Today's Train of Thought- Of Paramount Concern, July 31st 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the Land of Lincoln, although the focal point is somewhat lost among the urban landscape of one of Chicagoland's biggest suburbs. Aurora, IL is probably best known for being the home of the fictional public-access cable show Wayne's World- a Saturday Night Live skit that would evolve into two movies.

The Illinois Railway (formerly Illinois Rail Net) has been in operation since purchasing 113 miles of former BNSF track throughout northern Illinois in 1997, including the former CB&Q Ottawa branch. By 2005, the line was acquired by Denver-based shortline holding company Omnitrax.

Not too long after Omnitrax entered the picture, locomotives from other Omnitrax properties began showing up on IR property- most noticeably SD50s from the Manitoba-based Hudson Bay Railway painted in a striking green, white and gold scheme.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Chris Guss caught Hudson Bay Railway SD50 #5008 leading a former Burlington Northern/BNSF SD40-2 leaser with a northbound IR unit frac sand train from Ottawa, IL through the heart of Aurora on August 28, 2011. But the train is seemingly dwarfed by some of the buildings in the scene- one notices the marquee for the Paramount Theater or faded 'shoes' sign off on the left immediately. The train soaring across the overpass or cars waiting at the stoplight seem almost secondary.

The train is actually on BNSF trackage rights between Montgomery, IL and the BNSF's Eola yard not too far from downtown Aurora.

With the advent of hydrofracture drilling (or "fracking") in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves or North Dakota's Bakken oil fields, the sand mined around Ottawa and other northeastern Illinois towns has been in big demand in recent years. This has led to near-daily unit trains of frac sand for lines like the Illinois Railway or Wisconsin Northern, so it's not surprising that to learn that these massive unit trains on these smaller railroads continue to this very day.

Today's Train of Thought- This Ain't No Polar Express, Aug 14, 2010

With a name like Hudson Bay Railway, you'd think that today's rather convoluted train of thought might be the next best thing to The Polar Express. However, you would be off by more than 1500 miles.

In 1997, Colorado-based Omnitrax reached an agreement with the Canadian National to purchase and operate more than 800 miles of track in northern Manitoba between The Pas and the Hudson Bay port of Churchill. At the same time and about 1600 miles to the south, the newly-formed Burlington Northern-Santa Fe began divesting itself of some lesser-used branchlines in Illinois. North American RailNet would end up picking up four disconnected former BNSF lines in the Land of Lincoln. By 2005, the North American RailNet would sell their remaining American railroad properties to Omnitrax, including the Illinois Railway (formerly Illinois Railnet).

In recent years, Omnitrax has taken steps to improve capacity at the port of Churchill, including incrementally rebuilding the track between The Pas and Churchill and purchasing newer locomotives to operate over the line. Included as part of the new power is at least 10 former Union Pacific (nee Missouri Pacific) SD50s.

While the Hudson Bay SD50s were probably assigned to the Illinois Railway for test runs after being rebuilt and repainted in HBRY colors, the Omnitrax Illinois affiliate seems to have taken a liking to at least two of the 6-axle beasts as some of them have been on the property since at least late 2008.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Steve Smedley caught the matched pair of Hudson Bay SD50s #5009 and #5008 and a leased Helm GP38-2 as they crossed the Fox River in Montgomery, IL with more than 50 empty cars on their way back from BNSF's Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Mother's Day 2010.

The train is heading back to Ottawa, IL on home rails after traversing BNSF via trackage rights between Aurora and Montgomery and the cars are bound for US Silica's Ottawa plant. At Ottawa, the Illinois Railway interchanges with the CSX and Iowa Interstate while heading furhter south to Streator, IL where it interchanges with the Norfolk Southern and BNSF.

However out of place the two six axle beasts may be, they certainly do look sharp with their new green/white/gold paint scheme.