Extremely rare sight! Inbound Amtrak California Zephyr 6 and inbound Southwest Chief 4 combined at Coal City, IL.! 01/12/09

[Randoman35]

holy sheit

[SWChief34]

Amazing! Great shot!

[OleandrFilms]

Wow.... awesome footage!

I counted 18 cars (usually it's only half of that).

Just curious, what was the reason of such a long train?

[GrumpyL5]

@OleandrFilms Yes, that looks like two full trains joined together, two dining cars and lounge cars by the look of it.

[atsf3751fan]

For Amtrak 4 to be running in Illinois at night, they have to be REALLY late. Like, 12 hours late or so.

[howardkevinm]

@atsf3751fan i agree, as for the CZ its average is about 7-15hrs late everyday.

[AmtrakBoys]

could people go between trains or did they have to stay in there section of the train?

[bnsf4]

lucky you. damn thats awesome! Where is Coal city il?

[1RDP1]

@bnsf4 south of joliet down I-55 20 

[1RDP1]

@bnsf4 south of joliet down I-55

[UFOflyer09]

awesome my dad works for the chief!!

thats really cool tho!!

[jefesman]

Wow!! That really is an awesome catch, great sound too!! You get that classic, nostalgic feeling of riding the rails at night in a snowstorm watching the video. The No. 4, Southwest Cheif had to have been wyed and coupled to the end of the No 6, California Zephyr. You can see the marker lights at 0:45 illuminating from the Southwest Cheif's (reversed consist) last coach car. Probably so the conductors and crew can walk through the combined trains.

[seanlee747]

@jefesman so then everyone aft of that car would be riding backwards?

[jefesman]

@seanlee747; Depends on the way the consist was originally put together. Maybe forwards, maybe backwards in the Superliner coach cars. Sleeping, Dining, and Lounge cars have seats facing both forwards and backwards.

[rwhitenight]

@NicTrain35 Sure nice to see an old video with snow when it's 108 in Fort Worth now :-).

[tdvandy2]

Really nice catch!! Thanks for standing out there in that nasty nice for our enjoyment!

[Tcostello105]

Great Catch!

[AFriedman0]

Great video!! awesome sound and quality.

[AmtrakBoys]

for how much of there route were the two trains combined?

[railfanstreator94]

Probably Galesburg to Chicago because further West they don't go through the same towns so they probably had the #4 get off of the Chillicothe Subdivision at Cameron Junction and then they combined with the #6 at or near the Galesburg Amtrak Station and then they probably had them use Cameron Junction again to head East on the Chillicothe Subdivision.

[AmtrakBoys]

how did the turn 6 aroud, did they wye it?

[railfanstreator94]

I don't know but I'd assume they probably had ran around the train and put the baggage car on the end and then the engines and I don't know for all I know the 6 could have had the front of the train and the 4 the back but I don't know

[williamleas]

When in doubt go around..great vid

[railfanstreator94]

Amtrak is detoured again on the Chillicothe Sub because of some sort of service disruption on the Mendota Sub. Twice in one Year Wow!!!!

[skullcrusher301]

yea, and i have video of it

[railfanstreator94]

Cool, Sadly I was not aware of the accident on Mendota Sub and was not able to videotape it.

[NMrailrunnnerfan105]

nice catch , nice catch>! all i can say is WOW!!!!

[xtremewrestling4eva]

Nice Catch!

[CoastStarlight11]

WOW!!!!

[AmtrakBoys]

what time was it?

[LukeBNSF]

Nice K5L horn, too

[justkiddin08]

wow thats crazy. Good catch tho.

[railfanstreator94]

I just barely caught the end of that train going through a crossing in Streator but was not able to video tape it.

[BNSF7776]

Nice!

[Amtrakdavis22]

Wow great shot!

[AmtrakBoys]

Cool! but, why werew they combined?

[skullcrusher301]

What the hell! I live close to the tracks and how did I miss that?! when did you tape this?

[redhotrider57]

Damn thats sweet!I missed that one by 20 minutes but saw #3 a few ours later.Video coming tonight

[AMTK161]

I'm glad you did get to catch that one after all!

[SF3751]

Now theres soemthing you don't see everyday, and probably never will see again! GREAT catch!

[staintedcards]

great way too start 09 with a derailment too bad nobody got any footage

[dhoytw]

Don't understand why this is so cool?

[mafarnz]

Amazing catch, and great weather too. I love chasing trains in the snow.

[CP359]

Hiya Nick!

WOW! Outstanding!!! What a consist! What power! Winter railroading at its best (as I know you like it!). Great capture! And yet another AMTK loco with a K5H to add to my collection! This makes 5 that I know of. Man, you are a diehard... look at that snow!

Great job, as always!

Dave

[MattBNSF1991]

Fuck you , Nick

:)

[EWM27]

wow! nice catch, its like DPU's on Amtrak

[LukeBNSF]

Yep.

206 & 80, the 2 units on the end, are pretty much serving as DPUs, being controlled through the MU hookups meant for push-pull operations.

[heelblocks]

Yes But I Doubt they are online...

[LukeBNSF]

I could hear a rumbling when they passed the camera...

[heelblocks]

Its called HEP

[LukeBNSF]

Okay...

[TrainDr101]

even so, both engines were online. Amtrak normally doesn't stick an extra engine in anywhere w/out it being online. If one of the last 2 units was generating HEP (which it sounded like) then both units were online, not isolated.

[carnadero]

As the engines at the rear passed, I heard a hiss of air and the "twitch" of a quick moisture venting.

[HamiltonOhrailz]

Wow that IS rare. Outstanding job. I agree with Max, that is a lot of snow. I want some!

5*

[rykember11]

We will GLADLEY give you at least 4 of the 6 or so inches we got so far.

[EverywhereWest]

That's awesome! Great catch! 5*****

[Amtrak839]

Nice shot! Amazing catch! 5***** and a favorite!

[ParanormalStateRocks]

great show shot like bnsf9192 said..

[BNSF9192]

WOW....AMAZING snow shot and train! Dang, I wish I had snow like that down here! Very nice video!

[rykember11]

We will GLADLEY give you at least 5 of the 7 or so inches we got so far.

[BNSF9192]

LOL, I wouldnt mine that :P We've only gotton like 5 inches of snow/ice/sleet this year, it's a weird year here......

[LarimerFilms]

Pretty nice dude.