After they were by, I decided that although I had planned on making it to the Burg today, I had to chase back east as long as the sun stayed in the eastern sky. Lately, I've been noticing my lack of shots from Elmwood. You'd think that since I have lived  there for my whole life, I would have plenty of 'em. But, actually, I usually end up chasing a train when I hear it in Elmwood, so no shots from Elmwood. It looked like I would finally be able to catch a train in Elmwood. I've had an idea for a nice morning shot for quite some time, and was never able to do it. Now was my chance. Thanks to a perpetual slow order and a little bit of a hill between Yates and E-Wood, I beat the train over that 3 miles by quite a bit. Here is the P train @ Elmwood:

  Now, after the length of stacks and manifest pass, and it was a quite lengthy train today, I made my way on to Oak Hill to stake out the curve on the west edge of town. I've chased EB trains to Oak Hill before, and even with the 60mph on Rt. 8, it is still a close call getting there ahead of them. So, as I made my way across the tracks, I was surprised to not even hear the motors in the distance. By now it was getting on towards 11:00, so the sun was getting a little high and out of position for the curve shot. I wait and wait and wait, no P train. Now, I got to thinkin', and I remembered that I had heard this train is now called for 23:00 in E. Peoria, and it was now past 11:00, the crew may have run out of time. I then decided to head back west to find the train. Now, this is a dangerous proposition, because between Oak Hill and the nearest crossing to the west are roads that don't follow the tracks, meaning that if they were moving, they could sneak by me and I would never know it. But, I went anyways. Sure enough, as I came up to the crossing on Dog Town Lane, there sat the now crewless P-KCKREM. That's right, this crew was on duty at 11pm, and couldn't make an approximately 100 mile turn in 12 hours. They were about 25 miles short. This just shows how much the track on the Peoria Sub had deteriorated. Since the floods a few years ago, there is a 5mph slow order between Pottstown and Edwards, making the five mile trip take an hour. Hopefully, they will get this fixed soon. Anyways, here is the P-KCKREM sitting at Dog Town Lane(or is it now called Dog Catch Lane?):

    Since the train was standing still, I worked a number of angles on it, so if you are interested in seeing any more shots of the old SP Speed lettered power, click here. Since this crew was gone, and there was not another one in sight, I decided to call off the chase and head back to town. The sun was swinging around into the western sky anyway, no good for chasing an eastbounder.
    Since it was now around noon, I really didn't plan on attempting to go to Galesburg anymore. But, after a series of back roads, I ended up close to there anyways, so I guess I was meant to go. As I was pulling through Knoxville, the Chilli Sub radio came to life with an EB train calling the Foreman in E. Galesburg to get through his limits. Apparently, the work zone Form B was still up, that would come in handy. An EB would be great, I could try the shot at the EBurg trestle again, plus, this EB was the BNSF 7161, what I thought might be an H1 SD40-2. I sped off towards EBurg, arriving in plenty of time to catch the Eastbounder. What I wasn't thinking of was that the 7161 had called the Foreman on M1, not M2 where he should have been. I only realized this when a WB pig train flew by on the near track. For some reason, the Dispatchers like to cross over trains a lot around Galesburg, and it's never definite which track a train will be on. Well, the shot at the trestle only really works for something on M2, since that is the only way you can see all of the trucks on the power. But, as the train popped into view, I new that I had to get a shot of him. Check out this power on the EB Baretable @ EBurg:

    OK, so there are two things working against this one, the fact that the train is on the wrong main, and the fact that it is a baretable train, making this almost look like lite power. But, that is a nice looking H1 consist isn't it? After that junk, it was off to the yard to see what else might be in store. Not surprisingly for a Tuesday, the yard was looking a little empty. In spite of a pair of ex-BRC ALCo Century's sitting in the pit, there really was not much happening. After a long wait, I finally heard some scanner action. It seemed that a train was coming off the Ottumwa sub to head south on the Beardstown line. That might be something worth trying. They identified themselves as the BNSF 9802, which I had a temporary lapse, and thought it might be an H2 MAC. After waiting on the passing of his DPU motor, and heading south on Rt.41, I quickly realized that that wasn't the case, 9802 is in fact one of the Grinstein BNSF'ed motors.  Oh well, looks like it might be the only thing to chase, so I headed the next 8 miles into Abingdon. The 9802 had to wait on a northbound intemodal/manifest(probably the MEMGAL) at Saluda, and after that they highballed south. I looked all around Abingdon for a shot in the mean time. I had remembered that there were overpasses in Abingdon, and thought that might be nice. Indeed, there are three of them. Yet, all of them are heavily guarded by high fences, and all of the views of the tracks were in severe tree shadows. Great, I've got to find a shot soon. Another manifest had crept up to the end of the siding at Abingdon to wait on the coalie. I found a hole in the trees next to this trailer park and decided that had to be it, because that's all there was. So, here is the southbound C-NAMMEA, the BNSF 9802 E @ Commandoville:

    I know, that is really spectacular, isn't it? Note to self: there are no shots in Abingdon, continue south. I didn't feel like continuing south after this guy, so I headed back to the Burg.  Earlier, I had heard a BNSF 4258 W calling the Foreman on the Chilli Sub to get through his limits. Interesting, as that should be an old Santa Fe GE B Boat. They had work to do at E. Galesburg, so I decided not to wait on them. But, as I was heading north on Rt. 41, I could see autoracks sitting at Munson Rd. I must investigate. No sooner had I turned off, than the Chilli West DS called the BNSF 4258 W at CP 1750. He said he had one WB to get around him, and he would follow that train. Cool, looks like I'll get to see this guy after all. But, just as he said that, the WB went cooking by me. Great, I was going to miss him by just a little bit, because he was going after that train. Well, as I crossed the tracks on Munson Rd., the 4258 was still sitting there, so I headed west for a shot. I decided that 1850 would work, so I turned on the gravel and headed south to the connection. The 4258 took off very shortly, and it's a good thing he did, because an EB stacker was bearing down fast on the near track. Here is the BNSF 4258 W @ CP 1850:

    After this train, I decided to head back to the yard. However, I didn't get very far before another train caught my eye. A WB coal empty was just crossing Rt. 41. Further investigation revealed that he had three nice looking H2 MACs on the point. OK, so I was going to have to chase this guy a little. He was puttering down the Passenger main, and I managed to shoot him just east of Graham. You won't see that shot here, as I really wished this camera had a longer lens for that one. I decided to head to Cameron and try that elevator shot from the other day. The sun was getting low, and that could be pretty cool, I thought. Yet, as the coal train got his signals and warrants out onto the Ottumwa Sub, he really put it to the floor. I did my best to navigate the gravel roads (and about a mile of a dirt path) towards Cameron and get ahead of the empty. As it turns out, I got ahead of him by about 10 seconds into Cameron, and ended up bailing into the middle of the main street to get this shot. Also, I had to adjust my composition from the other day to account for the longer shadows.  Here is the E-CXLNAM0-14A, the BNSF 9822 W @ Cameron:

    I'm sure this is a consist that Grumpy would love. Hey, and speaking of Grumpy, since I am totally ripping off his format for these Trip Reports, why not head over to Grumpy's World and see how this is really done. After this train, I decided to head back for home. This guy was really rolling, I probably would have had to go clear to Burlington to catch up with him, and with the long shadows, it really wasn't happening. Another pass over the yard on the way out revealed nothing more of interest, except that the BRC ALCos were still sitting in the pit tied up to a couple of PREX GP20's. That will make for an interesting train if and when they leave. All in all, it turned out to be another exciting day in Galesburg, just like always.