Actually, these first five photos were taken by my wife on June 18, 2020, in Downers Grove. Some track panels that had been stored in the DG Yard were headed west. That is why I was checking the toll road lane closures in the first place.
From a vantage point in Hinsdale Veeck Park, it is obvious they are prebuilding the spans for the shoofly. (The trees you see on the Satellite image have been removed from the south side of the tracks.) These three are on the west side of the tollway.
Now I'm looking through the chain link fence along the 47th Street Bridge.
They are building three spans on the east side as well.
Walsh Construction has quite a few "yellow critters" in the area. And I need to get better at overriding the auto-focus on the camera.
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20200621 I was on the 47th Street Bridge taking photos of the construction of the shoofly when an inbound commuter crawled by. I took a video because it was going so slow. The tollroad, when the announced the overpass replacement, bragged that the shoofly would support the track speed of 70mph. So why are the trains going so slow while the shoofly is being built? This was a Sunday evening and no work was happening. Furthermore, it shouldn't be a work zone because the train never honked going pass here.
Later, I caught an outbound that was also going slow, but it never honked a warning for a work zone.
Another view of the three spans on the west side of the tollway.
An overview.
Now I'm driving down Burlington Ave. I stopped to get a photo of the ramp that they built since I was here May 6, 2020.
A view of the side of the ramp that they built since May 6.
A view of the work area from an opening in their gate.
I zoomed in on the spans they are prebuilding, but something went wrong with the autofocus. This is the first time I've seen a failure mode like this in the camera.
I found a gap in the construction fence a little further south of the previous photo.
They had piles stored in this area on May 6. Now they store their crane and some of their yellow critters here.
The three spans on the left are on this (east) side of the tollway and the three on the right are on the west side of the tollway.
It looks like they now have the abutments on both sides and the pier in the middle done.
I walked around taking some closeups of the eastern spans. Since they are being built on top of three containers, the construction fence doesn't block my view.
It is my understanding that if a car says "BNSF Railway" on the side, they are part of the oldest order that is still running. Since they seem to be buying new cars, these may be disappearing.
When I was leaving along Burlington Ave., I spotted this track construction.
An overview that includes a couple of loose rails. The lettering in the white area is "141-New" "NORTRAK" and "132-1/4" LOSS".
Some closeups of the power turnout.
When I saw the gaps in the ties is when I realized that they have yet to construct the power frog.
Zooming over the ramp and looking West to note the MoW equipment that was replacing crossovers west of Oak Street Bridge.
From a crosswalk at Central Ave.
The tollway is supposed to leave the park better than they found it.
I've never seen the south side of the Highlands Station before. I never realized how hilly it was in this area. The station really is on high land.
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| 1997 Hinsdale Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
They have a crosswalk between the platforms. The relatively new PTC signals and Oak Street Bridge.
Looking East.
Looking West again.
A view of the shoofly construction from the far east end of the south platform.
Discarded ties at the end of the platform.
I heard a train honk.
20200621 While I was on the east end of the south platform of the BNSF Highlands Station taking photos of the I-294 shoofly construction, I saw an e/b freight rolling past the crossover replacement work that was happening west of the station. I started the video before I normally would to catch the honking in the work zone. Thus the shaky zoom. Sorry about that. I had to turn up the volume during playback to hear the horn because the engineer was careful to be gentle with the horn. I imagine Hinsdale is the type of town that generates complaints when a train honks the horn. At 1:12, I start a clip of the rear end because, as I was walking down the platform to get back to my van, I thought the train was speeding up since it was past the I-294 work zone. But then I wondered if it just seemed to be going faster because I was feeling wind turbulence as I walked down the platform. The Highlands station forces one to stand a lot closer to a moving train than I normally would. I noticed that the train had switched from continuous double-stacks to trailers. It was interesting how you could feel the good and bad aerodynamics of a modular train. https://industrialscenery.blogspot.co... At the end, I zoomed in to the tamper that will finish the crossover replacement work.
The parking lot south of the Highlands Station was closed because of sewer work. (An advantage of Sunday trips is that I parked there anyhow.)
A view of the crossover work from the Oak Street Bridge. The turnout in the lower left corner is a new one because it has a power frog and a smaller angle for a faster speed limit.
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I headed east down Symonds Drive taking photos.
A train happened to come through while I was there.
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20200621 While taking photos of a BNSF crossover replacement project west of Oak Street in Hinsdale, IL, a train came through. I started the video early because the train was already honking for the work zone. (It is a lot easier to railfan when they have to honk because it gives me time to get the camera ready.) While the locos were rolling past, they fired up the tamper. So I continued to let the video suck battery because I now carry a spare. I continued videoing after the train finished until it became obvious that a repair, not just an adjustment, was needed. I spent almost another half-hour taking photos of a Brandt truck with six ballast hoppers and some city water pipe work in the area. And the only change by the tamper was that it has some maintenance trucks parked next to it and I ran out of daylight.
Going back west along Symonds Drive. I've never seen a Stanley TracHorse before. Obviously, it is a mobile hydraulic power supply. The BNSF tools such as the cutoff saw, power wrench, weld shear, grinder, etc. use hydraulic power. But every big truck I've seen has one or two hose reels for a hydraulic circuit.
On this trip, I saw new turnout machines east of the tollway and old ones west of the tollway.
Main 1 is closest to me (north side). I'm trying to capture that #3 is higher than #2, which is higher than #1. I've never seen this before on The Racetrack.
Someone was sitting in the ballast regulator waiting for the tamper to be fixed.
I knew I was getting low on daylight, but I had the ISO cranked up to 800 and I thought the camera would do a better job than this. The close headlights are the ballast regulator and the further headlights are the tamper. (There is a cross walk here. Why can't Downers Grove have one across from Gilbert Park??? Hinsdale has at least two and Western Springs has at least one and they are getting an underpass.)
A track panel ready to replace a turnout.
This Brandt truck was pulling six ballast hoppers.
The yellow critter on this side of the tracks was a road grader. I don't know whose it was or what it was doing in the area.
They are Symonds Drive between Post Cir and N Park Ave boring a hole under the tracks and Chicago Ave to S Park Ave.
I think they dug this hole just to verify the depth of the existing utilities is above where they will be boring the new hole. I've seen "verification holes" like this before for horizontal drilling projects.
This photo was taken from south of Chicago along Park. I believe this is their target for the bore.
Back on Symonds Drive. That is my van on the right. The main purpose of this photo is to record the various sizes of pipe. I don't know if they are supply or sewer or both.
These parts would be supply.
But this looks like sewer.
(Facebooked)
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20200621 While taking photos of a BNSF crossover replacement project west of Oak Street in Hinsdale, IL, a train came through. I started the video early because the train was already honking for the work zone. (It is a lot easier to railfan when they have to honk because it gives me time to get the camera ready.) While the locos were rolling past, they fired up the tamper. So I continued to let the video suck battery because I now carry a spare. I continued videoing after the train finished until it became obvious that a repair, not just an adjustment, was needed. I spent almost another half-hour taking photos of a Brandt truck with six ballast hoppers and some city water pipe work in the area. And the only change by the tamper was that it has some maintenance trucks parked next to it and I ran out of daylight.
Going back west along Symonds Drive. I've never seen a Stanley TracHorse before. Obviously, it is a mobile hydraulic power supply. The BNSF tools such as the cutoff saw, power wrench, weld shear, grinder, etc. use hydraulic power. But every big truck I've seen has one or two hose reels for a hydraulic circuit.
On this trip, I saw new turnout machines east of the tollway and old ones west of the tollway.
Main 1 is closest to me (north side). I'm trying to capture that #3 is higher than #2, which is higher than #1. I've never seen this before on The Racetrack.
Someone was sitting in the ballast regulator waiting for the tamper to be fixed.
I knew I was getting low on daylight, but I had the ISO cranked up to 800 and I thought the camera would do a better job than this. The close headlights are the ballast regulator and the further headlights are the tamper. (There is a cross walk here. Why can't Downers Grove have one across from Gilbert Park??? Hinsdale has at least two and Western Springs has at least one and they are getting an underpass.)
A track panel ready to replace a turnout.
This Brandt truck was pulling six ballast hoppers.
The yellow critter on this side of the tracks was a road grader. I don't know whose it was or what it was doing in the area.
They are Symonds Drive between Post Cir and N Park Ave boring a hole under the tracks and Chicago Ave to S Park Ave.
I think they dug this hole just to verify the depth of the existing utilities is above where they will be boring the new hole. I've seen "verification holes" like this before for horizontal drilling projects.
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| Digitally Zoomed |
Back on Symonds Drive. That is my van on the right. The main purpose of this photo is to record the various sizes of pipe. I don't know if they are supply or sewer or both.
These parts would be supply.
But this looks like sewer.
(Facebooked)
