Gritty, Industrial Railroading - Seneca Foods Corp. in Princeville
On Monday, September 4, 2017, I managed to capture BNSF switching Seneca Foods Corp's Princeville, Illinois plant. Earlier, I noticed a boxcar spotted at the cannery rail dock but figured the eastbound local had already passed and that there would be no service on a holiday. I'm glad I stuck around to learn how wrong I was... I was parked along BNSF's Chillicothe Subdivision at N. Rice Road east of town when I heard the distinctive sound of a locomotive horn in the distance. Mainline signals were dark so I knew the horn blast signaled that the local was in town. Back in Princeville I found a pair of B40-8Ws and three plastic loads shoving into the industry track to fetch the loaded boxcar. After returning to the mainline and shoving into the rest of the eastbound local (L-CHI101) sitting on Main 2, the crew radioed the dispatcher for permission to depart. Prepared to capture the train's departure, I was interrupted by a westbound intermodal train. So ...