Midwest winter On a cold, snowless and achromatic February 19, 1995, a Burlington Northern train sprints out of Steward, Illinois, passing rich, but fallow farmland waiting for another season. An equally colorless LMX B39-8 leads the westbound train headed for Rochelle. In the northern tier of states, winter is usually defined by a layer of snow, but the open agricultural country of Illinois can frequently look like this in the heart of wintertime.
