Capitol Idea: Taking advantage of #302's station stop downtown, I was able to get ahead of the train for this nice, unobscured view of the train passing the Illinois State Capitol.

Amtrak's #22 and #301 were both running late on the morning of July 4th, so the UP dispatcher took advantage of the situation to get this empty northbound grain train up to the Illinois & Midland ... (more)

Norfolk Southern helped me celebrate the 4th of July this year by sending an early morning eastbound rack train thru Springfield with a nice, new ES44AC on the point.

Back in May Union Pacific and NS agreed to divert a pair of stack trains running between Global 4 and Kansas City from the Transcon to a new routing via Springfield, IL and the former Alton and Wa... (more)

One Hundred Years and Counting: This 100-year old 90 pound rail still in active use on the Old Curran Pass shows the longevity of railway capital investment. The poor condition of the rail... (more)

The classic B&O color position light signal at Deshler displays an "Approach Medium" aspect for CSX train G009 to enter the east siding at South Deshler.

Penn Central heritage unit 1073 brings up the rear markers on a loaded crude oil train heading south to St. Louis on BNSF's Beardstown Subdivision.

Eastbound CSX/BNSF stack train Q172 passes the very Germanic "Willkommen" sign at the entrance to Hamler's community park.

#145 slides out of the Pass at Dalton after meeting D2M with a very ratty-looking SD70 on the point.

Central Illinois: The place where unit grain trains literally pop up out of the ground!

Thanks to a fortuitous radio conversation between a BNSF train at Jacksonville and the NS Springfield/Hannibal District dispatcher, I was able to get the jump on this early running #398 and catch ... (more)

Amtrak's southbound Texas Eagle passes what is left of the former Alton/GM&O yard at Bloomington, Illinois. Illinois State University's dormitory buildings can be seen in the distance.

The northbound Texas Eagle passes Illinois' State Capitol building as it crosses the very appropriately named Capitol Avenue.

Foreign power from UP and BNSF are common on 55T and today's train passing the old grain elevator at Dawson has one unit from both of the Western giants.

UP's South Local waits for NS #398 on the Illinois & Midland mainline north of Shops while making a run to the "Midland".