Railfanning the IAIS in Rock Island, IL area

[cbtrower]

Hello, Im from Michigan and I will be taking a trip to Iowa soon, on the way I plan to stop at various places including Rock Island, IL. I wanted to railfan the IAIS when i was out there and was wondering what place is the best that would be on the way to railfan the IAIS. And if i could get frequencies to use that would be great! Thank you!!!!!!
Also here is the rout https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Canton, ... 005448!3e0

[CSXBOY]

First of all this is Graeme Case from RS. No one on this page that I am familer with knows about IAIS. But I can be some help, the UP Geneva sub I know goes by there. But I recommend you just stay in Rochelle and go to the IAIS for like a day trip. Streator IL about 70 miles south of Rochelle on Interstate 39 is where the BNSF Chillicothe sub crosses a NS branch. So make sure you go there. Oh and check out the BNSF Racetrack in Chicago thats an AWESOME line to railfan. Dont forget to stop by Chesterton for a couple hours too the Chicago line is a neat line to railfan.

Here is a link to the frequencies in IL http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=4330 this has IAIS

[Bulby]

Hello, Im from Michigan and I will be taking a trip to Iowa soon, on the way I plan to stop at various places including Rock Island, IL. I wanted to railfan the IAIS when i was out there and was wondering what place is the best that would be on the way to railfan the IAIS. And if i could get frequencies to use that would be great! Thank you!!!!!!
Also here is the rout https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Canton, ... 005448!3e0

If you haven't found this site yet: http://www.iaisrailfans.org/ It's a very, very good resource. Frequencies are on that website.

I'm not very good on IAIS operations and photo locations in the QCs themselves, but in addition to what is mentioned on the linked website, you might find a PECR coal train (and the reverse CRPE empties), and just east of the Quad Cities themselves is Silvis, home of NRE and a IAIS yard. SIlvis is a busy place for IAIS, with nearly daily PESI/SIPE trains, plus feed trains and grain trains. All IAIS train symbols are origin-destination, PECR is Peoria to Cedar Rapids, for example. The exception is trains with SW as the second pair of initals, this designation means switcher. SISW would be the Silvis switcher.

There's plenty of activity on the Iowa Interstate, you just have to be patient and find it.

[cbtrower]

Thank you guys!

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Also here is the rout https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Canton, ... 005448!3e0

Unless you're set on your route from IRM to Rochelle, I'd recommend taking US20 from the Union area west to Rockford, then either I-39 or Illinois 251 south to Rochelle. I know you were looking for information on the IAIS, but the route along US20 pretty much chases the UP line to Belvidere/Rockford, which part of IRM's line parallels. You may get lucky and catch something near Genoa, but most of the roads between IRM and Rochelle are two lane country roads, and although your route is pretty direct, some of those roads can get fairly congested. I seem to recall traffic on State Route 23 can move especially slow, depending on the time of day.