Howdy from Havana ,Illinois.

Latley I have been reading  local History of surrounding Counties in Illinois and some had a little bit of history on area railroad lines so I am making some blogs on each county and what I see so starting off is Henderson County. Henderson County is right across the Mississippi River from Burlington, Iowa in Western Illinois. The source of the information comes from a book written by Robert P. Sutton called... " Rivers, Railways, and Roads - A history of Henderson County, Illinois". Peoria & Oquawka Railway ( P&O, later absurbed by the CB&Q): The first county railroad was the Peoria & Oquawka project, Promoters such as John McKinney, Preston Martin, Robert M. Petterson, and nine others organized as "commissioners" at a meeting on Dec 20, 1849, and agreed to sell stock in the enterprise at $100 a share with a down payment of only five percent. They estmated the total cost of construction would be anywhere from $6,000- $10,000 a mile. Aut

Thanks to a friend I was able to see the UP Big Boy 4014 in person on Saturday, July 27, 2019 on display in West Chicago, Illinois.  I can get the hype it's a  great machine with a lot of history. Despite back pain and the heat it was an enjoyable day and my first trip to the Chicago area since 2001. After Chicago caught my first Metra train in Geneva and LaFox then caught some UP trains in Geneva,  Dekalb and  Rochelle. All and all a fun time was had. West Chicago:  (UP Big Boy 4014 and a UP train) Geneva, Illinois (Metra & UP): Rochelle, Illinois (UP ): Videos of this day: My friend David Jordan filmed this for me when they ran the train. I couldn't go so requested him to use my camera. It was taken in Low Moor, Iowa. Now on my birthday  we caught a BNSF manifest heading out on the  Ottumwa sub at Galesburg and in Cameron, Illinois. I filmed and took pictures

It has been recently announced in Trains magazine that the new owners of the former Pioneer Lines Brookhaven is set to take the world famous F units out of service off the Keokuk Junction Railway line. Their last run west is to be tommorrow August 7, 2019 and they will be stored in La Harpe as far as I know. This is sad news but the possibility since the change of companies was there. As if they continue the Santa Train tradition is yet to be seen but I highly doubt it but the optimistic me  hopes so. I won't lie I'm uneasy about the new ownership and what type of changes. It's only expected they'll make changes it is a business after all and they need to do what's best for the line, company and crews. I have had many memories chasing the F's and the memories are some of the best a gal can have so a part of me will miss them. I moved out of the area so seeing KJRY has become a rare occurance. I have so many pictures and videos of them that they wi