**watching in 1080p60 recommended**

Ten trains from this past spring on Norfolk Southern's Midwest Division, featuring the Bloomington, Lafayette, Brooklyn and Springfield-Hannibal districts.

TIMESTAMPS:
Friday, April 16, 2021
(0:00) NS D36 swings out of Gibson City.
The Bloomington District (Bement-East Peoria) is a line stitched together of two former railroad routes; the Wabash from St. Louis to Chicago and the Nickel Plate Road between Frankfort, Indiana and Peoria.

NS D36 16 (Normal, IL Good Yard - Decatur, IL East Yard)
NS 7116 GP60
NS 3454 SD40-2
61 cars

(3:07) Dash 9s lead NS D21.
This grain train loaded at The Andersons west of Champaign and is swinging off the Mansfield Branch from Urbana (what remains of the Peoria & Eastern Railway; a New York Central Railroad subsidiary) while dragging behind the D36 as seen earlier.

(3:59) Searchlights, code line pole at Lodge.

NS D21 16 (Norfolk Southern Midwest Division local)
NS 9658 C44-9W
NS 9762 C44-9W
50 cars

Tuesday, April 20, 2021
(5:15) NS D91 by Sidney in SNOW!
Pulling 32 cars, it just finished work at Frito-Lay and heads to Tolono for more fun. The Lafayette District (from Decatur to Peru, Indiana) has many nonstop trains, but also local jobs including this one from Danville's metro area that runs weekdays.

(6:13) West of Tolono.
D91's power also will run around here so it faces "backwards" (it is an ex-Norfolk & Western set up to run long hood forward!) for the trip home.
**EDITOR'S NOTE: United Prairie is adjacent to Premier Cooperative here, so the cars that were set out/picked up could have been bound to/from either facility despite what the video caption said**

(8:56) Back through Sidney.

(9:17) 20 cars after working Bunge Grain.
An inch of snow was recorded in the region as the day comes to a close. Some of it accumulates in fields, a pretty scene for spring!

NS D91 20 (Tilton, IL-based)
NS 6173 SD40-2

Friday, April 23, 2021
(10:31) NS 30N coming into Boody.
This daily mixed freight on the Brooklyn District (from the St. Louis metro area) typically has a block of auto traffic that goes on 120 the next day.

NS 30N 23 (Venice, IL TRRA Madison Yard - Decatur, IL Brush Yard)
NS 9853 C44-9W
NS 7621 ES44DC
91 cars

Sunday, April 25, 2021
(14:20) Crandall Junction.
Toledo, Peoria & Western (ex-Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe secondary from Ancona to Pekin) crosses the Bloomington District here, set up as a One-Way Low-Speed diamond. At an OWLS diamond, the higher-trafficked line – in this case, the NS – has no flangeway gaps, allowing movements on it to operate at maximum authorized speed. Wheels of trains on the lighter-used line – the TP&W's – are lifted up by ramps built into the railhead, carrying them across on their flanges, but are restricted to 10 mph.

(15:02) NS D4Z crosses east.
A weekend run of D49 from Good Yard that switches out D32/puts together D36. While hauling interchange traffic from the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, a neat sight is the ex-Kansas City Southern switcher in tow.

NS D4Z 25 (Normal, IL-based)
NS 7100 GP60
NS 3351 SD40-2
NS 3362 SD40-2
GMTX 198 SW1500
36 cars

Tuesday, May 11, 2021
(16:36) NS 115 heading west.
Three GEs lead this daily mixed freight on the Springfield-Hannibal District (to Moberly, Missouri).

NS 115 11 (Decatur, IL East Yard - Kansas City, KS 18th Street Yard [Union Pacific])
NS 7674 ES44DC
NS 4247 AC44C6M (rebuilt from NS 9019 C44-9W)
NS 9392 C44-9W
131 cars

Friday, May 14, 2021
(19:46) NS 120 moving east.
This auto train is lacking 86-foot boxcars, due to a global semiconductor shortage in 2021 so far, they've been absent most times.

NS 120 13 (Kansas City, MO Avondale Yard - Melvindale, MI Detroit Oakwood Yard)
NS 4209 AC44C6M (rebuilt from NS 8977 C44-9W)
NS 3625 ET44AC
31 cars

Monday, May 31, 2021
(20:59) NS 405 on Memorial Day.
Led by three "non-horsehead" Dash 9s, this empty coal train will head to Mount Olive on the Brooklyn District, run the power around, get on the BNSF Beardstown Subdivision in rural Litchfield to Sorento and take the NS Madison Branch (ex-Nickel Plate Road Cloverleaf) to Deer Run Mine, which opened in 2010 and has since become the sole player in central Illinois after Shay Mine near Carlinville closed in 2020.

(22:13) Clearing Stonington.

NS 405 29 (Decatur, IL ADM - Hillsboro, IL)
NS C44-9W 9604
NS C44-9W 9701
NS C44-9W 9621
116 cars

Tuesday, June 1, 2021
(23:53) NS 21T flying in Ivesdale.
The intermodal train is led by the Interstate Railroad "heritage" locomotive (one of 20 painted in 2012 to recognize NS's 30th anniversary).

NS 21T 31 (Harrisburg, PA GI8 Yard - Kansas City, MO Voltz Yard)
NS 8105 ES44AC
NS 1820 SD70ACC (rebuilt from NS 2514 SD70)
NS 9659 C44-9W
130 platforms

Friday, June 18, 2021
(25:54) Interstate again, now on NS 15Q.
Meets with a pig iron train at Oakley.

(29:28) Abbreviated 15Q at Lake Decatur/Brush.

NS 15Q 17 (Portsmouth, OH Portsmouth Yard - Decatur, IL East Yard)
NS 8105 ES44AC
NS 9937 C44-9W
80 cars

©2021 Lewis Marien

свернуть