Kansas City Southern Action in Illinois

A little departure from local topics...

Megamergers in the past six decades reduced to seven the number of Class I railroads left in the United States. And Illinois is the only state in which all seven operate. 

My first encounter with a Kansas City Southern train came in 2008. It was a passenger special sponsored by High Iron Travel. The journey treated riders to a rare-mileage trip from St. Louis to Chicago via KCS to Springfield on Saturday July 19. The next day the journey continued on the Illinois & Midland Railroad to Peoria and then TP&W to Galesburg on BNSF's Peoria Sub. Passenger cars were tacked onto an Amtrak train (probably the Carl Sandburg)) to Chicago. I shot video on both days. 


I had yet to catch a KCS freight train. I tried on August 19, 2009 but only managed to encounter the Loami (IL) tornado! Then on October 22, 2013 enroute to the Lexington Group's Kansas City (MO) meeting, I captured my first KCS freight, an eastbound Roodhouse Sub local at Curryville, Missouri. 


Coincidentally, Kansas City Southern sponsored the Lexington Group meeting. Members and guests were treated to an inspection trip from beautifully-restored Kansas City Union Station south to Amsterdam, Missouri and back on October 26.



After more failed attempts, I captured this KCS intermodal train, IKCVN (Intermodal, Kansas City MO to Venice IL) on February 6, 2017 after chasing it to Jerseyville, Illinois. The 36 boxcars were reportedly loaded with appliances shipped from Mexico. IKCVN and counterpart IVNKC are joint with CSX Transportation. 


Finally, yesterday, Friday, August 25, 2017 I captured four KCS movements, three of them on video. I wasn't even expecting the business train to appear! Scenes show IKCVN at Carrollton, the business train at Mitchell (near Granite City) and IVNKC west of Roodhouse.


- David P. Jordan

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 28, 2017 at 8:24 AM

    David,

    Great stuff on the KCS, I have always wanted to catch a Kansas City southern train in Illinois, but have never been fortunate enough. Too bad they weren't using company power, as I think the KCS paint scheme is one of the best out there.

    How much, if ever, does KCS get all the way into Springfield on their tracks? Does all of the traffic turn south at Roodhouse?

    Also, a fairly minor correction, but there are 8 class I railroads in the US, including Amtrak. Of course Amtrak also operates in Illinois, so Illinois is the only state with all 8 Class I railroads.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David P. JordanSeptember 4, 2017 at 10:19 AM

      Hi Ken,

      KCS runs into Springfield proper on Wednesdays to interchange with the Illinois & Midland RR (at Shops Yard) but I've never had success capturing them. I'm either too late or...

      The Roodhouse-based local (on duty at 0700 IIRC) interchanges with Canadian National at Cockrell Station southwest of Springfield, but on variable days. On other days, it will work the plastics customer (Reynolds Consumer Products) in Jacksonville. Unit grain trains are loaded at Gavilon's new (2013) terminal south of town.

      As for Amtrak's Class 1 Status, yes, that would make eight Class I's in Illinois, but my post concerns freight railroads.

      Delete

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