20201107 Eola, Montgomery, Aurora: sheep yard, grain elevator, truss bridge and two dams

A bonus from Oct 22, a railfan photo facing east towards Washington Street crossing.

I took Eola from I-88 to US-34 on my way to US-30 and Montgomery, so I stopped by to get photos of BNSF's Eola Yard after they expanded it. First I checked out the east side of the yard.

I kept moving back and forth trying to figure out what to block with that sign. But as I set in my chair looking at the photo, it occurred to me that I could have trespassed enough in the weeds to get on the other side of that sign. Unless those weeds had burrs. I hate burrs. Is the MPM in town because they are going to do more tie work or because of the I-294 overpass construction?

As I waited for an opening in the traffic on Eola, a westbound intermodal train passed by.

While going North on Crane Ave, I caught a couple of locos heading East. #2321 and HLCX #3801. The BNSF loco is an H1 livery. I assume they are going to make the local train.

This is more of the w/b intermodal train.

It had a couple of DPUs on the end.

#7139 and #7538

Views from the east end of the Eola Yard. Looking East...

...and West.

East again, but I'm trespassing even deeper to get the locos on the left.

Previous locos are now on the right and an HLCX is on the left. Even though I cropped the signal bridge, I did get all four heads.

I wonder how much BNSF paid to Aurora to buy the end of McClure Road. Where my van is parked was legal (public property) before BNSF expanded their yard.

A microwave tower and all of the signal bridge.

Is this still a corn field because it was a gravel pit and people don't want to build on it. Or is the owner holding out for more money? When I moved to the area in 1973, there were still quite a few corn fields in DuPage County. Now they are rare east of Fox River.

Judging from some of the farm videos I watch, almost all tractors are now John Deere. I'm glad to see there are some modern red (CaseIH) tractors out there.

 

This shot is looking timecard east along the BNSF/CB&Q tracks. The purpose of this shot was to catch the foundation on the left. That is where the Montgomery Interlocking Tower stood. The road crossing the tracks is Webster Street.

A test of the focus and resolution of the camera. I discovered below that my closeup of this side did not show the windows at the top very well.

At camera resolution

I have crossed Webster Street and we get a better view of the Burlington Junction Railway locomotive, BJRY 1518, on the left and the rectangular grain elevator down by the little railyard. The big building with the conveyors going in the side must be the mixing plant for Ozinga Concrete.

I didn't walk around the hill to get a better view of the locomotive because I remember taking photos from the other side on another trip. But I have yet to look for them.

Digitally Zoomed

This grain elevator was one of the main objectives of this field trip. I went on a day that had some blue sky with a soft winter sun. But the sun was still powerful enough to create shadows from the big Ozinga mixing plant building.

I took the above photo with the elevator in the upper half so that I could crop it and avoid the keystone effect.

Bottom part cropped out

I also took a full-frame shot to have all of my options. The keystone effect is not too bad.

The same view, but I included more of the railyard that is behind the elevator. And it needs to be cropped.

I walked past the elevator and turned around to get this shot of the other side. I noticed a sensor with a flashing red light on the side of the big building pointing towards the elevator so I quickly took my shot and left. I did not want to find out if a guard was paying attention. I would have had to walk even further onto Ozinga property to get a clear shot of the upper windows. Getting a zoom shot from Webster Street is now on my todo list.

I did turn around and got this shot looking timecard West along the tracks before I left. We can see that Ozinga receives something by rail. Given the pipes along the bottom of the covered hoppers, I'm guessing that these hoppers are bringing cement to the plant.

This wide angle shot shows the pond that precludes getting some other angles of the elevator.

A full frame shot.

And an "upper-half" shot.

Now I'm in Montgomery Park taking a shot of the dam, another item on my field trip agenda.

Using the zoom lens to catch the watermark on the far abutment.

I found that I could park next to the dam.

Montgomery Dam is published.

I then continued North on River Street to the parking lot of South River Street Park. This is a trailhead for the Fox River and Virgil Gilman Nature Trails. This plaque was where a connector to the Gilman Trail leaves the River Trail.

I was going to skip taking this shot because of my shadow. But it was the only overview shot I could find.

I'm glad I did take the photo, because now I see I can crop the shadow out. Although I'm debating how much to crop.

I think this is the better one. Chopping the trail off is less disconcerting than the shadow of my head.

This bridge was another agenda item for my field trip because the two trails allow me to see the bottom and the top.

It was built by the EJ&E, and it was used my Milwaukee's CM&G.

As I do with all old truss bridges, I was analyzing whether or not the tension members get lighter near the middle of the bridge. I was shocked to find that one of the diagonals in the middle of the bridge was designed as a compression member instead of a tension member. All steel compression members can act as a tension member, but not vice versa. So I think they moved a short span from someplace else and added more panels to that span to make it longer. The above photo shows that both spans have the heavy diagonal in the middle of the truss.

Some shots of the underneath.

I'm trying to get the dark underside to dominate the frame so that it will be exposed better. Looks like I'm going to have to play with Gimp anyhow.

I am a sucker for cut stone piers.

I found a break in the tree line on the upstream side of the bridge.

This is the overpass bridge over River Street. I believe the diagonal plates are called "knees."

I had trouble parking because I had to squeeze in around a sheriff and police car in the parking lot. I see they are still having discussions with people.

An obligatory portal view.

And a view of the truss.

I'm trying to get the structure that is below the deck. Note there was a walkway on this (downstream) side of the bridge.

Electrons are cheap. Finally, I was able to get a shot leaning over a rail that is vertical. In fact, I did it two photos in a row.

I walked along the bridge taking a photo of each stringer connection.

This is where the compression diagonal connects with the bottom. I knew that the bottom cords of a truss are in tension. These views have taught me that they get heavier as they get nearer to the middle. Specifically, the middle panel had four tension bars whereas the outside ones have just two.

What is the plural term for ducks? Gaggle? (Google says gaggle of geese or swans. But ducks are a raft, a team or a paddling. BTW, a gaggle of geese is three or more flocking on the ground. If they are in the air, it is a skein.)

A view looking upstream from the bridge. The Fox River tends to have islands in Aurora.

I walked west on the Gilman Trail to see if the underpass under the BNSF/CB&Q route offered a good railfanning view point. Because of the trees, no. Because the trail is straight here, we can see both underpasses. The close one is under the Mendota Subdivision that goes to Galesburg and Denver whereas the far one is under the Aurora Subdivision that goes to Minneapolis and the Northwest. [BNSF]

You can see the Aurora underpass a little better.

The sun sets early in November. I'm getting some golden light.

There was nobody behind me, so I took another view of the River Street overpass. Fortunately, I can rotate and crop the photo with Gimp.

The Mendota + Aurora overpass.

I parked near this corner to check out the Aurora Dam. I was glad to see they were rehabilitating this building.

My original goal was to take a photo of that tall building that I kept seeing in the background when I was down on the EJ&E bridge. Noting the location of the Paramount Theater was a bonus.

The east side of the Aurora Dam.

Aurora Dam is published.