CHRISTMAS IN ILLINOIS
2008

During my visit with family in Illinois, my nephew and I went on a small safari to look for some trains.
Our first "catch" of the day was the Amtrak Illinois coming south from Chicago towards St. Louis.

In the first photo, the engine just peeks out past Lenox tower near Mitchell.
(click on link for map of area).
My next shot gets more of the engine coming through. I can't say it was racing through, it was moving at a more sedate pace. The next show is one of car passenger cars passing the tower.

Realizing that we were racing the sun, and with nothing seemingly coming our way, we went to another location to look around. Here we caught an UP coal drag heading the opposite way. A quick turn a round on route 203 and we have this photo.


Unfortunately, the engineer stopped the train while it was on the crossing and we were stuck and unable to cross back over to route 203! So, we took quick side trip, but were unable to find a way around the train. Coal trains are very long...
Eventually, he moved out, but also cut down on our time (it is winter and the days are short!) for photography.

Here is our next stop, at Duplo yard. This was once a Missouri Pacific yard, and today belongs to Union Pacific Railroad. Across the main street of Dupo, is a model shop (Reynolds Railways) that has an observation deck to view the yard. This is were I took the following photos.
Here is a shot north towards the yard tower.
This view is of the engine house and shows quite a number of engines waiting to go to work. While we were there we watched one crew load up and set out into the distance to go to work.
As the sun begins to set, we say our goodbyes to the store owner and call it a day. It was time to go back and have a wonderful dinner with family and look at the photos taken today.


The crew heads their train out for an evening of work.