| For the past four years, I have been accompanying my Dad out to Dyersville, IA in the late Fall to attend the National Farm Toy Show. This year, with his new job, we had an opportunity to go to the summer show, which although it is much smaller, it gives us longer days to spend on train watching. This year, with a few whole days to blow before we had to be in Iowa, we decided we were going to go to the Illinois Railway Museum. This would be my first ever visit to the museum, and my dads first visit to the museum since the mid 90s. With the museum not opening until 10 AM CT, we started our day early to get a few trains in before heading to the museum. CF&E had a train lined in from SDI, so we made our best efforts to make that our first train of the day. By the time we made it into town, the train was already calling signals back on NS rails. With not a lot of options to head to, we decided on trying to photograph the train passing the former GE complex (now Electric Works), from the Fairfield Ave. overpass. NS has No Trespassing signs all over there, and it is a common place for public mischief to happen, and nine times out of ten there is always a FWPD officer sitting there. Sure enough, not even 5 minutes of being there, one came out of hiding. Thankfully, he allowed us to stay to get our photos, but he essentially told us never to come back here again. A pair of Geeps lead inbound CFE 23 from SDI today. With the recent acquisition of several Dash 8/9 locomotives from GE, I believe the 3042 is planned to be moved to another property. So, this might be the final shot I get of it. Its sister, 3041, is already off. I suppose well see what happens. |