Mark Gregor, CEO

Update June-Oct - "This Year's Runnin"
by Lee Wright

click on images for larger view

The year of 05 has almost slipped by unnoticed as medical problems, weather and drainage problems have plagued all of us railroaders. From the looks of the web page, one would think that the rails at W.I.R.R were pretty rusty. Well that is not the case.

In June SD-40 8195 was busy pulling freight between Rock Island and Henry. The W.I. SD-60 meet the East bound freight several times that week as Bi-direction running was the norm as the weather was what Mr. Rogers would call a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

The NC cylindrical hopper number 370501 was out for it's maiden trip on that day in June.

Locomotive 9700 appears to have just came from the wash rack as it poses for it's photo op.

Three Trains tie up in the yard after a long day of running on this hot August afternoon. Looks like the crews went for a late lunch. After lunch it's time to put the toys away. Photo has ATSF flat and a couple of hopper cars on the lift headed for the car barn. The yard is full of cars this day and it takes time to put them into storage. Of course it is no fair to push the equipment around by hand..

In September we see a new section of track installed. I call this section Grand Junction. Grand Junction connects a route south to Galesburg along with a passing track and two storage sidings for future industries.

In October we see the C 30 in a setting that looks a little like the Union Pacific tracks between El Paso and Phoenix Arizona. The mountains just need to be a little higher but they look a lot like that.

The 8195 peeks out from around the corner of Grand Junction having departed Galesburg some time back.

(Photo of SD-40 by Andrew Storch)

The 8195 is shown setting in the yard at W.I.R.R. posing for a photo by Andrew Storch. For a locomotive that is over 22 years old she still looks pretty good. Her insides were re-powered by a sevcon controller and a new E-tech motor not too long ago.

the Georgia Pacific log car seems to be missing from the photo gallery so here is a picture showing the car with no signs of scratches on the paint from logs, yet anyway.

On one of the final runs in October the C-30 is testing it's new wiring and sevcon controller. The old GE seems to like the new controller and runs all day with out a problem.

The 9700 poses for Andrew Storch on a August day.

The sky chopper catches Grand Junction under construction.

A couple more October run photos at WIRR.

Hope to have more updates with not such a large space of time between.

Lee