Fairview Crossover Replacement

(Satellite)

On May 20, 2021, Fairview in Downers Grove, IL, was closed at the crossing so that BNSF could replace it. They started by removing all of the panels and asphalt. When I visited the site around 2pm Friday afternoon they were cleaning up the asphalt remnants.

When I arrived around 9am on Saturday, they were carefully digging around a signal cable so that they could get it out of the way.

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I noticed that the tamper that won't have to work on the crossing until after the rail is replaced was doing some other work east of the crossing. Since it was working by the platform, I walked down there to get a closeup. Since the target platform is not very far out, they are doing just a first pass.

0:59 A train starts honking for the construction zone in a quite zone. #8334 and #7407 2:01 A green BNSF hopper with the original logo. Normally, BNSF hoppers are brown. 2:28 A cut of four 1075 (butane) tank cars, non-odorized 3:00 I think it started picking up speed since the lead was past the construction zone. Normal freight track speed is 45mph. But this train should top out at 35mph since it has hazardous material.

The first clip shows the arrival of an inbound commuter at Fairview Station in Downers Grove, IL. It is blowing its horn even though this is a quiet zone because it is approaching the MoW activity of replacing M3 in the street crossing. Missing rail in M3 is why it is running left-handed through the station. The second clip (1:06) shows the departure. I was curious if the newer locomotive would produce black smoke as it accelerated a 7-car train. About when I was going to conclude that it didn't, I started seeing some black emissions.

I wish I could better see my LCD screen on the camera during bright days. I would have kept the excavator in the frame if I could have seen it better.

I thought the the wimpy sounding horn of an inbound commuter was because it was cab controlled. But this train at Fairview Station in Downers Grove, IL, taught me that the commuter locomotive has a wimpy horn. (I don't normally hear the horn because this is a quite zone. But they are blowing their horn today because the street crossing is being replaced.) I recorded the station dwell time because there was a front loader removing ballast from M3 to provide entertainment in the meantime. We can see that this locomotive also creates black smoke while accelerating. At least it doesn't look like a steam locomotive like some of the old commuter engines did. This train includes the blue bike car and, at the end, is a newer car that has the bigger windows.

I filmed this train at Fairview in Downers Grove as part of a log of trains that passed while I watched them replace the track for M3 in the street crossing. After I saw it was a unit train, I quit because they get boring fast. But then when I noticed the train was picking up speed, I made the segment starting at 0:47.

I got back from a bathroom break in time to log an inbound commuter. Once again, the new locomotives do produce some black smoke when working hard.

When they replaced the tracks in the Main Street crossing, they used three front loaders. I noticed this team used two front loaders and two rented excavators with thumbs. This sequence taught me that an advantage of a front loader is that it is easier for them to cross the tracks.

When I saw a front loader leaving the track area, I didn't bother to video it because that is no big deal. But then I realized that it is a big deal that it is no big deal after watching the excavator leave the work area, so I started videoing.


I went down towards the Maple crossing to see what some crews were working on down there. (They were adding another panel to a replacement section.) On the way there I came across this truck unloading operation. It made me realize that these multi-crew operations are a significant logistics issue. It is also the first time I've seen one operated by remote control. Normally there is a worker setting in the seat.

Normally I record all of a mixed freight. But since I was in a MoW position instead of a railfan position, I skipped a boring cut of hoppers and tankers.

From my angle, I could not see the arriving commuter train crossover from M3 to M1. But I could hear the horn. This was the train with the blue bike car now going the other way.

I'm glad I panned back to the MoW equipment after the commuter arrived at the station because it became obvious that the commuter train was the "key train." One time a worker explained that when the key train passes is when they get track authority to proceed with their work. In this case, they were lifting and  moving the track across M1 to place it on M2. But I stopped the first clip when they dropped the load. The second clip starting at 2:05 shows that they stopped because they decided they needed a front loader to help. The loader eventually worked its way to the middle of the track segment and got hooked up. So the third clip starting at 3:00 shows all three "yellow critters" raising the track and moving it forward. The close excavator tips over the parking lot curb at 3:37 and the second one tips soon after. But the big excitement happened at 4:05 when the rear wheels of the front loader came off the ground. And stayed off the ground. (YouTube's thumbnail AI recognized that as an interesting scene.) Given that the loader went back down after he moved forward, he must not have been keeping up with the two excavators. So in addition to the weight pulling his front down, he had the additional force of being pulled forward. Fortunately, as he tilted forward, the load was shoved forward so that the "pull force" was reduced. That negative feedback is probably what stopped the tilt. Fortunately, as he tilted forward, the load was shoved forward so that the "pull force" was reduced. That negative feedback is probably what stopped the tilt.

Once they got the track segment on M2, the other front loader pulled it down the track next to the hole in M3. I've seen them do this movement for the crossing replacements at Main and Forest. I assume the building and placement of the segments onto the tracks was done in the little railyard that is west of Forest.

This is another recording of the top speed of a Kobelco SK350 excavator. More importantly, the video records the time stamp of 11:02. I'll learn later that they will wait here until a commuter and intermodal goes by. The intermodal was the key train for their next phase of work that they started at 11:43. In that phase, they moved the track from M2 into the hole in M3 from which the old ballast had been removed.

While waiting for all three tracks to free up so that they could move the track segment into place, they did some miscellaneous preparation items such as drill holes in the rails for the joint bar bolts. I've got plenty of video of hole drilling from previous MoW work projects, so I didn't bother to capture that work. But when I heard a small POW and saw some smoke go away from the end of one of the rails, I got out of the van to investigate. A worker was adjusting some sort of gizmo on the end of the other rail.

On the platform is the hydraulic powered tool that drills the holes in the rails. On top of the "can" is a handle that allows them to pump air into it like a lawn weed sprayer. The air pumps a steady supply of oil to the drill bit. On the far rail you can see the freshly drilled holes because the shavings and oil are still there.

Unfortunately, I just missed catching the (little) explosion that caused the smoke. I've attached a photo at the end of the video (0:05) because it explains what was done. Specifically, a wire to carry signaling currents across the joint had been soldered to the rail. The photo also provides a good view of the freshly drilled holes in the far rail. When they replace track for a crossing, they use joint bars. During the night, a welding crew will replace the joint bars with welds.

After the intermodal train, which was the key train, cleared M1, the MoW equipment occupied M1 to move the track segment from M2 into M3. (The fade through white is where I removed a small segment to avoid a closeup of a worker.) Around 2 minutes, the front loader got into position at the end of the track. Around 3 minutes, someone noticed it was in the wrong position for the movement, and it moved to be parallel to the two excavators. Around 5 minutes they lifted the track and started moving it forward. The radius of the excavators seems to be large enough that they can move the track by simply extending their booms. But the front loader had to bounce across the rails. Around 6.5 minutes, the right side excavator moves its boom to the right to pull the track segment towards the existing rail.


It was now noon and I left for a lunch and body break. When I got back at 2:30, I quick got out of the van to catch a train. One advantage of MoW work is that I can hear the horn of an oncoming train in a quiet zone. So I quickly trotted over to a railfan position.

At the beginning of the video, you can catch a view of the ballast regulator working on M3. During the 2.5 hours I was gone, the front loaders would have moved a lot of ballast rock to the track. And the regulator and tamper probably did a few passes to raise the new track up to the level of the existing track.

When I arrived, two of their big trucks were trackside. The one on the left is for a welding crew. I believe the big blue box is a generator for arc welding. But I've only seen thermite welding performed. The one on the right, with the racks on top, is for track work. They had two of each of these on site, plus some more big trucks and a lot of little pickup trucks in an adjacent parking lot.

You can't see the orange crane on the backside of the trackwork truck, so I found another view of these two types of trucks. The little crane on the welding truck is used to hoist their tool rack of the back of the track and place it on the ground. The crew on the right is grinding a weld while the crew on the left is getting ready to cut the track segment a little shorter. 

In addition to the two trucks next to M1, they had one on M2. Here we can see one of the two hydraulic hose spools these big trucks have. We also get a good view of a cutoff tool and two fresh rail cuts. This is the first time I have seen a notch in a cutoff wheel.

The reason for all of the trucks was to power rail cutters because they were cutting the tracks into panels. And some cuts had started small fires.

In fact, they were still working on the last cut. The worker is reattaching the hydraulic hose after the mixed freight had rolled through. 

I started taking video when I realized that the tamper and regulator were going down the track to use the crossover to get from M3 to M2. Their top speed is not fast. That is why BNSF is going to leave one of the shoofly bridges over I-294 as a yard track for MoW equipment.

While editing, I noticed that I also caught a rail being cut. You can see some sparks flying

The Amtrak train was the key train for the removal of the track panels because within a couple of minutes of the train clearing M1, the excavator started moving into position.

After cutting the track into several track sections, they removed them and piled them up for later disposal. I held the camera long enough to catch the removal of the first two sections.

It was 3pm so I went home. I started posting what I had and I didn't bother to go back until 8pm. 

I thought I would get just a status check. But some work was still happening. They were using a ballast regulator to create a ditch in the ballast between M2 and M3 in which to put a drain pipe. Unfortunately, I needed to be on the other side of the track to make a video of the regulator work. You can barely see part of the blade behind the stair step. You can see the drain pipe that was laid out to go into the ditch once the regulator was done. 

When the regulator was done, I noticed that he was folding up his blade. In this photo you can see that the far blade is extended whereas the near blade has its storage length. Just after this photo, I saw the far blade shorten for storage. Both blades will be lowered to the frame like the left blade is.

When I arrived around 2pm Sunday, this is the action that was happening.

Some more action concerning adding ballast to the M1 track and yet another train.

Working notes:
I can't control the order you see videos on YouTube, so the explanation of the work being done is here:
https://dldreference.blogspot.com/2021/05/fairview-crossover-replacement.html