Long and heavy, UP MCBCH 13 finds itself bringing up the rear in a parade of morning eastbounds with Council Bluffs, IA to Chicago-Clearing (BRC) mixed tonnage seen here cutting in half the old C&NW searchlight sticks that still keep order at CP Y055 Cortland. Although most are extinct, several control points along the Geneva Subdivision between Chicago-Kedzie and Fifth Street-Clinton still feature pre-merger Northwestern style codeline and signal hardware including Meredith, Cortland, Nachusa and Nelson, though one can assume they are not long for this world. A large wall of dreary spring weather found itself shrouding the skies above northern Illinois on this particular morning as evident by the train's passage through the ongoing rain and fog, adding a little mood to an already neat scene.
