Decided to go to Railroad Days in Rochelle this year due to the fact I've always wanted to catch Miss Katy, plus the fact this would probably be my last chance of going there. When I got there I went straight to where Miss Katy was:
The reason for the caution tape was due to the crew derailing the other special unit, UP 2010 (Boy Scout Unit), in the yard.
Next I went to the rail park where I was told that there had only been 1 train through in the last 2 hours. Well, a half hour later a BNSF hotshot came through lead by BNSF 1023 (dash 9).
That was followed quickly by another hotshot BNSF train lead by BNSF 4305 (dash 9):
And a westbound manifest lead by BNSF 4079 (dash 9) came through. The second unit was a creme and green 70MAC.
Finally the UP made an appearance with a Union Pacific stacker lead by UP 7860 (AC45CCTE):
Then an eastbound BNSF hotshot went through lead by 4479 (dash 9). By this time I was wondering if this was going to be a weird day on the point that it is normally 1 BNSF train to 4 Union Pacific trains. So far it was 1 Union Pacific train to 4 BNSF trains.
Following the eastbound hotshot it was all Union Pacific and the traffic level really picked up.
First a stacker heading to Global 3 lead by UP 4651 (SD70M).
Then a stacker came out of Global 3 headed east with UP 4410 (SD70M).
Then UP 7860 came back through after picking up some loaded well cars from Global 3.
I then wondered over to where the Boy Scout unit had been left to grab a couple shots, here is one of them.
I then went just west of the yard and caught a UP stacker waiting to go across the diamond. The stacker was lead by UP 7691 (AC45CCTE).
Then a loaded westbound rack train came through. I was having a hard time figuring out what they where, but in confident that at last one car had Chevy Silverado pickups in it. It was lead by UP 8597 (SD70ACE).
Then a westbound stacker came through the park lead by UP 7807 (AC45CCTE)
The final train of the day at the park for me was an eastbound manifest lead by UP 4855 (SD70M).
I then realized I need gas. The gas in Rochelle was 4.17, so I went west towards home and bought gas for 3.99 in Ashton, IL. While there I caught one train while pumping gas, an eastbound coal train lead by UP 5989 (AC44CWCTE).
When I finished paying for my gas, I went down to the crossing and could see a light in the distance to the east, which turned out to be a westbound manifest lead by UP 4255 (SD70M).
I hope you enjoyed viewing this trip as much as I did going on it.
That is all, Matt.
