The morning of August 9th, 2017 saw myself driving up to Bloomingdale to get drug tested for my new job, and subsequently driving to St. Charles to get some more footage of Charlestowne Mall before it closed.
As I was pulling up to the President Street railroad crossing, the gates went down and I was officially stopped by a flagger. The crossing, at the time, was under construction to smooth it out for vehicles going over it (and boy did they do a great job!), and the activity is what prompted me to pull out my phone and start recording.
An inbound Metra, pushed by F40PH-2 131, was making a station stop at College Avenue , while a Union Pacific maintenance vehicle also took the opportunity to cross the road.
Immediately after the Metra was clear, I got a big and long awaited surprise, when two of Union Pacific's heritage SD70ACe locomotives, 1988 and 1996, popped out of nowhere leading a westbound freight. This was my first time catching one of the heritage units. Also on this train was a GP15 yard unit, 724.
If I remember correctly, after seeing a couple RU-vid videos, I found out 1988 and 1996, shortly after I captured them here, were at some point transferred to the Belvidere Subdivision to be moved to Illinois Railway Museum for one of their events.
Great lucky catch!
31 дек 2017
