Fall 2013 Trip - 2

Hi, After spending the night in Dubuque we returned to Wisconsin to photograph BNSF along the Mississippi River. It turned out that access to locations along the river in this area were few and far between.  However, we met a railfan from Dubuque in East Dubuque and he gave us some suggestions.

Based on the information he provided we drove to Galena, IL and then took some back roads over to the river.  All of the BNSF photos were taken south of Rice.

Our first two trains, shown above and in the following 3 photos, were taken at the first point that we reached the river just across the road from an equestrian center.  These trains are westbound.

About 2 miles south of the equestrian center we found a causeway across an inlet off the river.  At this point we photographed 3 eastbound trains, this auto rack train,

a second auto rack train, and

an intermodal train.

Continuing south we found a second causeway and shot an eastbound manifest

with a DPU.  The road ended here.

As there were no more eastbound trains coming and clouds had begun to form we went to lunch.

The clouds were really thickening after lunch, however, we were able to catch westbound coal empties passing a tank train with a UP leader in the siding at East Dubuque.

We crossed the river into Dubuque, Iowa and looked for the CN facility.  Our plan was to follow the CN west and see if we could find something to shoot along the way.  While exploring we heard a horn and were able to set up for this northbound CP train.

Our search for a CN train was unproductive so we headed west.  We heard nothing on the radio for the rest of the afternoon so we drove straight through to our destination for the day, Le Mars, IA.  Thanks for looking.