The Remants of History at Dubuque Junction
One for Switcher Sunday: What I believe is properly noted with the reporting marks PGVX 2012, an SW8, lets out a little bit carbon as it shoves on a set of 4 loaded hoppers at the site of the former Dubuque Junction.
I got lucky on this particular Friday afternoon and happened to be in the area of the Viterra operation here when I noticed activity with someone on the railcars. My best guess given what I saw and the very rusty condition of these former SOO Line Hoppers is that what the crew was transferring out of the barges in the upper center with a crane and loading these four hoppers was salt. With that job apparently complete, they were pulled slowly through the loading house (I assume it has a scale) and then eventually up to this spot to clear a switch. With a belch the crew is now shoving back where they'll deposit these 4 loads on one of the spurs just above the engine, for the CN yard/local crew to pick up soon. Since they are SOO cars, I wonder if they went to the CPKC interchange for forwarding to a customer on their railroad? The two road still swap cars via a spur off the main near the CN yard.
This is a scene loaded with so much neat history the more you look, and there's lots of layers. If you're curious here is a (admittedly somewhat long winded) description of some of it...
The most obvious is the diamond at front at center: This is the site of the former Dubuque Junction, once linking together the Chicago Great Western and the Illinois Central. The IC still is in operation with the mainline at right, and the track in the lower center is what is used to connect to this facility. The other former CGW main was originally abandoned west of Dubuque in the 1980s. A segment of the line here was still used until somewhere in the early 2010s though to service another nearby Cargill Complex - around 2012 I still saw the occasional set of cars being moved by a different SW1 assigned there. But it has since been severed and the track the 2012 is on is just a stub that ends a few more car lengths behind the camera. There was once a tower here at Dubuque Junction directly under the camera: see this neat Lance Wales photo showing off the spot in Chicago Central days looking in the opposite direction from my view: www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/11921296805/
The name Dubuque Junction is still used today for what is now the connection between the CN and CPKC a short distance to the west.
The second more obvious neat bit of history is the stone tower at upper right - that's the Shot Tower. Built in 1856, it is a holdout of the history of this tri-state area of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois in the lead mining industry that was really important around here for many years. Lead mining allowed for the production of lead shot for weapons in these towers, where the molten lead could be poured and the round shot formed as the material fell and cooled.
The industry here has been there far shorter than the tower, but it has changed over time too. The PGVX reporting marks of the 2012 would reflect Peavy Grain, a previous owner that then became Gavillon Grain before that company was bought in 2023 by current owner Viterra. The little complex here once had more buildings but some of them were torn down in the last few years, supposedly with the intent of creating a new facility although the Viterra purchase may have put a pause on some of those plans. There's still a number of tracks and loadouts for transferring bult products to and from trucks and barges, and the SW8 is stored inside the load out shed under the bins but can occasionally be found out and about.
This little blue switch engine also has a neat history: the best records I can find is that it was built in 1951 for the US Army, with the same number. That fits with a story told to me by the operations manager, that he once a number of years back had a group of Veterans stop in and want to see the engine. If I remember right, they had operated it during their time in the army as support for the Korean War! For now at least this 73 year old engine is still earning it's keep in what would seem to be a low-stress retirement job, moving the occasional cut of cars here on the banks of the mighty Mississippi.
(By the way, If anybody else has older photos of this junction in it's heyday beyond the handful on railpictures.net, I'd love to see 'em!)
The Remants of History at Dubuque Junction
One for Switcher Sunday: What I believe is properly noted with the reporting marks PGVX 2012, an SW8, lets out a little bit carbon as it shoves on a set of 4 loaded hoppers at the site of the former Dubuque Junction.
I got lucky on this particular Friday afternoon and happened to be in the area of the Viterra operation here when I noticed activity with someone on the railcars. My best guess given what I saw and the very rusty condition of these former SOO Line Hoppers is that what the crew was transferring out of the barges in the upper center with a crane and loading these four hoppers was salt. With that job apparently complete, they were pulled slowly through the loading house (I assume it has a scale) and then eventually up to this spot to clear a switch. With a belch the crew is now shoving back where they'll deposit these 4 loads on one of the spurs just above the engine, for the CN yard/local crew to pick up soon. Since they are SOO cars, I wonder if they went to the CPKC interchange for forwarding to a customer on their railroad? The two road still swap cars via a spur off the main near the CN yard.
This is a scene loaded with so much neat history the more you look, and there's lots of layers. If you're curious here is a (admittedly somewhat long winded) description of some of it...
The most obvious is the diamond at front at center: This is the site of the former Dubuque Junction, once linking together the Chicago Great Western and the Illinois Central. The IC still is in operation with the mainline at right, and the track in the lower center is what is used to connect to this facility. The other former CGW main was originally abandoned west of Dubuque in the 1980s. A segment of the line here was still used until somewhere in the early 2010s though to service another nearby Cargill Complex - around 2012 I still saw the occasional set of cars being moved by a different SW1 assigned there. But it has since been severed and the track the 2012 is on is just a stub that ends a few more car lengths behind the camera. There was once a tower here at Dubuque Junction directly under the camera: see this neat Lance Wales photo showing off the spot in Chicago Central days looking in the opposite direction from my view: www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/11921296805/
The name Dubuque Junction is still used today for what is now the connection between the CN and CPKC a short distance to the west.
The second more obvious neat bit of history is the stone tower at upper right - that's the Shot Tower. Built in 1856, it is a holdout of the history of this tri-state area of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois in the lead mining industry that was really important around here for many years. Lead mining allowed for the production of lead shot for weapons in these towers, where the molten lead could be poured and the round shot formed as the material fell and cooled.
The industry here has been there far shorter than the tower, but it has changed over time too. The PGVX reporting marks of the 2012 would reflect Peavy Grain, a previous owner that then became Gavillon Grain before that company was bought in 2023 by current owner Viterra. The little complex here once had more buildings but some of them were torn down in the last few years, supposedly with the intent of creating a new facility although the Viterra purchase may have put a pause on some of those plans. There's still a number of tracks and loadouts for transferring bult products to and from trucks and barges, and the SW8 is stored inside the load out shed under the bins but can occasionally be found out and about.
This little blue switch engine also has a neat history: the best records I can find is that it was built in 1951 for the US Army, with the same number. That fits with a story told to me by the operations manager, that he once a number of years back had a group of Veterans stop in and want to see the engine. If I remember right, they had operated it during their time in the army as support for the Korean War! For now at least this 73 year old engine is still earning it's keep in what would seem to be a low-stress retirement job, moving the occasional cut of cars here on the banks of the mighty Mississippi.
(By the way, If anybody else has older photos of this junction in it's heyday beyond the handful on railpictures.net, I'd love to see 'em!)