Hub of the Wheel Trip, Day 4: 6/23/2018

Today marks the hub of the entire trip. Dad and I are headed to the maodel train show before working our way west to Fort Madison, IA. Before we went to the show though we noticed two trains on the Mendota Sub, one heading east and the other parked ready to go into the yard whenever. We decided to grab those before going. First off was the manifest with a BNSF ACe leading westbound.

The westbound manifest meets the parked eastbound train, a sand train with 3 CN engines.

CN 2335 awaits a new crew to take their train into the yard.

A shot of the train from the other side of the crossing

Would have preffered this gem to lead, but oh well. At least we got something of it.

We went to the show after we caught those two trains. It was very nice for a first visit! Got a couple Hot Wheel cars. Afterwards we went down to the yard and shot the various engines in the yard from the bridge. Lots of other railfans up there too.

Another group of power sitting in the yard

BNSF 2294 gets some inspection work doen by the repair shops

Guess it makes sense that all the good power is in the back

Amidst the orange

One more colorful and smaller standout sits amidst the orange

All these engines will be assigned to something soon, but for now they sit, resting away

Lets exchange the line of engines up front for the ones in the background

A wider shot of the engine shops and lines of engines

BNSF 2008 pushes its line of engines backwards to the fuel racks as some more BNSF engines hide in the back

BNSF 6604 pulls a 4 engine powermove underneath us at the Galesburg Yard

A closer shot of the powermove as it goes underneath us

An H1 Dash 9 trails 2nd of 2 on a parked manifest in the yard

The powermove continues pulling up to the switch to the right of the picture before backing up to the fuel racks

A BNSF remote controlled SD40-2 pushes a string of cars while a local with an H1 Geep and a Bluebonnet and a manifest with a triclops unit leading come into the yard in the background

An H1 Geep and a H3 Geep sit side by side in Galesburg Yard

Awaiting a crew to dismantle the train.

Would have favored all that to be a lot closer

First time cathing one of these! A GP60B slug (cabless). Pretty neat, and still in H1 paint!

A little bit of red, silver, green, white, black, and lots of orange.

The four unit power move pulls up to the 3 unit line

The remote controlled engine pushes a tank car and an autorack into another set of cars.

BNSF 1825 pushes a long string of cars backwards

BNSF 1882 pushes a small string of cars backward

Another shot of the remote controlled unit

Another angle of the same group of power.

Some of the engines in the back of the engine shops.

After taking our pictures in the yard, we made our way back to the Transcon to start following it towards Iowa. When we got there it wasnt long before our first train came, which was an eastbound intermodel led by BNSF 7064

Soon after, a westbound intermodel came by with a Dash 9 leading with an interesting horn.

A pair of BNSF GEs bring up the rear end of the westbound intermodel

An eastbound manifest navigates its way into Galesburg on the Ottumwa Sub outside of Cameron, IL

A speedy eastbound intermodel races into Galesburg outside of Cameron

BNSf 5103 leads a westbound manifest on the Transcon west of Cameron

UP 3920 trails 2nd of 2 on the manifest

An eastbound UP runthrough intermodel speeds east outside of Cameron

BNSF 6048 leads an empty table train east just east of Ormonde, IL

BNSF 6108 leads a westbound intermodel through Ormonde

NS 8076 trails 4th of 4 on the intermodel

BNSF 6146 leads an eastbound intermodel through Ormonde

While knowing we had more trains coming, we tried to make a mad dash to Smithshire, IL, only to be caught by AMTK 4, the eastbound Southwest Chief, so we had to do an "across a field" shot outside of Ponemah, IL.

The same UP engines that led the eastbound UP runthrough intermodel yesterday lead a westbound runthrough through Ponemah. At least I got a 2nd chance today after yesterdays little mistake!

Outward facing today!

After the last 2 trains we were able to make it into Smithshire. Not too long after we got there, BNSF 7030 led an eastbound empty table train by the grain elevator in town.

BNSF 5364 leads a westbound frac sand train through Smithshire

CSX 724 brings up the rear of the sand train. First non-BNSF DPU of the trip.