Night Railfanning at South Chicago Junction, 29.01.11

South Chicago Junction is in the shadow of bridges- the Chicago Skyway toll bridge on I-90, NS's bridges over the Calumet River, and the abandoned lift bridges on the former New York Central line that tightly parallels NS's ex-Pennsy line into Chicago here. It is essentially the southern- (and eastern-) most end of the Belt Railway of Chicago, where NS trains and a few CSX and IHB trains leave the main line and join the BRC on a long ramp that leads to its main line. Splitting from that line and going north (to a barge terminal on Lake Michigan) and south (to steel mills, coke plants, chemical plants and Great Lakes ship terminals on Lake Calumet) is the former Chicago Short Line, now the South Chicago & Indiana Harbor. The SC&IH cannot be seen from here, however. Train descriptions are follwing:

Train 1:
An NS manifest with nice power comes across the river and crosses over to the BRC trackage. NS C40-8W (Dash-8-40CW) #8360, high-hood GP38-2s #5064 and #5120 are the power.

Train 2:
Amtrak's outbound train #370, the Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids, heads across the river with a P42DC leading, three Superliners, and an ex-F40PH, now an NPCU "cabbage" car, still in its original Phase III paint!

Train 3:
NS ES40DC #7561, ES44AC #8027 and Dash-9 #9434 lead a piggyback/stack train north toward Park Manor Yard.

Train 4:
A CSX manifest from Clearing Yard comes up the BRC ramp, with the power working hard. Numbers are indiscernible, but a Dash-9, SD70M and SD40-2 power this train- a nice mix of power. The lead unit's horn sounds a bit sick!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• NS
• CSX
• Norfolk Southern
• Amtrak
• South Chicago Junction
• BRC
• Belt Railway of Chicago
• PRR
• NYC
• main line
• Chicago Line
• railroad
• railfan
• railfanning
• night
• diesel
• locomotive
• EMD
• GE
• Dash-9
• Dash-8-40CW
• C40-8W
• SD70M
• SD40-2
• GP38-2
• high hood
• Southern
• N&W
• ES40DC
• ES44AC
• GEVO
• F40PH
• Phase III
• P42DC
• Superliner
• 370
• Pere Marquette

[clocktamer]

The grace of a locomotive can't be matched.