Corn. Always corn.

[Gare_NY]

So, I haven't been around in a while (kind of fell off the Amtrak board after I stopped commuting back and forth from CHI to BUF a few years ago). However, I'm still a daily Metra rider, and there's something that I've noticed that I've always wanted to ask about.

I've seen this all along the Mil_North, primarily at Libertyville, Round Lake, and Lake Forest, but on other platforms as well: corn kernels. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why they show up; I might see them in the summer, or late fall, and it's not like one or two that might have fallen out of someone's food or something, but a good handful, and scattered around.

I'm having to guess that this is - some sort of bait? - poison maybe - for 'pests' like pigeons and such? I'm guessing this because, a few years ago when I was working in Deerfield, I came across two grackles within a week of each other that weren't able to fly, and were blind, and when I took them to a wildlife rescue location, they told me that the birds might have been poisoned. (They both died). When I asked the Deerfiled DPW about it, they said that while they have no program in place to poison pest-type animals, they were aware that some railroads and/or ports(?), airports (?) did so.

Anyone know what this is about?

Thanks,

Gare

[orulz]

Don't you think it's likely that this may have fallen out of a freight train? Corn is a commodity commonly carried by rail.

[Gare_NY]

And that would make perfect sense to me, except for one thing: I won't see any corn on Monday, for example. Then, on Tuesday, it's there.. but on both sides of the tracks. I noticed this in particular at the Lake Forest Mil-N station a while back. Sure, it's possible that it's frieght trains going both directions that are shedding corn.. but it makes me wonder.

Gare

[Tadman]

Glad to have you back, sorry I can't have a better answer either. Freight traffic is my best guess.

Looks like you're in Chicago full-time again. I returned a few years back myself.

[Gare_NY]

Thanks Tadman. Yeah, I was much more active when I rode the Lakeshore Limited every week. I still keep up on Amtrak news (like the derailment on 02/01/2012), and I read the boards on occasion - just haven't participated as much.

Anyway, the corn thing - freight makes sense, except that I also see these corn kernels at Round Lake, and I always thought that since that was single track, that maybe it didn't handle freight traffic? I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure what exists up beyond Fox Lake, but I always thought that freight (and Amtrak, for that matter) split off near Rondout, and that the single rail beyond there was primarily/exclusively Metra traffic. I suspect that could be wrong though.

Thanks,
Gare

[EricL]

The line west of Fox Lake belongs to the WSOR. As far as WSOR traffic in Metra-land? - about one train per night, in the middle of the night, so nobody really notices.

Sometimes, rather than corn kernels, you might find other seeds or grains, or small plastic pellets - all commodities which are susceptible to leaking through the bottom wells of hopper cars.

[Gare_NY]

Well that's what I had been wondering - if the corn is leaking out of the bottom of those hopper-type cars, it should be primarily on the tracks. I'm finding it up on the platform, and scattered back to the grass level sometimes. I mean, corn isn't carried in open-topped cars is it? Or maybe it is. I'm more of a passenger/Amtrak fan and admittedly know very little about freight.

Gare

[Tadman]

I think corn blows around pretty easily. It is indeed carried in covered hoppers to prevent spoilage.