Joseph T. Wagner
Land of the Free'd
Sharing names with the bustling metropolis of this large southern US city, but with nearly half a million fewer residents, is the quaint little town of Atlanta, IL. It's the United States of America's birthday today and while most are gathered around a grill or with eyes to sky admiring the dazzling displays of on-going fireworks, my eyes, and camera, are pointed toward the railroad tracks, taking in the passage of this evening's holiday edition of Union Pacific's Bloomington/Normal to A&S-East St. Louis merchandise train, south, down the single-tracked Springfield Subdivision. The MBNAS 04 is running unusualy heavy tonight with a hefty 92-car consist in tow for Gateway fronted by a pair of EMD SD60s with leader #2204 handsomely sporting the dark blue, yellow and red "Buzzsaw" shield of UP subsidiary Alton & Southern, specially painted in January of this year at the North Little Rock Jenks Shops. Held almost exclusively captive to the St. Louis metro area on short-haul yard transfers, the duo is more than enjoying their special escape to the wide open countryside on this mainline freight as they scream through Atlanta's city limits down the old Alton Route on this hot summer's eve passing beneath one of the many grain elevators that dot Illinois' bucolic landscape. Alas, a later than normal departure from Bloomington and a meet with two Amtrak Illinois Service trains at McLean, just to the north, resulted in this sunless, twilight run-by.
Land of the Free'd
Sharing names with the bustling metropolis of this large southern US city, but with nearly half a million fewer residents, is the quaint little town of Atlanta, IL. It's the United States of America's birthday today and while most are gathered around a grill or with eyes to sky admiring the dazzling displays of on-going fireworks, my eyes, and camera, are pointed toward the railroad tracks, taking in the passage of this evening's holiday edition of Union Pacific's Bloomington/Normal to A&S-East St. Louis merchandise train, south, down the single-tracked Springfield Subdivision. The MBNAS 04 is running unusualy heavy tonight with a hefty 92-car consist in tow for Gateway fronted by a pair of EMD SD60s with leader #2204 handsomely sporting the dark blue, yellow and red "Buzzsaw" shield of UP subsidiary Alton & Southern, specially painted in January of this year at the North Little Rock Jenks Shops. Held almost exclusively captive to the St. Louis metro area on short-haul yard transfers, the duo is more than enjoying their special escape to the wide open countryside on this mainline freight as they scream through Atlanta's city limits down the old Alton Route on this hot summer's eve passing beneath one of the many grain elevators that dot Illinois' bucolic landscape. Alas, a later than normal departure from Bloomington and a meet with two Amtrak Illinois Service trains at McLean, just to the north, resulted in this sunless, twilight run-by.