Bloomer GP10 7504 sits in Gibson City on a quiet fall night.
On a extremely hot and humid summer morning in Central Illinois, BLOL 7504, a Paducah GP10 switches around storage cars on the main, 1,000 or so feet away from Risk Junction.
Before the BLOL headed North for the day with their grain train, they brought some ethanol cars to the plant in town, and dropped some cars off in the NS interchange.
The Bloomer Line bringing a grain train from CN North on their trackage towards various elevators on their line. This train would shortly stop in Sibley to drop off a cut of cars & BLOL 7504.
Passing a lone tree and country road, BLOL 7504 and friends are pulling on their empty grain train for points north.
An originally built IC GP9 pulls a grain train past the IC depot in Gibson City. They had just grabbed this unit train from the siding just South of town on the CN trackage.
Approaching Sibley, BLOL 7504 eases down to a crawl. Here at the elevator, the lead unit will be pulled off and used to load cars at the elevator. They are in the process of splitting this empty C... (more)
BLOL 7504 was built as an IC GP9 back in 1957. Fast forward 62 years and here it is in a CB&Q inspired paint scheme shoving a grain train on the former IC Gilman Sub & past an ole IC signal. Crazy... (more)
An ex-IC GP10 rebuild pulls an empty grain train north on former IC rails to shove back onto the NS and onto the Bloomer Line's rails. The train will be broken up into parts and delivered to eleva... (more)
An early morning Bloomer Line train heads North over a wooden trestle just South of Strawn, Illinois.
Putting the train back together at Charlotte, GP10 7504 shoves 22 cars into the cut of 23, making it look like a continuous stretch of 45 cars with one geep. It sounded awesome!
Bloomer Line 7504, a ex-ICG GP10 leads a grain train over ex-IC rails in the morning light after a line of severe thunderstorms passed.
BLOL 7504 heading North in the morning light.
BLOL 7504 leads the train North in some morning storm light.
A pair of Bloomer GP10's near the wye at Risk with 28 grain loads bound for the NS in Gibson City.