Railfanning Chicago's South Side at Forest Hill / 75th Street, 02.04.12

"Train" 1: CEFX SD60 #6019 (leased to CP) is seen idling at Rockwell Yard on the Belt Railway of Chicago. This long, narrow yard was once the Chicago freight yard for the C&O and Pere Marquette. It is on the Belt between 75th/Forest Hill and Hayford Crossing, just across from NS's Landers Yard. "Train" 2: With an old Southern Railway trailer nearby, Norfolk Southern C40-9W #8919, C40-8 #8760, C40-9Ws #9751, 8902, 9898 and 9024, and ex-UP SD60 #6517 sit between duties at NS's former Wabash Landers Yard. The yard is now a small(ish) intermodal terminal. Train 3: A loaded coal drag swings from CSX's B&OCT to the Belt Rwy via the northeast quadrant connection at Forest Hill. ES44AC #5808 leads a very smoky "Executive" SD70MAC, #9682. Train 4: The last of the three Saturday inbound trains on Metra's Southwest Service (SWS) from Orland Park and Manhattan, Illinois, train #866 pounds the CSX/B&OCT diamonds on NS's old Wabash, heading toward Union Station. F40PHM-2 #191 is the power. Train 5: Crews release the handbrakes on a long string of cars to be stored in the former CMX TOFC yard at Forest Hill. This was B&O's (later B&O-Chessie System's) TOFC intermodal yard for Chicago, and is now used for car storage, as is seen here. CSX GP15s #1501 and 1517 provide the power for this job. Train 6: A Union Pacific manifest heads east on the BRC and across the B&OCT. UP SD90/43MAC #8114 and C41-8W #9474 lead. Train 7: A Canadian Pacific stack train heads for Bensenville via the west / north- bound Belt at Forest Hill, then slows as it descends to street-level from the grade separation east of here. AC4400 #8562 and SD40-2 #5942 lead. Train 8: Two light BNSF Dash-9s back out of CSX's 67th Street Yard. Train 9: The car-storage job goes about its work as a CSX grain train approaches on the B&OCT. CSX C40-8W #7777, SD70MAC #4796, and C40-8 #7577 lead the long grainer north. (probably for interchange with the UP) Train 10: One of Metra's Operation Lifesaver F40PHM-2s leads the second outbound Saturday Southwest Service train, #863, across Western Avenue on the old Wabash toward Orland Park and Manhattan. ~Thanks for watching!~