Canadian National sitting in Pekin

On Novemeber 3rd, 2016 my brother n law and I went to Pekin for an appointment I think plus to pay a bill.  On the way back  I noticed  workers on the tracks up the line facing north and down the line to the south was a Canadian National freight train sitting next to the old C&IM depot in Pekin.  We stopped and took pictures on one side of the road then  drove  around it to the other side parking in the depot parking lot.  I admit I am kind of fond of CN colors so this was an absolute joy to catch.  We hung around for a while talking about the train itself then discussing any maintnance on the vehicle we have so pretty much hang at the depot for a good half hour or longer. We left so no idea when it  took off towards Wesley road but it was a pretty cool sight.  It's not often when i have company when i stop for trains so I appriciated his patience.  If my husband had been there I would have been mocked to no end with lame jokes and he would have complained about how boring this was and to hurry up. haha.  Party pooper!

Comments

  1. David P. JordanApril 16, 2017 at 12:00 PM

    I always like catching CN's northbound L56491 with Decatur-built Caterpillar machinery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Traingirl36April 16, 2017 at 12:35 PM

    I've only seen this once on the CN so far. Is the Decatur Cat plant going to close? I heard something about it a while but fairly certain the Aurora one may be about to meet it's end by the way people talk and an article about it. I really hope not the railroads will take a blow if they do.

    ReplyDelete

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