Sand, but not for sand bags...
BNSF 5493 leads what I believe to be a unit sand train of 2-bay hoppers at Savanna, Illinois. The train is passing between the backwater of the edge of the flood-elevated Mississippi River, which should normally be just to the left side of this photo, though the flooding is down a couple of feet from it's crest about a week earlier. While locals including the owners of the water-logged grain elevator seen here wait for the water to recede to perform cleanup, the BNSF seemed to be mostly back to business as usual at this spot. That's the Sabula-Savanna bridge in the distant left, which was opened to traffic in 2017 replacing the previous truss bridge.
Sand, but not for sand bags...
BNSF 5493 leads what I believe to be a unit sand train of 2-bay hoppers at Savanna, Illinois. The train is passing between the backwater of the edge of the flood-elevated Mississippi River, which should normally be just to the left side of this photo, though the flooding is down a couple of feet from it's crest about a week earlier. While locals including the owners of the water-logged grain elevator seen here wait for the water to recede to perform cleanup, the BNSF seemed to be mostly back to business as usual at this spot. That's the Sabula-Savanna bridge in the distant left, which was opened to traffic in 2017 replacing the previous truss bridge.