Galesburg, IL: BNSF/CB&Q Railyard and Backshop

(Satellite) See also the Roundhouse, Coaling Tower and aerials.

(Update: photo tours of the engine servicing facility have their own post.)

Tim Starr posted two photos with the comment: "You don't see a picture of a roundhouse office every day. Here we get to peak into the Burlington's roundhouse office at Galesburg in the 1940s. (Galesburg Public Library)"

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BNSF
In the month of April 2021, the team at the Galesburg hump yard broke four individual all-time, average-cars-per-day records for cars humped, pulled, arrived and departed. Most importantly, this monumental achievement was reached safely without injury. The new average-cars-per-day facility records now stand at 1,888 humped, 1,923 cars pulled, 1,721 cars arrived, 1,847 cars departed.

 

BNSF, Galesburg classification yard
Santa Fe's original plans were to build south of Galeburg. CB&Q was the first railroad in town when it arrived in 1854. Galesburg "has been designated as the home of the National Railroad Hall of Fame, which honors the men and women of American railroading with inductions into its hall of fame every year....Galesburg also features the second-largest hump yard, also known as a classification yard, in our network."

Viral Media posted

Yard Towers

A view yard towers in the BNSF Classification yard in Galesburg, Illinois. Upper left is the hump tower.

In the early 1850s, the Chicago and Aurora Railroad extended its line further west towards Galesburg, reached by the end of 1854. it expanded with the new Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) to St. Paul in the north, St. Louis in the south, and the Missouri River as far west as Kansas City and Omaha. Galesburg was the junction between the north-south and east-west connections was the city of Galesburg in Illinois. Galesburg hosted major yard and service facilities for the system. 

March 2, 1970, with Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroads formed the Burlington Northern Railroad. The CB&Q was absorbed by the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) in 1970, which modernized the yard. In 1995, the BN merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form today’s BNSF Railway (Burlington Northern Santa Fe). Once again, the Galesburg Yard was expanded in 1997, and again in 2004.  After the Argentine Yard in Kansas City and the Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, it is Galesburg the third largest classification yard in the BNSF Railway network.

Richard Ferzely: It's still strange seeing dash 9s being used as switch engs. This a view of the trimmer building and the hump tower in the distance. I worked into this yard from Beardstown 70s-90s.

StormySky Rail Productions posted
BNSF Galesburg yard in Galesburg, IL back in August 2018

John Stell posted
I have some CB&Q slides that my father Alvin Stell took and some I took years ago.  This first slide is George Culver who was a family friend and myself, John Stell in the dead line at Galesburg.  They were not dated but marked 1960.

John Stell posted
Another view of Galesburg deadline from 1960.  John Stell collection.

John Stell posted
More of the Galesburg deadline looking North toward the shops in 1960.  John Stell collection.

Roger Kramer: It's just a shame that we didn't save more of them like a 2-10-4 now the new bnsf's got so much money oops Berkshire Hathaway and how many guys died from cutting those engines up with all the asbestos on them.

Thomas Becher: Roger Kramer think of what it was like for the roundhouse workers doing the asbestos work.

Phil Morrison: They had some right under fourth street bridge and when I was a kid we used to climb over the railing and drop down on top of the old steam engines and mess around on them and when the rr dicks came after us we could outrun them.

Just as Norfolk Southern uses Elkhart, IN for its classification yard so that it can use its Chicago yard to intermodal traffic, BNSF uses Galesburg for its classification yard so that it could turn Clyde (Cicero) Yard into an intermodal yard. It looks like it has five sand towers, each of which can serve engines on both sides. In addition to a huge diesel fuel tank inside a big dyke, it has smaller tanks for quite a few other fluids. It has a hump yard to classify cars into blocks so that the Eola Yard can quickly disassemble a train into cuts of cars destined for another yard in Chicago.

See B-Units for pictures of the two sets of three locomotives that they use to shove cuts over the hump.

Steve Roberts posted three photos with the comment: "The old Galesburg East Hump / Receiving yards (Fall 1985?)"

Paul D. French

That was a very old hump. When first built there were no power switches and no retarders. Those were added in the early 1920s.

The way a manual hump operated was with switch tenders in the bowl and car knockers riding the brake on the cars dropped down the hill.

The switch tenders were told which track the first car was supposed to go. On the first car, the switch foreman would write with chalk where the second car was to go and so forth.

[Some comments explain that when BN acquired Frisco, the Frisco management was put in power.]

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Marty Bernard posted eight photos with the comment: "CB&Q 5632 and 4960 in Galesburg -- May 17, 1964."

Marty Bernard  shared

Richard C. Leonard: I got the 5632 there in 1960. https://www.railarchive.net/rlsteam/cbq.htm#cbq5632

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Fan Trip Flyer. Read the three line paragraph under the top headers for why the ladies were in Galesburg.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 5632.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 5632.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 5632 and 4960.
[And the coaling tower in the background.]

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 5632.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 4960.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 4960.

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Galesburg, IL on May 17, 1964 of CB&Q 4960 and 5632.

Galesburg Railroad News Group posted

1949 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

In addition to the usual hump and engine servicing facilities, this yard had a special area on the southwest side:

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

My guess is that it was a Maintenance-of-Way storage area. It looks like the north part is still used by MoW and the south part is used by a chemical company for storage.

Mike Tracks posted  (source)
2/21/15: Doing " Basic Training" in Galesburg, Illinois 511- 726 / 490 -726. 4 Tanker Trains waiting to roll.
Mike Tracks 2 of these have now rolled thru Peck Park Northbound on The Savanna/ Barstow Line.
Rolf Schreiter Do you know Mike Tracks how many waggons about such a train has?
Mike Tracks 100_115 usually. Sometimes less.
Jeff Mason wish I had more bandwidth I would upload a bunch of videos of 100-190 wagon loads going buy at 50mph...... Coal trains at the power plant on average are 130 wagons long. Oilers are 120 wagons long.
Steve Pajak Wow. What is the highest number of coal trains you have seen staged around Galesburg?
Mike Tracks This (4) maybe 5 or 6, but this is about the norm here.
Steve Pajak Coal trains?
Mike Tracks On some occasions. Coal trains are common here, especially on the Mendota & barstow lines. Tankers are as well.
Barry Kincy Damn, I bet you can't even find one of these sitting here now! Just only a years difference
Mike Tracks Saw a Tanker train, going thru.yesterday, but overall, it has been in decay around here.

Viral Media posted two photos with the comment:

BNSF Galesburg Car Shops

Galesburg has been home to railroad shops for the CB&Q, Burlington Northern and now BNSF. Freight car repairs are carried out as cars can be damaged in transit, or occasionally through rough handling in the hump yard. Typical repairs are replacing a broken coupler or air hoses, welding broken ladders or hand-holds, replacing wheels or other components of the trucks, air brake repairs and more. Most of these jobs require only basic tools like welding equipment, car jacks, and a variety of hand tools.

In a classification yard, freight car inspectors are required by Railroad Freight Car Safety Standards.

“At each location where a freight car is placed in a train, the freight car shall be inspected before the train departs. This inspection may be made before or after the car is placed in the train.”

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Robert Leamont posted
Enjoyed having this good looking machine in the shop today. Galesburg, IL. 3-31-2019.

Robert Learmont posted

Paint schemes are not necessarily so important to those who keep locomotives running for a living. Wheels, gearcases, and traction motors, on the other hand....

Galesburg, IL Diesel shop. 4-14-2019.
Tom Shelton Changing brushes on a 100 degree day with dust all over you.
Scott Dolanc C4?
Dennis DeBruler Brushes would be in DC traction motors. With all of the rebuilds we read about, does BNSF have any of them left? When they say that AC motors have less maintenance, I assume slip-rings instead of brushes and a commutator is why.
Robert Learmont There are tons of DC units left. They by far outnumber the AC units. The entire intermediate fleet (geeps and SD below the 70 series), whether recently rebuilt or not, all the ES44DCs, all the Dash 8s and Dash 9s except for the 20 that have been converted to C4’s.
The lack of brushes and brush holders helps, and AC motors are much less likely to meg low when they get moist.
Robert Learmont Out of 8434 total locomotives on the system, 3925 are AC and 4509 are AC, so 584 more units are DC than AC.
Dennis DeBruler Robert Learmont I assume you meant DC instead of AC for the 4509 count. As a railroad fan, it is so nice to be able to interact with real roalroaders who know the facts. Thanks for the continued "inside look."
Dennis DeBruler Robert Learmont Would you explain "meg low?"
It just occurred to me that if the AC motors are induction motors, they don't even have slip rings. They just have a squirrel cage. Which means AC motors have even less moving parts to wear out. But they have lots of high-power electronics to create the rotating magnetic field at variable frequencies. (I'm trying to remember what I learned in my "rotation machinery" course at Northwestern University over 50 years ago. I was in the last class in Electronic Engineering that was required to take it.)

Robert commented on his post
MAC.
Here’s under a C4.

Robert Learmont posted two photos with the comment:

Here is a sharp looking piece of equipment sitting on the 1-track drop table at the Galesburg Diesel Shop, receiving some finishing touches after having its grounded #1 traction motor changed out. 5-9-2019.
Something neat about this locomotive - it is a GP50 that still uses D87 traction motors. Many BNSF GP50s received the older, more common D78 traction motors when they were derated and renamed GP25s.

[There are several comments pointing out how original it still is. In addition to the livery, it doesn't have the PTC brow or lower headlights.]

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Robert Learmont posted
Just about to roll out of the house in Galesburg IL after the inhouse portion of an M184 inspection. My favorite thing about this scene is the lit up Mod3 buttons that can be seen lit up on the back wall of the cab. 8-13-2020.
Paul Heuer Is the M184 inspection like the 92 day or a semi annual or annual inspection? Just wondering.
Robert LearmontAuthor Paul Heuer Every 6 months. Basically every unit on a 92-day cycle gets two M92s, one M184, and one M368 inspection each 12-month period.
The federal inspection is the same, but the level and depth of preventative maintenance is different between each type of maintenance.
Paul Heuer Robert Learmont
Pretty much the same as we did on the old WC then.
Thanks

 

This is not in the backshop, but it is products of the backshop.

Robert Learmont posted
Pair of freshly rebuilt SD60Ms on the pit at Galesburg, IL. Unit on 4 track only has 2 trips under its belt, and the pair of 60s on 5 track are getting fired up for the first time out of rebuild 4-5-2018.

Robert Learmont posted
Nothing to see here, just an ugly pair of MACs on the pit in Galesburg, IL. 2-28-2018.
[I think he is being sarcastic. Most railfans like the Executive Grinstein color scheme.]
Richard Stewart Robert, could you explain the white machinery on the pad between the loco's, thank you.
Robert Learmont Modern version of a sand tower.
Richard Stewart Whats in the cases on the skid?
Robert Learmont Gallon jugs of propylene glycol that we use as potty chem.

Robert Learmont posted

One pleasant night in September, 2018 - some sharp looking power being worked on the pit at the Galesburg, IL Diesel Servicing Facility.

Dennis DeBruler Another view of one of the modern sand towers.

Robert Learmont posted
Galesburg, IL diesel pit. Feb 11, 2018.
[A view of the other modern sand tower and the original three old sand towers.]

Robert Leamont posted

Third shift at the Galesburg, IL Diesel shop.

Note that the far Tier 4 locomotive with the iron hand hanging back by its compressor room is the 3778, which is the lead locomotive that was in the viral picture of the BNSF sand train that was sitting in flood water in Nebraska recently.

Dennis DeBruler I read that a traction motor cost $250,000. Did all six have to be replaced?
Robert Learmont A remanufactured AC traction motor runs 12-18 grand, and DC motor is 7 - 13 thousand bucks, depending on the model of motor needed. Plus shipping, of course, and not including labor at the shop, or the cost to haul the locomotives dead to the shop.
The 3778 is getting all 4 of its motors and both idlers replaced, and the other units are getting all 6 motors replaced. Even if the motors dried out and megged OK, there would be too much garbage, dirt, etc floating around in them, not to mention gearcases and bearings that were full of and saturated with water.
Dennis DeBruler Robert Learmont Thanks for some real cost numbers. $250,000 was hard to believe. And it is nice to learn that Galesburg is a major diesel service shop.
Robert Learmont We’re one of the smaller of BNSF’s 11 system shops. The original picture I posted is from a number of months ago when we had the 3778 for a maintenance and a lot of EGR issues. If not for the EGR issues, I don’t think I would have noticed when I saw the picture of it in Nebraska.
The units from this train got dragged to the Lincoln shop for repair.

Robert Learmont posted
Two sets of local power on the pit - Galesburg, IL. 3-1-2018.
Ethan Zimmerman Robert, is this photo edited or does the red still just look that good.
Robert Learmont They look a bit more faded up close. I don’t edit my photos except for cropping them on my phone before I post them.
Ethan Zimmerman Thanks. I'd say that is pretty good shape considering the age.
Dennis DeBruler Since one of your previous posts taught me what a modern sand tower looks like, it appears there are three old ones and two new ones in this photo.
Robert Learmont Dennis DeBruler Yes. The older ones are from the mid-1970s.

Robert Learmont posted
Andy Tookey Is that a parking boot ???
Robert Learmont Andy Tookey In a way, yes. It is a locking clamp. It locks the rotor in place, which keeps the wheels from turning and assists preventing the motor from rolling off of a truck during transport. GE DC motors have a provision for a locking bolt which serves the same purpose.
John Smith Those can be fun to hook up !!!! NOT!

Robert Learmont posted
Blue flags down, and ready to be pulled out of the shop for outbound. BNSF 2351 had just recently been made locally famous due to viral pictures of it leading a train through Mississippi River flood waters in Davenport, IA. Galesburg, IL Diesel shop, 4-10-2019.
Tim Mossman Did it drown? Haha
Robert Learmont Tim Mossman Got just a little moist inside the traction motors, but no real damage. Motors megged good on the arm and about 300-500K on the field while it was in the shop. Plenty of room for that to go up after running around a bit.
Dennis DeBruler When you showed a traction motor in an earlier photo, there was a red cover on a rectangle hole at the top. Does a flexible duct connect that hole in the traction motor to a blower in the locomotive? And is that an example of a traction motor blower in the foreground of this photo?

I read an explanation that the locomotives are not isolated. Instead, the generator field is turned off and they are run in Notch 4 to power the traction motor blowers to help keep water out of the motors.
Robert Learmont Yes, to the first question.

Second question, yes. What is being replaced there is actually an aux gen, but the blower wheels are mounted to the same shaft, and run in the squirrel cage as you have noticed.

Last thing, that is a good way to keep traction motors blown dry on locomotives with a mechanically driven blower. On newer locomotives with electrically driven equipment blowers, that doesn’t necessarily work so well, especially on the Tier 4 GEs that use variable frequency drives based on loading conditions.

Robert commented on his own post

Robert Learmont posted
Richard Stewart Robert, very cool, what are the yellow boxes in the air. Please forgive my ignorance.Robert Learmont No problem, I like explaining things, I’m just bad at it. The high boxes are heated inside, and contain two hose reels on each side, one for treated nalco water and one for lube oil. The yellow boxes down low contain hoses for fresh water for washing and charging toilets, and journal box oil for Hyatt bearings, and are also used to store traction motor gearcase lube and keep it warm so it flows. On top of the lower boxes are racks for brake shoes and flange lube sticks.

There are also unheated hoses for soap. Compressor oil is stored outside in gallon jugs, as well as potty chem.

The flammable cabinets are used to store aerosol cans, but the one closest in the picture is used to store fusees.

The dark gray cabinets further down are used to store tools and spare parts, like light bulbs, MU covers, cleaning supplies, etc. Each craft (machinist, electrician, pipefitter, laborer) has two or three cabinets like that.Robert Learmont Each location I have worked has had stuff set up way different from each other.

Robert Leamont posted
Nothing finer than having a B-unit on the shop floor. Galesburg, IL Diesel shop.
Cody Cleveland Robert Learmont looks like a bit of soot to me.
Robert Learmont They’re all pretty grimy like that inside the carbody doors. Just caked on accumulation over the years.

Robert Learmont posted
Shop releases enjoying a little rest under the smoke rack before they get busy pulling their next trains. Galesburg, IL.
Steve Pajak Smoke rack?
Robert Learmont For a number of years, we opacity tested the exhaust on locomotives annually. That has now been replaced in the last year by sending a certain sample size of locomotives from each fleet to a contractor annually.

Basically, any locomotive shopped for an annual received a smoke test on the outbound, which involved being under the smoke rack in self load for three minutes in each notch.
Steve Pajak Robert Learmont I guess I figured that this type of equipment would only be used a heavy repair shop. As in Topeka or Alliance.
Robert Learmont Steve Pajak Alliance is just a big running repair shop. They have more floor space and process a larger quantity of locomotives, but their overall scope of work is the same as this shop.

We did the opacity testing each year during the outbound on each locomotive’s M368 inspection. It was the best way to handle the EPA-required opacity testing each year.

The 11 system shops (Argentine, Barstow, Corwith, Commerce, Galesburg, Alliance, Glendive, Havre, Interbay, Lincoln, Northtown) and Topeka all did opacity testing on annuals (and overhauls, during which an M368 is completed). Mighty hard and not at all economical to try to run 8,400 locomotives through just one or two locations for something that is required every year.

Robert Learmont posted
Three generations of GE locomotives share the shop floor at the Galesburg Diesel Shop, as second shift winds to a close - 7-10-2019.
Jeff Lewis Great perspective.
Robert Learmont Thank you! Three stories up at crane level.
Tyler Aldrich What’s the box around the exhaust stack for?
Robert Learmont For when units go into long term surge fleet storage. It is a permanent stack cover. The sides of that box just pull up and flop over to become the top of the box.
Steve Kraus Would you really consider those as representing separate generations?
Robert Learmont Steve Kraus Absolutely. Dash 9 vs (early DC) EVO vs Tier 4. Different engines completely, different split cooling/intercooling, the Tier 4s have yet another engine with an elongated mainframe too - a different main gen, V-speed auxiliaries, etc. different carbodies and cabs too, of course, but it’s the guts that make them different, and when we work on them, they are treated as completely different kinds of locomotives - because they are.
Steve Kraus So what generation are we on? My generational knowledge kinda ends with U25B & GP30 starting the 2nd generation!
Robert Learmont Steve Kraus We don’t really refer to them by numbered generations. Lots of people will refer to something as a “first generation gpXX-2” or “second generation” etc, and we just don’t do that. As far as I’m concerned looking from this side out, that is purely a foamer/modeling thing. With so many different orders and different specs on each order (by different predecessor railroads of course) and so many mods and variations over the years, there is literally not going by any kind of set “generation.”

When I refer to the units in the picture as being from generation, it is all about basic internal and external differences between the locomotives - mostly internal differences, both mechanical and electrical, as that is what truly differentiates them.

Robert Learmont posted
A slightly different view of the Diesel shop in Galesburg, IL.

Robert Learmont posted
Sharp power on the shop floor. At some Diesel shop surrounded by the cornfields of the State of Illinois, 11-18-2019.
[The comments verify Galesburg and discuss the horsepower of various rebuilt locomotives.]

Robert Learmont posted four photos with the comment:

A 40 year old old workhorse sits on the 1-track drop table at the Galesburg Diesel Shop, getting its #1 traction motor changed out after rubbing traction motor leads wore through, shorted to each other, and caught on fire.
The BNSF 1621 bears marks of the past not only in its paint scheme, but in the 83:20 gear ratio stencils on the truck frames - probably dating from when the Santa Fe had locomotives on a Morrison Knudsen maintenance contract and the unit probably had MK1000 traction motors installed.
Today, it is getting the standard go to for DC lower-horse EMDs these days - the ubiquitous D78 with a 62:15 ratio.

Bobby Smith I have a question , if you put a different traction motor in with a different gear ratio in than what's in there, would it be pulled or pushed by the other traction motors...before it started to turn? .....thanks for any info.
Robert Love Same theory changing a rearend in a four wheel drive truck.Robert Learmont Good way to put it!
It wouldn’t be as immediately catastrophic as two different gear ratios on a four wheel drive, but your current draw would be different across the differently geared motors, and you’d wind up burning something up eventually.
Stuart Olson The most immediate problem would be the wheel slip system would loose its mind. Wheel slip works by comparing current from motor to motor. So if one is not like the others it get very unhappy very fast.

George E. Henderson Willard, Ohio had a drop table in the roundhouse, when CSX tore down the RH they weren't smart enough to keep the drop table, so they now pay Hultch's or RJ Corman to do it with dozers.

Robert Learmont Ouch. Calling a contractor for a lift is sure a pricy way to do it!

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Robert Learmont posted seven photos with the comment: "Up up and away! Yanking the old main gen out of a GE EVO locomotive. Galesburg Diesel Shop, 11-26-2019."

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Robert Learmont posted
Not the best idea to run locomotives out of fuel, folks. BNSF 2740 receives new fuel filters and strainer, has bats serviced and charged, and has a stuck fuel injector replaced after she was run out of fuel, while recently rebuilt 1848 receives a federal inspection and a Dash 9 gets its turbo changed out after failing a labby seal test. Many thanks to the friendly shop person who let me take the picture. Galesburg, IL, 12-11-2019.
[The comments discuss why an injector would stick open and why would an engine be allowed to run out of fuel.]

John Stell posted seven photos with the comment: "Some more of my father's Galesburg slides from 1960. Two of CB&Q 4961, three of 5634, one dark of diesels and one of Derrick CB&Q 204376. John Stell collection."

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[It is ironic that it is the diesel shot that has the coal tower.]

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David Brown posted
Thanks for the invitation to the group. I have always loved trains....almost as much as planes. Here is a unique view of the railway yard at Galesburg IL with my Stearman biplane flying over the yard during one of the days at the National Stearman Fly In a few years ago.

Robert Learmont posted two photos with the comment:

A view over the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop at shift change. Note the lack of blue flags. Our switch crew was getting ready to set up the house for 2nd shift, and all but one locomotive was going to be moving.
Extra picture attached of the best looking unit in the house - the class unit of BN’s GP39E/M/V program, former GN 3007. She made 2320 ponies when we brought her out for her outbound.
1-22-2020.

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Robert Learmont posted

There are three slugs and four B-units based out of Galesburg, IL. Two of the slugs are mated to snoot nose 40s and are in yard service. The three SD40-2Bs work as Canac lead units in hump service, and the lone GP60B runs out of the terminal on local trains.

This slug is not so much on the radar. It is our shop slug, and is used to provide spacing and braking when we set and respot the house.

There is not much in the way of maintenance to do on it, but here is a front view of it in the shop getting brake shoes replaced, while its mother gets a periodic inspection completed behind it. Galesburg, IL. 1-13-2020.

On our shop map, we label these two units as “Escargot” and “Slug”
Richard Stewart Very cool, could you explain spacing and braking when we set and respot the house, thank you.
Robert Learmont I’ll do my best here.

So, when we need to move a locomotive that is in the house, or move a locomotive from outside into the house or vice versa, we are not allowed to fire up and run locomotives inside. Some locomotives (GEs that are all put together electrically) we can air up and jog on battery power if we are only moving one or two units.

For anything else, whatever we are using for power (usually our goat) has to stay outside the shop (we don’t have a car mover at our shop). Depending on how far we would need to reach into the house (or if we need to reach through the house), we would need to string together enough power to reach that far into or through the house that we could couple onto what we need to move, while still keeping the goat outside. Lots of times, this involves shutting down units that are running, and then having to go through and restart all of them after coming back out of the house.

Having the slug helps out with that, since it doesn’t need to be started up or shut down, and sometimes it saves us completely from needing to grab other locomotives as buffers - for example, it works perfectly for respotting a unit that is on the drop table.

Also, we don’t lace up units that are being dragged around when making house moves, and sometimes we’ll wind up dragging around a dozen or so units just because of how our tracks are set up (we are narrow and long here), so having the air on the slug laced up with the goat helps to provide just that much more braking to help control movements.

The long, narrow, run through shop was a huge learning experience for me, having cut my teeth at an old Roundhouse where moves were almost always simple, shallow, and quick.

Richard Stewart Robert Learmont I'm wondering, would a car mover be more economical and efficient than what you do now? and thank you for this education.
Robert Learmont No. The distances that we move equipment, the amount of equipment we move at once, and our current labor agreements make using a locomotive necessary.
Robert Learmont We ran a week long experiment about a year and a half ago with a car mover that was being demoed to us, and unfortunately, it was a total flop. There were only a couple things that we could do with it, and it performed those things poorly - and for a lot of stuff, we still would have needed a locomotive.

Paul Heuer Is the house slug MUed for brakes only or does it also have traction motors?
Robert Learmont It has traction motors in it, but we don’t use it for power. It is MU’d for lights and air only.
[Per an HO modellers request, he posted more photos of the slug as comments.]

Robert Learmont posted
A room with a view - looking out over the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop. 1-22-2020.
Peter Kerpestein Hey more photos from Galesburg shops please comment it’s peter k
Robert Learmont Peter Kerpestein I will indeed. I have to be careful to not post pictures with people in them who are recognizable in the picture,and I have to make sure my pictures are taken from safe places with proper protection applied.
Jacob Evans Robert Learmont I’ve thought about taking pictures of the inside of Argentine for people to see but I didn’t want to hassle with getting proper permission and making sure I wouldn’t get in any type of trouble for it.
Robert Learmont Taking something from a safe place, making sure everything in the picture is rules compliant, and not getting other people who are recognizable is the key, as well as making it pretty obvious that it is not interfering with your work (I.e. you just came into work and snapped it on the way from the locker room to start of shift briefing). You guys have that balcony in Argentine that would probably be a perfect place to take a shot - I visited the Argentine shop a half dozen ago and got a pretty nice picture from up there.

William Brown It looks like the Maintenance Bay at Northtown Diesel Shop.
Robert Learmont 2 track is basically a single track version of Northtown’s Testline, and 1 track is basically their Truck Shop for us (minus wheel truing, which is in a separate building here). As far as an equivalent to Light/Heavy, we will make decisions on unscheduled units based on what the unit needs as far as which track we run it down.
David Culver Boy, does this bring back memories. I was a yard clerk at the Northtown (Minneapolis) Diesel Shop for a few years.

Cliff Hoganson That aint your great grand daddy's roundhouse!
Robert Learmont Cliff Hoganson I cut my teeth at the Glendive, MT Roundhouse. Loved it, and dreaded leaving when lots of us got laid off. There were obviously additions (and demolition) over the years, but our lower house was still original 1881-built NP roundhouse, and we had the longest turntable on the system, since Glendive had been a primary maintenance point for the Yellowstone locomotives.
One thing that I will say, having worked both a Roundhouse and a through-shop is that it is much easier to flow and make your moves to set up the house at the roundhouse than it is to switch out a through type shop. The negative is that you are stuck if the turntable goes down.
I’d love to be back at the old roundhouse.

Robert Learmont posted
A MAC looks eyeball to eyeball with one of its slightly older brothers in the house at the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop. Although the 40 is 21 years senior to the MAC, the MAC has just been laid up and placed into surge fleet storage, while the 40 will shortly head out on the road again leading a local train. 3-11-2020.
Kelly Powell The GP and SD 40's were really good engines.

Robert Learmont posted two photos with the comment:

BNSF 332 sits in the South 1 spot in the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop.
Sometimes, there just isn’t a good way to do minimally invasive surgery, and this is one of those cases. The intertials, turbo, main gen, and aux gen have all been removed from the locomotive to gain access to pull the flywheel from the crankshaft and rotate it by one bolt hole to get the engine back into time. Once the deed is done, everything will have to be set back in and aligned, the engine will need to be trammed to get the flywheel pointer positioned correctly, and valves will need to be set on all 16 cylinders. Then, when the locomotive heads outside to be fired up, hopefully it will no longer have a heavy smoke and turbo burp problem.
4-25-2020.

Aaron Theisen Hopefully????? Holy shit that's alot of work and man hours for a what-if.
Robert Learmont Aaron Theisen Really, everything mechanical is a what-if.
Robert Learmont One problem is that when things are this messed up, you really can’t do a good inbound on the unit to find out what their problems or may have. All the little problems it may have can get covered under the umbrella of the big problem, or the big problem can make the unit run (or not run) in a way that you’d never be able to see other problems that you could identify if the thing were otherwise running normally.
Just the nature of the beast.
You can’t turn on the lights to diagnose which headlight is burnt out on a car if the battery is completely dead and the car’s not running. Maybe a bad example since that’s an easy fix with a charger, but same sort of deal. Other problems can and will be able to happen once the unit can be fired up and run normally relative to the current problem.
Aaron Theisen Robert Learmont as the self proclaimed king of scrap (since some darn Canadian let discovery channel steal my title as king of rust and for their fictional TV series character) I'm very familiar with large scale issues masking smaller issues!
Aaron Theisen Robert Learmont perfect example of things hiding things, I rescued my 74 ford flatbed 4x4, figured the horrible exhaust leak sounds it was making when I got it running were caused by the now 3 piece exhaust manifold, caused by 3 out of 8 broken bolts. Spent all the time drilling out the broken bolts (and what broke during teardown) cleaned surfaces, new gaskets, new manifolds, new bolts, threads, etc... job well done, its 10 pm and I fire it up... sounds exactly as horrible as before! Wtf? After some careful hand-feeling under the 2nd cylinder exhaust port on the drivers side both exhaust and in taking air could be felt... closer inspection has ruled either a very cracked head (common) or a very doubtful head gasket that only compromised the 1 compression chamber. After that I went after the o pressure guage and found out it actually did have 0lbs (wont left the needle on my test guage) mind you I used the piss out of that old beast (and it still runs today) with 0lbs oil pressure at hot idle, and less then 4 lbs at 2500 rpm hot... not a flow issue if it didnt sieze up or start knocking, diagnosed as so worn out it wont build pressure with the factory low volume pump. But with decent compression on 7 cylinders still!

[To summarize some comments, the company that rebuilt the unit, PRS Mayfield, didn't bother to check that the flywheel was TDC (Top Dead Center) when it was added. That shop is non-union. There are also comments about BNSF plans for these B units.]

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Robert Learmont posted
It’s B-unit day at the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop. BNSF 302 is in for scheduled inspection/maintenance, which the 332 is with its main gen and turbo pulled, correcting an error that occurred with the flywheel being installed incorrectly during a previous overhaul, leaving the engine 30 degrees out of time. 4-25-2020.
Andy Minning Is that a cabless remote control engine?
Robert Learmont Yep. 302, along with 300 and 301, are all cabless Canac RCL units. All three are captive on the hump in Galesburg at the moment.

Robert Love How did it run like that?
Scott Simcock Robert Love 2 stroke. 30° out it'll still run. But not at the efficiency it should. Either retarded or advanced to an excessive amount causes differing effects.
Robert Learmont It ran, but had a very badly burping turbo, lots of smoke and oil out the stack, and very short on ponies.
Robert Learmont So now that I have some more time. The unit was overhauled at PRS Mayfield, which is where the flywheel was installed wrong.
The unit was assigned to Barstow, CA.
The shop in Barstow spent quite literally 3 months trying to figure out the problem.
The unit was then sent to us to try to get to the bottom of things.
So no, WE did not put the flywheel on. If you’d read through some of the comments and the description in the original post, you would have picked up on that pretty quickly.
We take the time to do the job right the first time, and verify our work to make sure it’s done. We are not at fault for what someone at a different shop at a different company did.

Jeremy J Schrader posted a photo with two SD75 engines in a Santa Fe livery headed to GAL MAD.

From BNSF web site

GAL MAD is to Madison, IL (TRRA Yard). Jeremy indicates the train uses the Brookfield and Beardstown Subdivisions instead of the Hannibal sub.

Dennis DeBruler Does SD75s in Santa Fe paint mean traffic is picking up and BNSF is taking engines out of storage?

Erik Rasmussen No, these are in transit from NRE Silvis, IL to Progress Rail in Mayfield, KY. They are no longer BNSF although none of the markings have been changed.

So the Santa Fe engines probably came down the Barstow sub from Silvis. I wonder why BNSF did not take the engines further south on the Beardstown before handing them over to another railroad

During the next trip I take to Murray, KY, instead of taking the bypass around Mayfield, I need to check out Progress Rail Services.

John Zimmerman posted the question: "Where was the Burlington's main yard an are there any pics of it"
Paul D. French Willis Yard in Galesburg was probably the main yard. It is hard to get photos that include the whole yard, it was large. Below is a photo of the roundhouse area and a link to maps of their yards, it says BN. But the maps are dated 1942.
https://www.google.com/imgres...
http://www.fobnr.org/yardmaps/maps.htm

This photo has two tank trains in the foreground, oil and army. (source)

Alex Bonser Looks like a pretty large yard.

Warren Caudle Galesburg was a CB&Q yard. ATSF ran through here, but not the yard. After the merger, there are 7 lines from Galesburg, and all can use the yard. Ex-SF lines still use their double-track mains, but a spur was added to ease the access. There is a large classification yard, locomotive and car shops here. Lots of great photo spots, very safe.

Stu Levene It is BNSF's main classification yard for the Chicago Area. Also, a large amount of through traffic (mainly intermodal) on the ex-Santa Fe 'Transcon' north of the yard and plenty of coal traffic from Powder River. There are additional connecting lines at Cameron, west of the city.

Roger Kujawa posted four photos with the comment: "Three sets of yard trimmers at Galesburg, Illinois this morning. [June 29, 2020]"
Michael Shockley What is a yard trimmer?
Roger Kujawa Michael Shockley a trimmer pulls the cars from the jump tracks in the order the yardmaster wants and put them on the departure tracks so they are blocked for the correct destination.
David Jordan To add to what Roger Kujawa wrote, the hump yard tracks are too short for most trains built here, so trimmers may take two or three cuts and combine them into a single train on the Receiving and Departing Tracks.

John Flaherty What type locomotive?
Bill Pearsall John Flaherty that is a TEBC, it is a slug. The BN built then from SD9s I believe.
Roger Kujawa Bill Pearsall thanks Bill. Yes SD9’s. You could see the duel fuel and air tanks on the frame.

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Robert Learmont posted two photos with the comment: "On the outskirts of the Chicagoland Railfan empire, BNSF 302 receives an M368 maintenance and an all-wheel changeout in the N1 house spot at the Galesburg, IL Diesel Shop. 3-27-2021."

[Note that 302 is a B-unit. That is, it doesn't have a cab.]

William Harold Baird: I surprised BNSF kept the homebuilt BN SD40B! Great photo Robert Learmont

Robert Learmont: William Harold Baird Thank you! All three of the 40-2B's are still in service.

They are the lifeblood of our terminal - all set up specifically for hump service in our terminal. Our terminal would grind to a halt without the three of them. We almost lost them earlier this year because we received a couple of Canac equipped Dash 9's to try on our hump, and the higher ups really wanted them to work well.

Of course, we all know how well Dash 9's load quickly ... they were not a success at all, crews didn't like them, they would roll a couple hundred feet down the hump if you ever had to stop shoving, etc etc. If the Dash 9's had performed well, the 300's would probably be sitting in a storage line right now.

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Jeremy J Schrader posted two photos with the comment: "Galesburg Thursday August 15[, 2024]."

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25:07 video @ 8:21
HUMP YARD in ACTION at BNSF GALESBURG YARD! Trains shoving the hill and drone views!

Mike Iron man posted four photos.

YouTube videos of cleaning up a derailment and the equipment leaving after the cleanup (source)