Railfanning West Chicago 11-9-14 - Triple Diamonds

After a busy Saturday, we awoke on Sunday refreshed and ready to go to the monthly train show in Wheaton, IL. But before we went there, we decided to make a quick stop at West Chicago (where the CN (ex-EJ&E) and UP (ex-CN&W cross at a tower and triple diamonds) to see what was going on, and the next 45 minutes did not disappoint us.
taken 11/9/14

Notes:

Shortly after arriving, we saw a lengthy westbound Canadian National manifest pound the diamonds, with CN SD75I #5769 and CN SD60 #5421, an ex- Oakway Leasing locomotive that CN bought in 2011, on the point (0:01). A few minutes after the CN train cleared, an inbound Metra caught me by surprise, with Nippon-Sharyo cab car #8412 leading and a “screamer” F40PH shoving on the rear, METX #171 “Norwood Park”(6:08). As soon as the Metra passed, an empty UP coal train that had been standing on the far track throttled up and passed us, with UP AC4400 #7293 and CP ES44 #8861 leading, with another UP AC4400 #6419 as the DPU, but still in SP paint, albeit patched (6:40). Then, as soon as the coal train’s lead power had passed the camera, yet another UP train popped up, this one an eastbound (chemical?, potash?, help?) with three UP locomotives on the lead, SD70M #4125, AC4400 #6653, and AC4400 #6628, very nearly creating a three-way meet (7:21)! After all that action, the final train I would capture turned out to be a lightly loaded westbound intermodal, with only a few containers on the head end, all hauled by UP C44-9W #9801 (10:43). After leaving, we popped by the Wheaton show and picked up a few things before heading back to Maryville, concluding an incredible weekend of railfanning and good times. As always, I hope you enjoy this video, and like and subscribe for more from MRP!
-Jon