For the past few years, I've been going into Pilsen almost every week for music classes. Benito Juarez specifically which is right there on Cermak and even appeared in this video. I've always wanted to catch a train serving that line but sure enough I see the tracks being pulled up before even getting an opportunity to see anything... You were lucky to have an opportunity to capture this footage.

That is one fantastic locomotive, glad BNSF saved it!! Thanks for sharing!

GREAT sounding horn! That loco looks brand new!

Thanks for the memory, I was born in an apartment on the corner of 18th and Hoyne. In the 50's and mid 60's I would walk up the Ramp/ Driveway of the Western Ave switcher office and was always greeted very well. I took a ride down with a SW or NW switchers from the main level to the back alleys of 17th street and we did some switching of Grain cars from the small Grainery on 17th and Damen. Now an Apartment complex. I went to grammar school on 18th place and Paulina St. Vitus and for couple of years (1958-59) me and sometime a friend during lunch time would run to what we called the Three Way. Cermak, Ashland and Blue Island, and watch the switching and traffic mess it caused. My engineer friends from Westen Ave would sometimes be able to give me a list of times switching would be going on at that location. I would take Kodak 8mm movie camera and record all that I could. Sadly, all movies were lost in a move while I was in Nam. I worked at H. Kramer 21st and Loomis for a while and they had metal scrap loads delivered from the Q and sometimes a full load of Brass, Broze and Aluminum Ingots to ship out. I see just a small area left open on the route to Cermak rd. 2007 google still shows the tracks in the street. Thanks again.

sad to see those Central Illinois switchers just rotting away on a siding

freaking fresh paint job on that unit!!:D

What a great catch, that old 30 looks fabulous in the new paint, thank you for posting!

Im glad you recorded this because those tracks a long gone

A clean engine in America? Hard to believe!

Awesome video! Nice paint job on that locomotive!

beautiful locomotive, and that's gotta be the best K3 I've ever heard

I love all of the crossing! I will most definitely go to this area when I am in Chicago.

I sure wish I could have seen the rail road for this area back in the day when ALL the industries had rail service.

Thanks for a great series of shots of this crew working the crowded tracks. You must know the area quit well to keep up with the crew.

This is such a neat video!!! Going into my favorites

Oh, so BNSF keeps their GP30s and scraps their Dash 8s! I see how it is!

Super film !!!!

wow, that horn is amazing! great video!!

Haha yup! There are tons of little industrial lines/sidings in chicago. theyre pretty awesome if you can find them!

awesome video and one fine looking GP39-2r

Looks like a shiny new locomotive.

the only time i see trains are when im driving, and theyre usually unwelcome. this train is near my house & ive actually been stopped in traffic by this train. this video gives it a very majestic look. this is a very simple video, but i have come to respect trains more because of it. nice work.

impressive catch, nice paint job too.

Excellent video!

ok thanks i thought they were going to us them on some of there train but i thing they should be a show with them on that line and nice video

Cool to see the Class 1 BNSF running deep in the heart of Chicago

Top Video Chicagojoe

Thats about the cleanest looking Locomotive I have seen

Great video of some switching action here man.

Magnificent horn.

That is a beatiful GP39

Thank you!

Cool video .

IIII LLLOOOVVVEE THAT HORN!!!!!!!!!!!

Great video!!! Greetings from Polish.

not only in the desc, it's right on the side of the loco in big letters GP39-2R. nice catch and man oh man is that paint sweet. looks like a toy it's so clean

Fresh coat of paint. Life is goo for that train.

True! It was a great color combo.

I really have a thing for industrial local switching and Chicago is probably one of the best places in this United States to watch video of it. I'd love to work that job!

Nice video!

Nice video!!

I hope that little car paid hefty fine! 🤣

:-) I work for BNSF out of Cicero Yard...a foamer as well. Nice vids!

Can't say I blame the guy for blaring that horn like that. Numbnuts parking so close to the tracks pisses me off.

Thanks!

I would hate to be on a train with industrial switching duties in the Chicago suburbs

I used to work in Pilsen on Blue Island Ave and the BN Tracks were directly behind the building I remember seeing one day a very strange double header on that Branch of a SD9 & SW1500. For an engine built in 1965 or about it looks absolutely incredible I believe most of these rebuilds were of GN Heritage and a few other RR's but correct me if I am wrong

Great video, I like shooting the industry stuff. Suprised though the crew didn't tell you to leave being that close.

Ah I see why 2815 has a unique cab. Usually GP39s have normal cabs but 2815 was a rebuild from a GP30 so the cab looks like that.

Nice video, this job runs only one to three times a week now that there are three customers along the "Lumber District Spur." That locomotive is a GP30 that probably went to the BNSF Topeka Shop to be repainted. Enjoy seeing this job run as it will probably be discontinued south of Sims Metal very soon.

Wow. I did not know that. and thanks!

From a guy who is tangentially familiar with big corporate mergers, the smartest thing BNSF did was create a new logo and color scheme. In a merger, the staffs of the two merging companies are always skeptical, jealous, and nervous about who's going to run this and that, and who's the new boss (and was he or she BN or SF?). Creating a new identity is one good way of countering that natural anxiety. It also alerts customers of new opportunities.

That's a nice engine to be in the good of Chicago

Cool

Brilliant video mate!, too many good points to comment on!!,but how close was that Jeep to that boxcar?,that'd be a funny insurance claim!! Thanks for sharing.

@romeruno thanks! Glad you liked it. Trains are actually kind of interesting once you get into it.

Now THAT is a horn! lol

thanks!

Just subscribed!! Awesome video!!!!!!!!

I spy an SW900 at 9:00

Yup its an rebuild that the BN did, and Yah I wish that BNSF would have kept more in BN or ATSF colors.

que chulada de maquina

Thanks! nothing bad has ever happened to me or my friends. But I wouldn't stick around much after dark.

i liked the original santa fe super chief paint scheme (warbonnet) from the 50's

This is a really good video. I like big city industrial railroading. However, I have to question the mental integrity of the engineer while sopped at that crossing and repeatly laying down on the horns while the conductor was flagging traffic across. That's psychotic behavior man! Thanks again for a great video.

for the guy to come out and pull his car off the way .. 16:39 Big UP Normel MSG FL

hahah! yah that would be great! thanks dude!

Thanks! They use it up untill the old CIRY compound. So about a mile to half a mile of track. The old CIRY engines have been sold and taken away. Thanks!

This is the Y CHC105 job servicing the "Lumber District," a spur track off the BNSF's Chicago Subdivision. There are currently three industries along the route that are currently serviced in the "District." BNSF uses old road locomotives including the GP's and Dash 8's for yard service.

@pwalpar thank you!

@SouthShoreTrain thanks!!

haha cool. and thanks!

yah ! this is pretty new.

I didn't know some GP30s are still in service!

Really rare footage. Sadly the tracks have been removed east of Ashland.

I understand now, I didn't realize that a auto was blocking their path. Oh well, you can't fix stupid. Thanks again.

That sure is a good looking loco,I think i going to buy one in ho on ebay.

@toorivers Thanks! yah its a side of BNSF that a lot of people dont see.

I know! and Thanks!

@BonsonJ haha, yah it was cool to see but worried some people. he was just pissed because Almost every day they run, there is a car parked on the tracks, and it delays them big time. He honked the horn to trr to get the person.

yah they do run, but as of now one is still sitting there, and one is at a grain mill or something west. They are the old CIRY power.

It appears freshly painted at that time... I wonder when they rebuilt it.

It definitely is not a Leslie RSL3L. The Leslies had a melodic sound, not a Gabriel's Trumpet Blast, like this and all the newer locomotives seem to have nowadays. Would have been nice if they had kept the old Leslie that Santa Fe had on these. MIke in Fresno, Ca

Zajebiste !!!!!!! ****

@kmeluso Thanks! Just the HD Flip and a generic tripod.

@inels100 Those are 2 old CIRY switchers. They went out of business in 2010.

@Trainmaster189 I know! I saw surprised too!

@BonsonJ hah sure thing! Thanks for the comment!

beriy naice video

No that noise!

Great video, thanks for posting. How much of CIRYs Cermak railroad system is still in use? and whats happeneing to 1208 and 1209? have they just been abandoned since CIRY went tits up? I'd love to see the street railroad action over there, but I'm stuck in the UK where there's no street running at all anymore.

Yes. Those belonged to the CIRY.

haha. The owners friend came and picked it up.

What time of the day do they usually run? Ik the tracks after the first crossing are gone, but there are still industries before it. Asking because I'm usually there in the morning, like you said.

Am I the only one who wanted to see the jeep get hit! lol =)

Oh add on to my prior commitments...including customers every 4 months

I just explored the area on Google Maps Street View. Is this a bad crime area? Love the video!

hahah thanks!

I know this video is old and everything, but noticed that under that cab it says that it is a GP39R-2 :)

@lionel153 Thanks!