BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — BNSF Railway’s local between Galesburg and Streator, Ill., L CHI 101, is shown running West at Ancona, Ill., from a public grade crossing on Saturday, July 22, 2017.
The power on this train for the last several months has been interesting, anything from former Santa Fe “Superfleet” 500 series four-axle GE’s to rebuilt former Santa Fe SD45-2s.
Here, BNSF No. 1568, the former Santa Fe No. 5657, now considered an SD40-2R, leads another rarity, BNSF No. 2748, a GP30 carbody rebuilt as a GP39M.
Saw a similar consist (BNSF No’s. 538 and 506 with three cars) passing the old Chillicothe (IL) depot on Friday afternoon, 7/21/17.
You should see the BNSF local that serves Pepperidge Farm in my hometown of Downers Grove IL. Most of the time it’s two engines in push-pull mode, separated by just a couple cars. The spur into Pepperidge is a stub, so by running this way they save having to make a long runaround move thru the neighboring crossovers in order to head back to Eola.