A little fun on a rainy day....



 Today started off paying bills....blah blah blah can just skip over that part.  While doing that KJRY pulls into Canton so I film them here in town.  I go run a few errands then head out to Cuba to see if they are in the vicinity since they travel slow and sure enough they were.  I end up following them for a bit stopping at Smithfield to film them then headed off to Seville to catch them cross the Spoon River which I did.  By the time I got to Seville it started raining and after that it rained for a while.  After I film them cross the Spoon River I leave to head to Pekin to  pay more bills.

 While in the Pekin area I go up to Wesley road where I  caught a BNSF Coal train and then seen TZPR Sw1500 #1520 sitting with some cars. They sat there for a time before backing into the yard which I filmed at the crossing.  In Peoria caught a Union Pacific train then TZPR doing a job with one car with Illinois & Midland power.  I wish it didnt rain so much but it is what it is.  It was still fun.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulton County, Illinois Ghost towns Part 1

Image
Ghost towns are abandoned villages that since disappeared or are no longer the population they were in their hey day after an economic down fall, disaster or whatever.  For me I consider a ghost town a town that no longer exists but may or may not leave traces behind of it's existence.  Fulton County has a lot of old historical towns like Canton which was founded in 1825 and Lewistown which was founded  years before Canton.  These towns are example of towns that managed to make it despite economic disasters and natural ones. Former towns which have signs marking their location like Civer between Canton and Cuba and Tuscumbia around Bernadotte are examples of towns that didn't make it and ceased to exist and into oblivion of history.  The only thing that is exists is those two signs that mark the location.  It's sad in a way but it is what it is and people who lived in these areas did what they had to for survival of the time period so if they moved to other communities can
Read more

Middle Grove- Rapatee Coal mine

Image
This subject is about the coal mine at Middle Grove and Rapatee areas. I basically just know the years and also what Railroads served them but i did get to photograph the area of this so there is a general idea of this.   The Midland Electric Coal Company has several strip mines within Fulton and Knox Counties from the years 1933-1963 ( Fulton County, strip),1963-1967 (Knox County strip), and Peabody Coal Company which  opened in 1968 and closed around that time or 1969. The mine would open once again and be the Middle Grove-Rapatee mine in 1975 or 1976 under the Midland Coal Company I think.  It ran until 1988 but the last rail shipment was in or around 1986 by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.   Another company nearby or in this vicinity would be the Midstate Coal Company  which was a strip mine and operated from 1989-1996.  Over the decades it used the area railroads before 1960 it was the M&STL would would ship their coal and after it was Chicago & Northwestern.  The
Read more

Galesburg & Great Eastern Railroad of Knox County, Illinois.

Image
One of the little railroad's in the area I have an interest in was up in Knox County that ran from Wataga east to Victoria then east before heading north.  It served mainly coal mines but probably farmers as well.  Victoria had a depot here which still stands  The right of way and grade can probably still be seen from the ground if you know where to look.  I have yet to go up there and look but can see it in many spots from google earth.  One of these days plan on making another trip to look around some of these back roads and the country side for traces of the right of way as well as the areas where the coal mines once were.  This railroad had a sixty year history which  despite having financial problems up the rear still managed to last a little long than the Narrow Gauge (later CB&Q) line down in Fulton County out lasting that one by a decade.  The railroad's start was as the Galesburg, Etherly and Eastern Railroad in 1894 which was built from Wataga east to a mining t
Read more