ABOVE: Unlike the other switcher jobs on the system, the BUSW (Bureau Switcher) can do a fair amount of main line running in addition to its yard work. Here we see the crew utilizing an SD38-2/GP38-2 combo lead a healthy cut of cars across the Rock River in Colona, Ill., on October 18, 2008. LEFT: An SD38-2 and a ES44AC team up on this extra RIBI made up primarily of ethanol loads out of Cedar Rapids. The two units are on their hands and knees working up a steep grade on Metra’s Rock Island Line near Mokena, Ill., with 120 loads of fuel on September 23, 2010.
Now fast forwarding a bit to the year
builds all westbound trains. BIIHB is the second daytime job that does all in- dustry work and pulls
interchange
from the IHB for the next day’s west train. The Iowa no longer interchanges directly with the CN in Joliet, and any one of these three jobs can either deliv- er or pick-up unit ethanol trains from the IHB or Chicago Rail Link at Burr Oak, all on an as-needed basis. Summer months are favorable for photographing the west train on the east end of the railroad. Operating over Metra rails, Iowa Interstate is forced to work around their “rush hour curfews” and time restraints. The first opening for a westbound IAIS move on a week- day is after what Metra considers its fi- nal rush hour train, train No. 421 de- parting Vermont Street in Blue Island at 6:42 p.m. If the west train does not
depart on the heels of that Metra, it will more than likely be forced to wait until the next window, at 7:24 p.m.
A Mighty Fine Line
What attracts fans to this nearly 500 mile regional carrier? Maybe it’s the In- terstate’s rich heritage, attractive paint scheme, steam program, or just its friendly employees. I know my own reasons stem from my childhood in the late ’80s and early ’90s, growing up in suburban Berwyn, just two miles out- side of Chicago’s city limits; I lived but 100 feet from once growing and thriv- ing regional Chicago Central & Pacific. With its rag-tag roster of second and third hand, first generation Geeps, I was thrilled as a child to watch massive manifest freights roll by my house be- hind mismatched rainbow consists.
To see more of the author’s Iowa Interstate photography, visit
railfan.com/photoline
2001; as I began to venture out to ex- plore the railroad world around Chicagoland, I spent one wintery Sat- urday at Joliet Union Station in hopes of catching what my friends and I be- lieved to be a “rare” Iowa Interstate train. Armed with little knowledge and a cheap digital camcorder, my first eastbound IAIS train came through town, turning out to be the BICB, led by five four-axle motors, made up of various models, paint schemes, and histories; it very much reminded me of my childhood, growing up watching the CC&P from my front window. Over the last decade or so, I’ve watched my fa- vorite little Iowa based regional rail- road make gold out of corn products, and turn their roster of rag tag first generation EMD’s into a GE-based ros- ter made up of breaking edge technolo- gy and fuel efficiency.
The only constant in life is change, and change is what fuels a railfan’s am- bition to do what we do. As the Iowa In- terstate grows with the times, so shall the railfans that follow this former Rock Island line.
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