Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
C. Vision's tour of railroads in and around the Chicagoland area continues with a look at the Illinois Railway and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern.
The Illinois Railway, formally the Illinois Railnet, is a shortline serving various lines around northern Illiniois, and is owned by rail operator OmniTrax. The IR has several lines they operate, but the focus of our cameras will be their job which runs from Ottawa to the BNSF’s yard in west Suburban Eola, near Aurora, IL. This former CB&Q branch splits from BNSF’s Mendota Subdivision at Montgomery Illinois and heads southwesterly to the aggregate-rich areas around Ottawa, Illinois.
Then it’s onto the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern. Here, we see a few detour moves the IC&E made on CP & Metra’s C&M Subdivision back in the summer of 2008, due to floods in many areas of the Midwest. Other footage reveals more activity on the Belt Railway of Chicago, and a rare glimpse of a coal move the IC&E made from the CNIC at Bridgeport Interlocking on the southwest side of the city, a move which was seldom observed by rail photographers in the limited time the moves occurred.
C. Vision's tour of railroads in and around the Chicagoland area continues with a look at the Illinois Railway and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern.
The Illinois Railway, formally the Illinois Railnet, is a shortline serving various lines around northern Illiniois, and is owned by rail operator OmniTrax. The IR has several lines they operate, but the focus of our cameras will be their job which runs from Ottawa to the BNSF’s yard in west Suburban Eola, near Aurora, IL. This former CB&Q branch splits from BNSF’s Mendota Subdivision at Montgomery Illinois and heads southwesterly to the aggregate-rich areas around Ottawa, Illinois.
Then it’s onto the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern. Here, we see a few detour moves the IC&E made on CP & Metra’s C&M Subdivision back in the summer of 2008, due to floods in many areas of the Midwest. Other footage reveals more activity on the Belt Railway of Chicago, and a rare glimpse of a coal move the IC&E made from the CNIC at Bridgeport Interlocking on the southwest side of the city, a move which was seldom observed by rail photographers in the limited time the moves occurred.
