park on the bottom of the hill
Find Bob
/thread?
I ALWAYS keep my dog on a leash for her protection.
Here is your Galesburg Decoder Ring:
I will start with the ex-BN (CBQ) lines.
Starting NE of the city you have the Mendota Sub coming in from Chicago. The ex-BN, nee CBQ route is the double track main that hosts all the Amtrak trains, coal loads and empties along with manifest trains like the BRCGAL (Clearing Yard, BRC to Galesbug), CHCGAL (Cicero to Galesburg) and BRCKCK (Belt Railway to Kansas City) and their counterparts. The use 161.385out to Wataga or so and then switch over to Yard Control on 160.875 (as all the ex-BN lines do). Coming down into town, westbound trains will sometimes be told to hold up at Skelley's. There used to be a Skelley's Truck Stop out along HWY 40 (Lincoln Street) at the HWY 9 xing. It is the grade crossing just east of the I-74 overpass. Coming down into Galesburg proper, the ex-Santa Fe double track Chili Sub ducks underneath right where the Barstow Sub joins in at Peck Park. The BN junction of the Mendota and Barstow Subs is called B-plant, it is located just north of the Main Street crossing and has an overhead signal bridge with searchlight signals that you can easily shoot from a public crossing of westbounds off the Mendota or eastbounds off the Barstow.
The Barstow Sub is on 161.415. It is single track coming down the 96 miles from Savanna, IL. It mainly sees manifest trains like the NTWGAL, NTWKCK (Northtown to Kansas City) and others. It also sees the ore trains out of northern Minnesota. They are ones like KEEBIR (Birmingham, AL), KEEMAD (Madison, IL). Eastbound (compass southward) trains are sometimes held up on the north side of Galesburg at Walsh Street--they'll tell them to hold up at Fremont Street--about seven blocks north of Peck Park/B-Plant.
So these two lines funnel down past the Amtrak depot. At the west end of the depot you have the two Quincy Mains splitting off and heading southward down past Galesburg Yard. Continuing right around the corner a couple of blocks and you have the Peoria Wye that swings off at Knox, As the name implies, here is the connection that makes up the wye to Peoria. Chambers Street is the eastern point of the wye where there is a cantilever signal bridge with two searchlights. Trains on the Peoria Line use 161.385 to get track warrants down to Peoria. Train traffic on the Peoria line consists of coal loads--they have PHP or PPH destination codes. The TP&W no longer interchanges up in Galesburg, the BNSF is back to running a local down to there, it is something like L107 and uses smaller power (four axle) from recent shots I've seen of it.
Continuning down the Qunicy Mains, you will go under Thirwell Bridge--this is the large bridge that spans the middle of Galesburg Yard. There are a set of crossovers at Thirwell. Through trains like ore loads and empties, grain trains, along with Peoria coal trains will sit on the Quincy Mains for crew changes. The four Amtrak trains to and from Quincy (the Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg) use the Quincy Mains around the yard. Going southward you run upon Waterman, here is the flyover that spans the hump down toward the south end. This allows trains to depart from the east side of the yard out to Waterman, span the yard and head west on the Graham Runners out to the line toward Burlington, IA or go through the connection to access the Chili Sub.
At the south end of the yard is Saluda, it funnels down to single track to head south toward Bushnell. Going south, this is the Brookfield Sub. They use 160.815 on the single track line. Trains that use it are ones like GALMEM (Memphis), the ore trains and coal trains to the Ohio River brages at Paducah, KY). Saluda is at the HWY 1050N crossing, a half mile east of HWY 41.
Going back north on HWY 41 toward Galesburg, you will go over the double track Graham Runners as they head east-west. At their east side in the yard, the north one goes over the hump and down to Waterman on the Qunicy Mains, the south one goes down around toward Saluda to connect with the Brookfield Sub. This track is also called the KC Connection. Going west on the Graham Runners there is a grade crossing one mile west of HWY 41 called Munsons for the Munson Seed corn plant just north of the tracks. The Graham Runners continue west to the spot of Graham, where they join the Passenger Main coming out from downtown Galesburg.
So lets go back to the Amtrak station and go due west on the double track Passenger Mains.
Just beyond the end of the platforms you have A-Plant East and A-Plant West where the connection drops down into the north end of the yard. Just beyond them you have the wye that joins up. This track is the Coach Yard Wye. It joins in at Academy Plant, a crossover guarded by searchlight signals on masts. A couple blocks west is Henderson Street, a grade crossing where coal loads for Chicago will sit and wait for recrews. Continue west and the double track drops down to single track at Clay Switch about two miles west of town and stays single track for another two miles where it joins the Graham Runners at Graham and becomes the Ottumwa Sub. Trains on the Ottumwa Sub get track warrants to proceed from MP 1705 (milepost 170.5) out to a spot near Biggsville (MP 196-something), IL using 160.695. The four long-distance Amtrak trains use the Passenger Mains out from downtown Galesburg through Graham.
The connection to the old Santa Fe is just east of the small town of Cameron, IL. The wye coming north off the Ottumwa Sub joins a wye coming south off the Chili Sub. The spot where the wye joins the west point on the Chili Sub is CP 1844 (MP 184.4). Amtrak's Southwest Chief uses the Cameron Connection to get to and from the two lines. Quite a few other trains also use it, like the Denver-Chicago pig trains and grain traffic.
The old Santa Fe Chili Sub is pretty straight-forward. Double track with crossovers. They will sometimes recrew trains right around the Cameron Connection, which will cause some issues. The Chili Sub is 160.380.
Going back to Galesburg Yard. The north end of the yard where the crossovers and north end of the diesel pit joins in is Prospect Street, that's the spot just south of the 4th street bridge. You will sometimes hear trains to told to depart "thru Prospect and the coach yard wye", which means they are coming out the north end and will turn west on the Passenger Mains out to Graham.
The Yard Trimmer jobs that work the north end of the hump yard are the derated SD40-2s. The hump yard power is three sets of A-B-A SD40-2s. But you really can't see them humping unless you trespass (and I am advising against that!) The hump power will sometimes be up in the diesel pit toward the morning if it needs servicing. As others have said, the Thirwell Road bridge works great for watching the Trimmers and stuff moving to and from the diesel pit.
Absolutely outstanding Galesburg primer, Lance! I feel more informed than ever!
THANK YOU, Lance.
That is worthy of being published in Trains Magazine!
Maybe the next time I get to Galesburg I won't spend half the day hunting for someone that can tell me which rail line is which.
Glad that I could assist. I hate it to when visiting a new place for the first time and hearing places spoken of on the radio and I've got no darn idea where that spot is. Most of those spots in Galesburg are actual place names with signs, but Skelley's, Munsons, the Coach Yard Wye and Henderson Street are just names that have been in use for years.
I hope that no one was planning on going to Galesburg over this coming weekend, October 1-3 though. The BNSF will be doing some more major bridge work on the Mississippi River span at Burlington, IA and will have the line closed for a time. I don't know if it will be a solid three-day shutdown, but Amtrak's California Zephyr will be detouring over the Union Pacific's ex-C&NW Omaha-Chicago route. So I would have to figure it will cut down on the number of coal trains and other traffic on the Ottumwa and Mendota Subs especially.
The Amtrk museum just east of Amtrk depot is good as any spot in town. Not only will one see the BN side mainliners but the yd trim jobs will pull by to shove a newly built train from the bowl trks to the eparture yd.
Thankfully I'm not going down until the 7th.
I am in Galesburg now and I got down here around 7PM. It has been a relentless non-stop parade of trains since I got here. It was dark out already but I checked out several spots already including Peck Park, the Amtrak station and the bridge over the yard and got some good night video. There is no shortage of trains in this town. That is for sure. I will be here all day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a big day of rail action.
Good to hear you had an action packed first day. From my experience you cannot catch everything at Galesburg, but you will see the most at Peck.
During Galesburg Railroad Days in June there is good access to the platform at the depot and the Thirlwell St Bridge over the yard. However I was told that at times the local police order people off the bridge when it is not Railroad Days (in spite of Galesburg's desire to be a rail themed tourist attraction year round). In theory the usual Amtrak dislike of railfans on platforms should hold true but I have not heard of any problems at Galesburg. There are almost as good public access points near the crossing.
I would say that armed with a good map and a scanner a railfan can hardly go wrong at Galesburg. Peck Park is great but frankly there are opportunities elsewhere for superior photos to what you can take at the park. On the former Santa Fe east of Galesburg you can follow the main on a mix of dirt and paved roads and a neat old overhead bridge allows for some very good photo ops.
Similarly following the former Santa Fe west of town (where the line is at an angle to the relentlessly N/S/E/W orientation of the roads) eventually leads to the high bridge near Media IL -- another good photo opportunity although not best at high noon due to sun angles.
Not railfanning per se but the Packinghouse Restaurant near the depot has decent food and a very good salad bar, and more to the point, is a converted Swift plant that retains much of the old hardware -- and interesting photos on the walls. it was rail served in its day and some photos show that. Go behind the restaurant and the remains of the spur line can still be seen by an imaginative viewer.
Dave Nelson
From your first posting it sounds like the traffic did not let you down on Friday night.
Did you manage to hang around until Sunday afternoon though Scott? Due to the Iowa Interstate derailment of an ethanol train at Tiskilawa, IL on Friday morning, some IAIS trains detoured down through Galesburg. They ran from the Quad Cities down to Galesburg and then down the BNSF Peoria Line and back to their home rails.
Although I didn't think I was going to end up in Galesburg on Sunday when I left the house, I couldn't resist chasing the detoured BICB running as BNSF symbol F-PEIBAI (Foreign, Peoria to Barstow, IL)--especially when he had the IAIS 513 leading.
Here he is entering Galesburg at the Peoria Wye, Chambers Street. From he it went through the depot and up the Barstow Sub to sit and wait while eastbounds came down into town.
photostream
I missed the IAIS train at Peck Park by a few minutes. Incredibly irritating.
I had absolutely no problems with police on the bridge or at the depot. It was an amazing 24 hours of railfanning. My only regret is that I missed the IAIS train passing Peck Park by a few minutes. After shooting video on the bridge over the yard, I decided to check out the Cameron Connection and almost ran out of gas when I got out there. I was running close to "E" and assumed they would have a gas station in town but I was wrong. Don't ever attempt this in a Dodge Challenger R/T. There is NOTHING for 10 miles around Cameron.
I barely made it back to Galesburg on fumes and by the time I fueled up and got over to Peck Park, the IAIS train was already passing and I had no idea what it was until another railfan mentioned it later. The IAIS runs about 7 or 8 miles from my house in south Chicagoland but it would have been cool to see it in Galesburg, especially with the Rock Island heritage unit in the lead.
I would recommend Galesburg to any railfan looking for a weekend getaway as the traffic here rivals Rochelle and Fostoria. Galesburg is clean and isn't as run down as Fostoria and has that small college town feel. I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Express on the east side of town by I-74 as it was very clean with some decent amenities for a small town hotel. I will definitely go back again.
Check out my youtube videos of the trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21onC18QhuY&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vm2dUlvsfc&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyHv_9Fxfr0&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-9fYgmQhc&feature=relmfu
SWChicagoRailfan I had absolutely no problems with police on the bridge or at the depot. It was an amazing 24 hours of railfanning. My only regret is that I missed the IAIS train passing Peck Park by a few minutes. After shooting video on the bridge over the yard, I decided to check out the Cameron Connection and almost ran out of gas when I got out there. I was running close to "E" and assumed they would have a gas station in town but I was wrong. Don't ever attempt this in a Dodge Challenger R/T. There is NOTHING for 10 miles around Cameron. I barely made it back to Galesburg on fumes and by the time I fueled up and got over to Peck Park, the IAIS train was already passing and I had no idea what it was until another railfan mentioned it later. The IAIS runs about 7 or 8 miles from my house in south Chicagoland but it would have been cool to see it in Galesburg, especially with the Rock Island heritage unit in the lead. I would recommend Galesburg to any railfan looking for a weekend getaway as the traffic here rivals Rochelle and Fostoria. Galesburg is clean and isn't as run down as Fostoria and has that small college town feel. I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Express on the east side of town by I-74 as it was very clean with some decent amenities for a small town hotel. I will definitely go back again. Check out my youtube videos of the trip! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21onC18QhuY&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vm2dUlvsfc&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyHv_9Fxfr0&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-9fYgmQhc&feature=relmfu
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
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