UP coal loads wait outside of Rochelle, IL.

Gray skies and drizzle greeted us the morning of day four. Today was to be our last in Illinois. Grabbing a quick bite to eat and filling up on liquid go-go juice (A.K.A. coffee), we packed our gear back in to the "ATCSmobile" and headed out to the world famous railfan park in Rochelle, IL. Having spent many hours watching the webcam located here online, I was looking forward to seeing the park in person.

The railfan park at Rochelle is designed with the railfan in mind! Outdoor speakers mounted inside a covered seating area keeps you informed on what's happening; an outdoor seating area set around a fire pit even has some wood to burn if you so choose; plenty of parking is available, next to the static display of an old Whitcomb Tonner locomotive; and there is even a hobby store on-site, which is the home of the local ATCS server. However, at the time of our visit, the hobby shop was closed with no anticipated reopening date.

Our ATCS was unable to run due to a minor glitch, that forced us to rely on voice communications to alert us to approaching trains. This proved to be of little help as the trains were not talking. Just after getting to the park I was rewarded with a Union Pacific stack train which had departed from Global 3, one of the UP's large intermodal hubs around the Chicago area. Since only two UP GEvos were leading, I figured I had a few moments to sit and wait for the DP units (locomotives on the end of the train adding horsepower); I was sure they had them on the rear of this train because glinting of headlights reflected off sides of the wet containers on the stack train could be seen. "Strange," I thought, when the light came from a second UP train, this one a manifest running the wrong main. It pounded the diamonds of Rochelle. After seeing two trains within minutes of our arrival, I was sure the trend of the past two days was still with us.

Once the UP trains cleared the diamond, I was looking up and down the BNSF tracks, sure a train would be here any time. Ten minutes. Twenty. Half-an-hour past, still no BNSF train. Down, but not out, we decided to take a drive around to see if we could find them, sinse they were not coming to us. Before leaving the railfan park I had to stop at a house across the street. It would seem that railfans had moved in to a house right next to the tracks, I made a guess from their very own, Milwaukee Road caboose in the yard. Of course a picture of it was in order.

Back on the move we stopped and looked at the BNSF signals governing the approach to the diamond. Both told the same story: red over red. No train. Don knew of a location just down the road, where there might be a stray locomotive sitting around, so off we went in search of one.

Rounding a curve to the east of the park, I could see a small yard across from a large refrigerated warehouse; the warehouse had several lines of refer cars lined up waiting to be loaded/unloaded. Now anyone who knows me, knows I have been cataloging the refer cars belonging to Cryo-Trans. I have made it one of my missions: to get a roster shot of each and every car they have. The task is huge, at this point, the roster is close to 700 or so. Most of the cars at the warehouse were out of position to shoot, so, it was down the road to the small yard where we could see four GP-style units tied up for the weekend. Pulling up to the crossing, here sat two BNSF Cascade Green 39Vs, a BNSF Bluebonnet 39-2 and a lone EMDX 38-2 as well. I had to get some pictures of them right?

Of course! After I grabbed a few shots, we pressed on a little further down the road. I spotted a few of the Cryo-Trans cars sitting in the yard. Each refer is named, one of the names caught my eye: CRYX 5302. This boxcar just happens to carry the name of my home town, Minneapolis. Also, this was one car I needed for my collection. Stopping just long enough to get my shot, we were back on the move, but not for long the road deadended and we had to turn back.

With the radio still quite we drove back to the railfan park and checked the signals on both the UP and BNSF. Still, no sign of activity. Miffed, Don decided to check out a location belonging to the Illinois Terminal Railroad just outside of town. At one point they had kept a few ex-Santa Fe CF7 units and had tied them up in the nearby town of Flagg Center, IL. Off we went; making sure to check the signals on the BNSF before we left.

After a short drive, we were in Flagg Center. Following directions I turned left; then right; made a U-turn, and then back left. Just as we started down a dirt service road Don yelled out "Antenna Emergency!!!!" I hit the brakes and looked in the mirror expecting to see the antennas hanging off the side of the car but saw nothing. As Don jumped from the car he plucked antennas off the roof. He tossed them in the backseat as he pointed to the low hanging branches just ahead of us.

Chuckling to myself, I remembered one of two rules-of-thumb I had told Don on Thursday, as it relates to magnet-mount antennas and what will cause them to fall off. First: the max speed at which a magnetic antenna mounted to the roof can withstand is 80mph. Secondly: the greatest threat to a roof mounted antenna is low hanging branches.

With tragedy narrowly averted, we moved on down the road to a spot where there were a few cars set out on a track, looking back over our shoulders Don pointed to an empty section of track and said, "Well, that's where they would be, if they were here!"

Dang, struck out. Peering further down the line, I tried my best to see if I could spot anything that looked like a locomotive. I could not see any. Down, but not out, I turned the car around and went back to Rochelle. We drove back across the BNSF line, checking the signals. Nope, still dark. We continued down a few streets and behind a building, nothing, so back to the park. After pulling into the lot we could hear a train horn in the distance. It sounded from the direction I knew it was likely a UP train. I made it to the end of the park pavilion to get a few shots. A father and his two young sons were already here, both of the boys waited with excitement to see the train. I heard one say "I see it. I see it!" I turned towards what was a strange sight, one I had not seen in some time. Turns out luck was on my side today. The strange sight was two, unpatched Chicago & Northwestern (CNW) Dash 9s pulling a stack train out of Global 3.

CNW 8646 and 8701 - the last two remaining CNW units - were the only two units pulling the train. Thinking back to late 1980s and early 90s, this was a common sight in the cities, but in 2008, this was something special. As the train disappeared down the line, I walked back to the car, making sure to let the father and two boys know how special that train was. I told them I came all the way from Minnesota just to take their picture and now I can go home. Ok, so it was not the entire truth, but the train was special and I'm from Minnesota, but to see the look on their faces was worth it. After this, I was ready to go, but we had one more stop to make - Global 3 intermodal facility.

Knowing we would never be able to get a look inside the yard, we opted to check it out from across the tracks. But first, we had to wait for a UP coal load to depart from Rochelle before this could happen. Two UP SD9043s pulled slow at first before hitting the throttle. It finally blasted off, clearing the way for us to get a great view of one side of the facility. We stood in awe, looking at the size of it. The yard was huge. Containers where stacked everywhere and well cars were lined up for as far as we could see. There was a shack with 10 or more FREDs hanging on its side.

Getting an eyefull of Global 3, we had the chance to see one more train. Another UP manifest train came between us and Global 3, but that was ok with me. We had spent three hours in Rochelle and it was cold, damp, and gray. With no sign of a BNSF train, we decided to get a headstart for home and bid farewell to Rochelle and with it Illinois.

Now, with the trip over, I sat in my office at home and did some quick math. We traveled close to 1,100 miles; burned up over 80 gallons of fuel; three nights in hotels; quick meals that were not the healthiest; and no injuries to people and only one minor window chip to the car. For anyone planning a trip like this, I must warn you, it takes lots of pre-planning and a firm commitment from everyone. I was very lucky to have Don take care of the advance work - arranging the rental car, hotel reservations, finding maps and locations just to name a few items. I thank him for doing all of this well in advance, to make sure the trip went smoothly. I had a great time and look forward to visiting the area again. Hopefully sooner-than-later as I have a lot of "go back" locations listed in my notebook. I hope you all enjoyed this series of blogs. I promise to keep the next trip short so I can try to fit everything into one blog.