Railfanning DeKalb and Elburn, IL on 8/11/14

Fellow youtuber Unionpacificman1 invited me to stay a night at his place and spend a day to railfan with him and friends. Since he was visiting downtown Chicago, it worked out to ride back to his place and then take Metra back. So the next morning we set out and railfanned our butts off in the hot sun and caught lots of Union Pacific freight trains, generic stuff, but still fun. Thanks Unionpacificman1!

His Youtube is:    / unionpacificman1  

There's a grade crossing in DeKalb that's about 3 locomotive lengths long that goes through the middle of the intersection of Lincoln Hwy. and S 4th St. They are pretty much the 2 main streets in town, and it can be a dangerous intersection because of all the room there is to speed across the intersection around the gates. We filmed there and next to a CNW depot a block away that UP still uses for work and maintenance. Once done, we headed back to Elburn to drop me off for my ride home on a inbound Metra pushed by F40PH 150. The same tank train that passed Elburn halted in LaFox as I passed it up there. The rest of the ride there were more freight trains, however it was too dark in my opinion to be included in the video. Besides, it was more generic UP freight trains, nothing special.

Note: There are fake horns mounted at most of the grade crossings in DeKalb, that's the unusual sound you hear. The are mega-phone looking speakers, and based on my observations, they play a long-long-short-long sequence, and repeat over and over till the train reaches the grade crossing. If its in the middle of the sequence, it just ends where it is. Its quite different, and since most people don't know about them or have experienced them, that's why I pointed this out.

And thanks for watching!