Illinois Terminal #1072 locomotive in Somerset

[Bill Richardson]

   The green Illinois Terminal locomotive is in Somerset, but it was mostly hidden when I finally found it.  The tip on this website said it was supposed to be "dropped off" here today.  I went to the Somerset yard office to look for it, but didn't see it.  I saw an NS man sitting in a pickup truck, so I asked him about it.  He said he had not seen it, and that the yard crew probably took it to Burnside.

   I had something else to do in Somerset, before heading to Burnside, so I did that first.  Before long I went to Burnside, but the green IT was not there.  I checked another place nearby.  Not there either.  Then I went to the new road that goes to Ferguson, Murphy Ave.,  and checked the rail facility along there.  No green engine.  Then I went over to the old Jacksboro road and followed that to the Somerset NS office.  Along the way I found a lane by the tracks I didn't know about.  Back at the NS office, I looked again.  No green engine.  I did see something green over the top of some rail cars parked out there, but it didn't look like there was enough for it to be a locomotive.  I figured it was some new green rail car of some sort.  I could see only part of it.

    Then I went over the tracks and back down to a lower lane, and followed it.   Then I saw it--patches of green through the trees.  Green IT #1072.  There was a woods between me and the green IT, so I couldn't see it very well, nor make a good photo.  I made three anyway.  One came out fuzzy.  The camera focused on trees I guess.

    The IT unit was parked on the outside track, next to the woods, behind a black NS engine, and had  several rail cars in back of it.  The IT was sandwiched.  It was probably there the whole time I was running around looking for it.  At least I found it.

    I pulled up out of the bottom area to the high road over the tracks, and then I saw a train pulling in to the yard, led by a CSX engine.  That was a surprise.  I went back to the office and "grabbed" three shots of that one, none of which are good.  The train stopped.  I parked and waited a little, to see what they were going to do. I wondered if it was for a crew change.  Before long, the engines were uncoupled, and soon they eased out.  I thought maybe the green IT and the black NS unit would be moved out to work on that train just parked there.  While wondering, I heard a train horn, then another.  I thought one was coming from the south, but very soon after, one came from the north.  That train had five black NS units pulling it.  I'm pretty sure one was an SD40-2; maybe two of them.  That train went on through, with moderate speed.  Soon the guy I saw down below drove up to the office.  No action for the green IT.

Here is one photo of 1072, as I saw it.  This is a zoom shot.  Not quite a roster shot.