Chicagoland Junction Series: Thronton Junction. Thornton, IL. 10-12-09.

Located in the suburb of Thornton, IL is another junction where UP's Villa Grove Subdivision crosses over CN trackage. Thornton is truly suburban and the town is not industrial or seedy like other junction towns. The CN line crossed at grade here is the Ex. GTW Elsden Subdivision which passes through other familiar hotspots like Blue Island and Griffith. There is a connector between the two railroads in the Northeast quadrant. UP's Yard Center resides to the North. Dolton Junction is to the North and Jay Tower is to the South from this point. All of these make a nice set to railfan.

4:24PM-
UPY GP15-1 #654 was spotted outside Yard Center, knocking down the approach on the way back North.

4:50PM-
UPY #678 chugs out of Yard Center with the Y-CH51, destined to interchange with CN at the Heights.
UPY GP15-1 #678
UPY MP15AC #1399

5:01PM-
A manifest squeals around the tight CN/UP interchange with CSX power bound for home trackage at Dolton. Note the second unit is the "Spirit Of Cincinatti."
CSXT C40-8W #7789
CSXT ES44DC #5500

5:28PM-
A lengthy land barge thunders East on the Elsden Subdivision with classic power.
CN SD60F #5547
BCOL CM40-8 #4615

5:37PM-
An EMD three-pack powers the M-PRAS12 through Thornton. UP SD70M #3798
UP SD70M #5015
UP SD70M #4038

(c) 9th Street Productions.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• UP
• CSX
• CN
• GTW
• AMTK
• Amtrak
• Thornton
• Dolton
• Chicago
• Heights
• Riverside
• Elsden
• Yard
• Center
• Intermodal
• Manifest
• Local
• Turn
• Transfer
• Interchange
• Railroad
• Train
• Railfan
• Foamer

[NW917]

so is the UP line still the old MOPAC line that runs through the heights?

[BoxcarFrank]

Yes, and before that C&EI.

[SFLRailFan]

Awesome video as usual, Frank. It's great to see those old Geeps still serving for UP. And my impression ofThornton is that of a railfan's ideal place to live. Love that Chicaoland rail action and BoxcarFrank is da man!

Just a slight correction though --- CSXT 7789 is a C40-8W. Only NS has C40-9Ws that I'm aware of.

[BoxcarFrank]

No CSX has them. They're actually built on C40-8W car bodies.

[conductorbill]

nice shots frank, interesting to see it didnt take CN long to repaint one of the BCOL drapers....

[trainamtrakcsx]

@BoxcarFrank but the CSX Dash-9's are numbered in the 9000's series.

[mistertops]

Your 4:50 local was YCH51 heading to the the Heights. 5:37 southbound was MPRAS 12...he was a heavy mofo, 97 lds,29 mts, 14,339 tons.

[spazman13579]

Nice!

[bitterman112]

Excellent Video! 5 Stars!

[kenjr29mfl]

Awesome video 5*****

[SFLRailFan]

Those are CSX's C44-9Ws, which were built on a Dash-8 platform. CSX has fifty three of them numbered 9000-9052. The only cosmetic difference between them and a Dash-8 is the number of steps. Dash-8s have five, Dash-9s have six.

[trainfart]

Great video, Frank!!

[CSXAC4400CWno5112]

NS is the only railroad with C40-9W's. CSX has C44-9W's built on Dash 8 carbodies. CSX also has three C44-8W's.