Trip to Galesburg, IL.

[Anonymous]

I just returned from Galesburg, IL. a main city for BNSF. The train action was awesome on Saturday but very slow on Sunday. I was wondering if there was a problem somewhere on that line(former Santa Fe from Chicago to Kansas City). It was just strange that so many trains on Saturday and very few Sunday. Any info will be helpful.

[dknelson]

My experience has been that there are plenty of trains on Sunday especially eastbounds (which if they originated on the coast were made up in the latter part of the work week, as opposed to westbounds which would have been made up Saturday). The last time I was there, however, there was a considerable lull as a military train movement had tripped some sort of wide load detector near Chillicothe and they seemed to have a hard time determining what it was that tripped the detector. Until they had that resolved they were holding trains back well west of Galesburg and east of Chillicothe. Once the problem was resolved however, it did not take long for the flow to get moving again.
My solution for slow train days at Galesburg has been to head over to the Thirlwell St bridge and enjoy the yard action.
Dave Nelson

[jjlamkin]

I have noticed there is usually a lull in BNSF traffic on Saturday night into Sunday through the Edelstein area, I live just south of the BNSF Chillicothe Double Main which runs directly into Galesburg. I have noticed traffic picks up on Sunday night though. I can hear most of the traffice from my house and the main is about 6 to 7 miles north of me!! Just my 2c's worth.

[CShaveRR]

Could the Niota derailment on the ex-ATSF main line have had something to do with it? That occurred sometime Saturday, and was responsible for the SW Chief being detoured via St. Louis.

[jeaton]

Carl

Where's Niota??

Jay

[CShaveRR]

Same wreck I mentioned earlier, Jay--Niota is about three miles and a river crossing away from Fort Madison, Iowa.