Early morning catch

Today an hour after i got up this morning i hear the distinctive blow of the horn of an F unit.  My car has a power steering line issue my brother n law has yet to fix so making turns is difficult for me and takes alot of strength so my brother n law has been driving me around which I hate.  I miss my independence damn it....grrr.  Oh who cares anyway I shake him out of bed to take me to  catch it and head west where it was just outside of town heading west.  I photograph it from a moving car and we get a head of it by a mile and park.  I filmed it so since i haven't been too active latley this delights me.  I can't wait til he fixes that car so I can just drive myself and stop as well as park whenever I want.  It's frustrating but manageable so really cannot complain.  Atleast the car runs so meh!
If I had the gas and the car was fixed so I could drive it i probably would have followed it out to Mcdonough county and over to where ever they make their exchange with locomotives around Good Hope or La Harpe.  I plan on it one of these days anyways.  I have been listening out for them the past two days.  Their westbound runs have varied latley.  They have recently been doing work on the tracks and I think replacing ties since i have been seeing stacks of them here and there.  I'm glad to see them do any work to the tracks to be honest.  They run their trucks atleast once a week i noticed so they are taking care of the line. I'm just glad they are it shows me a good sign that maybe activity will increase.  It should anyway it's getting into the seasons where they pick up. :)









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