SP 4449 coming to Chicagoland

Southern Pacific's famous steam locomotive, the "Daylight", will be heading east on the Burlington on Saturday 7/18 to CUS on its way to Train Festival 2009 in Owosso, MI. Scheduled to leave Minneapolis at 0830, it's tentatively scheduled to arrive CUS at 1930, but is scheduled for a servicing stop in Naperville at 1815. As always, be advised that servicing delays as well as traffic conditions can and will affect performance. Follow the train's progress here and plan accordingly...

The train will also be leaving Chicago on Sunday to go to Michigan. Any idea what route will be used? 4449 will also return to Chicago at the end of July/beginning of August and head north via MD-N to Milwaukee.

There's a couple of parallel threads but nobody seems to know if the train will be on GTW or Michigan Central to Durand. Help!

http://www.trainfestival2009.com/4449-schedule.php

SUNDAY JULY 19, 2009 - Chicago to Durand - Buy ticket (First Class available)
Depart Chicago Union Station at 8:00am. Service stop at Battlecreek, MI around 12:00pm. Arrive in Durand at 4:00pm.

If it is going through Battle Creek it should be on the Michigan Central through Kalamazoo.
Michigan Central is the coolest ... catch the action in Michigan City over the swing bridge?

Subject to change, but here is their map ...
http://www.sp4449.com/chicagoarea.png

No, Battle Creek is where MC and GTW meet so one still cannot discern which route.

Tadman wrote:No, Battle Creek is where MC and GTW meet so one still cannot discern which route.

Please take a look at the image linked above (reprinted here) ... showing a path through Michigan City and Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo is even highlighted on the map.
http://www.sp4449.com/chicagoarea.png

An update on the SP4449 website ...
"*UPDATED!* Chicago Union Station - We regret that we are unable to provide a public viewing of the steam locomotive in Chicago. The SP 4449 is too tall and wide to fit inside Chicago Union Station, and we have not been able to find a public area for it to be on display. In the past few days we also learned that a bridge south of Chicago is too narrow for the steam locomotive.

Due to the impassable bridge and in order to make it to Train Festival, on the evening of Saturday July 18th the 4449 will be taken off of the train just prior to its arrival at Union Station to be serviced, refueled and rehydrated. The Amtrak engine will spot the train at Union Station as planned. The 4449 will then move on its own (no train) to Congress Park to take a slower detour route on a different railroad to Michigan City. On the morning of July 19th, the train will depart from CUS at 8 AM, led by Amtrak over the planned route from Chicago to Michigan City to catch up with the SP 4449 for the remainder of the journey to Durand. Stay tuned to our 'tweets' for updates."

So it looks like Michigan City is a good place to find 4449 on Saturday evening / overnight into Sunday AM ...

justalurker66 wrote:"Due to the impassable bridge and in order to make it to Train Festival, on the evening of Saturday July 18th the 4449 will be taken off of the train just prior to its arrival at Union Station to be serviced, refueled and rehydrated. The Amtrak engine will spot the train at Union Station as planned. The 4449 will then move on its own (no train) to Congress Park to take a slower detour route on a different railroad to Michigan City. On the morning of July 19th, the train will depart from CUS at 8 AM, led by Amtrak over the planned route from Chicago to Michigan City to catch up with the SP 4449 for the remainder of the journey to Durand. Stay tuned to our 'tweets' for updates."

So it looks like Michigan City is a good place to find 4449 on Saturday evening / overnight into Sunday AM ...

Looks that way, since it's going to head back west after servicing to the IHB at Congress Park on BNSF, then trundle down the length of the railroad south, and east to MC, hooking into the NS Chicago line (ex-NYC) at CP 502 (Hick) via the IHB's Kankakee line in Hammond. Report from another list says as of 1500cst, the train is out of LaCrosse, and should hit the BNSF Chicago sub in the early evening, hopefully before dark...

4449 is now in town. Follow the "tweets" here...

Woulda been nice to see 4449 @ CP Ridge tonight, too bad work got in the way

Really curious to see what happens on the return trip, considering 4449 wont fit in CUS.. don't know of another quick way to get the loco onto the north side of CUS for the trip to Milwaukee.

I looked for it in Michigan City around 11:30pm CT but couldn't find it. Perhaps the slow route to Michigan City was slower than I expected or they decided to store the train before Michigan City. (I didn't search the entire NS line along US12 to Portage ... perhaps I should have?)

It is a shame the GPS is down ... it would have been nice to see where it was - and where to start looking in the not too distant morning.

There was also a rumor the train was to be stored in Cicero or Clearing, heard by me third-hand but originating with the wife of an Amtrak employee. Wherever it was, it's probably rolling to Durand now and I'm still in Chicago...

Tadman wrote:There was also a rumor the train was to be stored in Cicero or Clearing, heard by me third-hand but originating with the wife of an Amtrak employee. Wherever it was, it's probably rolling to Durand now and I'm still in Chicago...

The announced storage was Michigan City ... it should have been there. Any storage in Chicago would have just increased the risk that the engine wouldn't make it to the train before the train made it to Michigan City. Storage in Miller or one of the yards on the NS Chicago Line instead of Michigan City might have added some security. Maybe they will tweet when the train meets the engine?

With the GPS site down it doesn't make it easy to find. Based on the tweets the planned 8am CUS departure didn't happen until 9am or so then they got held for another Amtrak.

Finally a tweet about a minute ago that they are in Porter ... and I'm 90 minutes away. I suppose I could try to make Niles.

justalurker66 wrote:I looked for it in Michigan City around 11:30pm CT but couldn't find it. Perhaps the slow route to Michigan City was slower than I expected or they decided to store the train before Michigan City. (I didn't search the entire NS line along US12 to Portage ... perhaps I should have?)

4449 got stopped by SWS train #865 @ Chicago Ridge last night, meaning it was still in the Chicago area at 11pm. Indeed a late night run to Michigan City.

I caught it in Blue Island last night. As per the exif data on my photos, it went through at 11:48 pm.