Dubuque trip and two Military trains

August 8, 2020 was a good day as a friend and I took a trip to Northwestern Illinois and Northern Iowa to explore and railfan.  We stopped at several depots along the way and hit up such towns as Savanna and Galena in Illinois as well as Dubuque in Iowa.

Here is the CN line and tunnel at East Dubuque, Illinois. While we didnt catch any CN trains it was a cool location to check out


I will seperate and run down city by city in order of our visit. Savanna stopped twice heading up and returning home.


Clinton, Iowa:

We stopped at the old Chicago & Northwestern depot and snappedca few photos of the depot and areas behind the depot. We seen a UP Local in Clinton but it was pretty backlit thats to the sun.

After Clinton we head up on Route 84 on the Illinois side to head north. We stopped at the former CB&Q depot in a small town of Thomson.

We next went to Savannah and checked out the area, photographed a Milwaukee Road railcar and a caboose as well as filmed a train. 

Later in the evening we came through again and stopped to film a few trains.


After  Savanna in the morning went to check out a depot I wanted to see in Elizabeth, Illinois. The depot is the former Chicago Great Western Railway.  The last train and tracks were removed about 1971. This is a museum now but wasnt open this day.

Elizabeth, Illinois:


After we hung out at the depot in Elizabeth we head on west to Galena. I havent been to Galena since 2009 so its been a while. This is one of my favorite areas of the state because of the beautiful scenery. We stopped by the depot off the CN line and took some pictures. 


Galena:



After Galena we head west to Dubuque, Iowa. We had hope to see a CN train but today wasnt the day. However we would catch a CP train. After that explored Dubuque and I took pictures of abandoned or out of service tracks. I was told IC, Milwaukee Road and CGW used to run trains through here and had tracks and possible yards.


After Dubuque we went over to East Dubuque in Illinois to check out the CN tunnel railfans sometimes film. No such luck on a train but it was cool to see a tunnel in person.


On our way back my friend saw a post about a Military train that was coming out if Galesburg. We found it south of Thomson but it was getting too dark to stick around to catch but i managed to take a few pictures despite it getting dark.


Then today August 9th my friend let me know about a post that another Military train would be going through Galesburg coming from Fort Madison. I go wait for it at the Cameron Connection. I catch a few trains before he comes through. He stopped at Galesburg off Freemont for a bit before proceeding up the Barstow Subdivision.


Pictures of the Military trains and other trains I saw:




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