Farewell Ancona

Just a few days ago, I posted images of the now replaced B&O CPL’s around Warwick Yard in Clinton, Ohio and already, more news of signal replacements has surfaced. Yesterday, BNSF signal crews erected and activated the new Safetran signals at Ancona, Illinois and removed the classic Santa Fe searchlights from service. The old bridge still stands but is nearly impossible to photograph with the massive shiny new cantilever towering in front of it. Back in November, my Dad and I made a trip out to the former Santa Fe Transcon to shoot the last of these signals in service and this was the first location we stopped at along the way. My main objective for the day was the cantilever in Toluca, a town just west of this location, but a work zone near the signals there prevented any kind of shot. However, the dispatcher was crossing trains over from main one to main two at Ancona to run around the work zone on main one at Toluca. This allowed me to try a different angle on the scene for this westbound BNSF stack train, instead of the more common angle from the gravel area next to the grain elevators on the other side of the tracks.

 

I was disappointed that I was not able to get anything from Toluca that day, and there's also the fact that I was nearly dinged by the only cloud in the sky, but a few night time exposures at Toluca the next evening and the chance to get this shot made up for it. I’m glad I was able to add a few shots of these signals to my collection, and I hope I may be able to make it back at least one more time to shoot the few signals that are left on the Transcon in Illinois before they fade into history.

Done