Elva, Illinois, is a tiny farming community located a few miles from DeKalb on the Troy Grove Branch. Its major landmark is a unique old grain elevator with a glazed ceramic tile exterior. There may actually be more head of livestock living in Elva than humans.


The Troy Grove Branch leaves the Union Pacific Geneva Subdivision at DeKalb where the branch joins the ex- C&NW main line near a huge steam era concrete coaling tower that still straddles the main tracks and the pa- rade of Union Pacific trains. The Troy Grove Job, usually pulled by a pair of GP15-1 locomotives, traverses the line at the leisurely pace of about 25 m.p.h. A track upgrade in 2005 now allows the train to make a round trip in one day instead of the usual old routine of down one day and back the next.


Elva, Ill., is a tiny farming communi-


ty located a few miles from DeKalb on the Troy Grove Branch. Its major land- mark is a unique old grain elevator with a glazed ceramic tile exterior. There may actually be more head of


38 NOVEMBER 2012 • RAILFAN.COM


livestock living in Elva than humans. One of the four legged residents cau- tiously regarded me from the shadows of her stable as I pulled up next to the horse’s pasture adjacent to the tracks one late afternoon that I was following the northbound train. I had a few min- utes to wait before the train showed up as I had leapfrogged well ahead of it to find a suitable location for a photo working with the late fall sun angle. The horse became bored with me quick- ly as she apparently determined I had no food such as apples or carrots to of- fer. Since the train was now slowly ap- proaching, it replaced me as the object of attention for the equine. She pur- posefully walked out into the center of her pasture much to my delight as this real ferroequinologist would make a


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