24 hours at Clinton Iowa

[penn central]

Just got back from 24 hours at Clinton, I don't have time right now to divide the numbers between the CP and UP trains, But i got a total of 60 trains, The CP was the busiest i have ever seen it, My first time railfanning that line was in 1997 during the I&M Rail Link era. The BNSF local that runs to Clinton did not run during my 24 hour period witch was from 17:00 on 9-1-18 to 17:00 9-2-17. But it did run today with a BNSF B40-8W in full warbonnet colors number 555 in the lead! with a BNSF 27?? trailing looked to be a GP38-2.

[Jim_c]

I was there a couple years ago. Our motel was not far from the UP yard. We drove by in the evening, and I was able to get a couple pictures of one of the locomotives still in Southern Pacific paint.

[penn central]

Okay i finely have some time to expel on some more of my 24 hours at Clinton my wife was by my side also the whole time. i ended up getting a total of 17 Canadian Pacific and 43 Union Pacific trains, The CP total is a record for me very very neat to say the least witch included 4 grain trains two loaded and two empty and a loaded coal train and a loaded oil train. The CP local was also powered by CP 3018 and 3030. The 3018 is a straight GP38AC built in March of 1971 she was in the original CP Action Red paint. The UP line threw there is the same one that goes threw Rochelle. I was disappointed i didn't see any Tier 4 70ACEs. I did see a couple Tier 4 Gevos. There was a couple trains with interesting power tho the UP local had two GP15-1s bracketing a SD40-2. And a westbound train had a SD70M leading unit number 739 originally a Rock GP38-2 and a SD40-2 trailing. Im definitely going back again some day. The place where railfans can legally watch trains is the south side of the old CNW passenger station.

[kenN]

When you say "south side" of the old CNW station for legal train-spotting, where were you? Directly across the tracks from the station? Or further west?

[penn central]

When you say "south side" of the old CNW station for legal train-spotting, where were you? Directly across the tracks from the station? Or further west?

South side of the station west side of the tracks, The same side of the tracks as the station. At that point the tracks parallel the Mississippi River by about two or three city blocks. There where several other train watchers that showed up from time to time.

[kenN]

Thanks for the information--I'll certainly check it out. It's a great spot for railfans.
I haven't been to Clinton for several years. One of the last times I was there, you could still drive up to the base of the CNW swing bridge over the river, watch it open and close at close range, and everyone there was friendly. After that (and after 9/11), the drive was either blocked or had an armed guard. So I never went back, not wanting to deal with the paranoia.

[penn central]

I went out to Clinton again last weekend Memorial Day weekend and stayed a couple days. Saturday and Sunday the highlight was a 270 car empty coal train on UP with 6 units all together that will go down as the largest train i have ever seen. Empty Wisconsin Electric Power train.