Illinois Junctions

Illinois Junctions is a variety program showing several rural Hotspots in eastern Illinois. If you enjoyed our Rochelle-Double Track Diamonds, then you will like this one with several locations instead of simply one.

First we visit Watseka, which has the old Chicago and Eastern Illinois Mainline going south from Chicago. This line is jointly operated by Union Pacific and CSX, so the doubletrack line sees trains from both railroads, since it splits several miles south of Watseka. The former Toledo, Peoria, and Western, which is now Rail America goes east-west on a diamond crossing the UP/CSX and we see a local there twice. There is also an Alco in operation at the Watseka Grain Company, and we see some other power on mainline trains.

Next we head a bit further west to Gilman. Here we are see the same Rail America Trackage and a diamond with the former Illinois Central Railroads mainline from Chicago to New Orleans. This is owned by Canadian National now, but we see a great deal of Illinois Central motive power, as well as CN, and Grand Trunk. There is a good variety of action here including a Norfolk Southern train, with a BNSF unit coming in from Clinton. Besides the busy freight traffic two Amtrak trains pass the diamond and old depot, including the Illini, and the City of New Orleans.

Heading south we visit Tolono which is the same former Illinois Central Mainline, which crosses the Norfolk Southerns line to Decatur from Ft. Wayne. This is a busy NS line, on the former Wabash Railroad. Once again a variety of power is seen on the CN/IC line.

Further east is Sidney, where the same Norfolk Southern line we saw at Tolono, crosses the Union Pacific's Chicago-St. Louis Line. This is the same UP line we saw at Watseka. There is a ton of train variety here, as we sample several hours of trainwatching. The over-under location is a break from the diamonds also.

Tuscola is another interesting diamond where the CN(Former IC) line we saw at Gilman, and Tolono, crosses the Union Pacific line we saw at Sidney and Watseka. In addition a branch line of the CSX connects with the UP to cross the diamond, then diverges back to its own line. We catch a train on two different days on the CSX, including one with a transfer caboose. Amtrak is also viewed here with the north and southbound Illini trains.

Two camera crews were used as this was shot in 2003 when we did the Rochelle video. Therefore you sometimes see two views of the same train, or in some cases see the same train twice since we split-up in Sidney and Tolono.

Its a nice variety-filled program with tons of trains, at various locations. 2 hours. $29.95