Signaling the end to another long summer day, the sun, diving towards the horizon, finds a small sliver of open skies allowing its golden glow to shine upon local L CHI1051 10A hustling 58 cars of freight from Chicago across the Chillicothe Sub toward its terminus at Galesburg. After stopping to be ran around twice and following lengthy 25 and 40 mph speed restrictions from Streator back east, the train's three EMDs and their 3800 tons of, mostly empty, cargo are once again enjoying track speed and clear rails as they hustle westward adjacent to fields of premature soybean crops between Ancona and Toluca. Doing its best to keep the spirit of its fallen flag alive, Burlington Northern SD60M vet #1457, albeit tagged with graffiti and BNSF markings, still retains the Cascade green and white paint it first wore fresh off the assembly lines 29 years ago in February 1991, despite the company's merger with once western rival Santa Fe July of 1995.
