Southern Wisconsin railfanning - Trains Magazine
Janesville certainly is interesting, with the Wisconsin & Southern, the Union Pacific and the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern all serving town--but you'll probably be slightly disapointed if you happen to hit a 'lull' and nothing moves for a while. On most days, the WSOR and the UP are busy with the road trains toward the morning and again in the late afternoon. The IC&E comes up into town on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings by pulling past the WSOR roundhouse and then backing up to serve Freedom Plastics--he usually has a pair of GP40-2s. The WSOR will be busy most of the day, but sometimes the local crew will go out to work someplace like Milton or maybe out to get a train from Monroe that didn't make it back in the night before. If you hit a spot like that, it will seem like they aren't doing anything--but the crew is working somewhere else nearby. The UP runs a pair of road trains up from Proviso: the "A train" in the morning and the "B train" in the afternoon. These run with pairs/trios of 9450-series GEs. There are a few interesting locals that the UP operates--they will run grain trains from Beloit, WI with six MP15s--a trio on each end since they make a backup move on the former MILW "Southwestern Line" from Clinton to Beloit, WI. The UP also serves the GM plant in Janesville, but the hours have been cut there since the axle supplier has been on strike--that might also be effecting the UP road trains too. Yard power in Janesville consists of about a dozen ex-C&NW MP15s, along with a few ex-Rio Grande GP40s. If you make a trip up to Janesville, try to get a UP train on Tiffany Bridge--five stone arches over the creek just about six miles south of the Janesville Yard. You can get to it by stair-stepping southeastward from Janesville or by taking the HWY "S" exit off I-90 at Shopiere and heading east for about 5 miles. After ducking under the rail line, take a left and follow that road to the bridge.
If you want to shoot the CN around Chicago, take a look at the Railfan Photo Platform at Homewood, IL--that spot is as safe as any around. Covered, elevated and a steady supply of trains--CN road trains, CN yard moves, Metra Electrics and Amtrak service. Probably has the best variety of any of the 'railfan parks'.
Lance Wales
