I read the Granite City ore trains might date back as far as the 70s. The plant was finally idled in 2023 after a few years of up-and-down cycles with the steel industry. Mike Cleary mentioned the... (more)

The white face scheme sure looked great new. This became BN's scheme in 1989 to improve visibility. An eastbound freight is about to CTC Savanna and will either head east on the C&I or south on th... (more)

The upgrade from the SD60, was the SD60M in 1989. BN was the first one to order 50 units that started delivery in December 1989 with #9200-9249. BN went with a 2nd order that began delivery in Jan... (more)

The upgrade from the SD60, was the SD60M in 1989. BN was the first one to order 50 units that started delivery in December 1989 with #9200-9249. BN went with a 2nd order that began delivery in Jan... (more)

My mother and I made a lot of trips to Galesburg when I was in my teens. The place had plenty of action, and one could see just about anything. Railroad Days became a favorite of ours too. Here a ... (more)

Man, to have a GP 39 and a GP 9 on a hotshot without any fuel restrictions would be the trip nowadays. Back in the early 90s it was just another day. A westbound intermodal train rolls through Eas... (more)

In the early 1990s, standard power was so common on the railroad that people got tired of seeing it all the time, just like it is today. On the BN, a majority of trains were powered by two or thre... (more)

A pair of jeeps get this hot traffic moving again at East Burke on the BN 2nd Sub. Burke is the 1st siding east of Savanna. The train just met a westbound stacker and will now continue on the roug... (more)

A westbound BN train is approaching East Dubuque on Main #1. The train is using CCP trackage from Portage to East Dubuque to move across the 2nd Sub. The BN and IC each owned a main line through h... (more)

I forgot how many extra signals were in and around East Cabin when it was still manned and operated by the CCP. That all changed in 1994 when BN took over control of this area and CTC. To this day... (more)

GE built 145 B39-8s in 1987-88. The majority of them ended up on the Burlington Northern. BN and Locomotive Management Leasing shared a long-time contract thru LMX Leasing that lasted long into th... (more)

A Conrail unit helps out of BN SD40 as they hustle down the Bn's 2nd Sub south of Lynxville. Scanned negative from October 1992.

The BNSF merger was getting closer to reality by May 1995. Galesburg was about to become a major hub in the east with this merger. Lots of things would change, but for now the BN was as is with th... (more)

In the early 90s, my mother and I made a lot of trips to Galesburg for railroad days. It was some of the 1st places we went and seen major train action. The BNSF merger would make Galesburg the hu... (more)

Running coal trains thru Galesburg Yard wasn't too common practice. Once in a while, MofW or traffic issues would force the hand, and the trains would run by the roundhouse and out thru Waterman t... (more)