Congress Park Yard

[EJ&ESDM809]

I was in Brookfield Yesterday and saw BNSF doing work west of where the new crossovers are, we went down there, and found BNSF removing the tracks of Congress Park Yard. It seemed the yard was only used for storage but I still never figured the whole yard would be removed, the IHB connection tracks were not removed however. If anyone has an update or a reason why this move was made please post it here. I don't know if they were replacing the tracks or if the yard is gone for good. All that was left was a pile of ballast.

[Joe]

Never was really much stuff in that yard anyway, I'm not surprised they took it out.
It must have been more important in the BN days.

[AmtrakFan]

They stored MOW Equitment there I think that use to be a commuter yard may moons ago. They still use the IHB Connection at least 1-2 a day.

[EJ&ESDM809]

I have seen the IHB use the connector. All the removal of the yard means another item built by the CB&Q is gone. The signals, the cab cars, and now Congress Park Yard. I guess BNSF continues to make changes to the racetrack.

[AmtrakFan]

Mr. Gragg,
Some of the Cab Cars are left Trailing on BN Runs plus several of the Full Coaches are left.

[Amtrak31]

I haven't seen many BN cars but I have a lot of photos of them. I've been seeing all 8500's, which have sweet horns!

[EJ&ESDM809]

I do agree the 8500s have nice horns, but i'd rather have the 700s lead, I don't really pay attention to cab cars in the middle of the train, although now the 700s are getting new logos on them so I probably will now.

[Amtrak31]

I certainly do miss seeing the 700's lead. Do they even lead anymore? I've seen too many 8500's. The new logo looks really nice on the Cab Cars. I wonder where it will show up next.

[MetraBNSF]

I haven't seen a 790-800 lead in over a month. With the exception of 8580 and 8587, BNSF pretty much have enough 8500's to replace the older CB&Q/BN cab cars plus a surplus of about 5 cabs.

[Amtrak31]

It's sad to see the BN/CB&Q cars go, but the good thing about the 8500's are that they have really nice horns. I was in Aurora last week and an inbound came through giving us a lot of horn. I have an 8500 on my Train Simulator, and the horn sounded just like the one I heard in Aurora. It was really nice.

There's a lot changing on the Race Track. CB&Q signal bridges are changing to BNSF signals, which are very unreliable (always changing to yellow after green), CB&Q and BN cars are being replaced by 8500's, what will be next?

Nick Hart

[MetraBNSF]

Those new "high speed" crossovers at Congress Park are becoming quite a problem. Whether it was the switches freezing or problems with the signals themselves, it caused many afternoon trains to run 10-30 minutes late.

How fast are these crossovers good for? I hear they're good for only 35mph, but I've also heard they're good for 50mph.

[EJ&ESDM809]

From what I've heard, the new crossovers are good for 55 MPH, as long as they are working. I guess the new crossovers aren't working as well as BNSF hoped. The signals aren't all that reliable either. When I railfan at Brookfield Station, the new signal bridge is pretty much right on top of Prarie Ave. The crossovers are just west of the signal bridge and I see freight and Metra using them, moving at least 50. By the way, regarding the new logos spreading, they have one on the sign by the Eola Yard office.