White Northwestern Caboose - TRRA Gateway Rail Services Storage Yard, Madison, IL
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member adgorn
N 38° 40.661 W 090° 08.736
15S E 748307 N 4284876
Shorter Northwestern apparently bay window caboose.
Waymark Code: WMD79E
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/29/2011
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member TheBeanTeam
Views: 4

One of 7 pretty viewable cabooses (on private property, photographed from adjacent parking area) that I'm waymarking at this yard out of the seventeen I identified by scanning a Google map view while planning my visit. See my map at Batchgeo
(visit link) for the locations of the various caboose groupings. (This waymark is based on Pin Location A. Typically a pin marks the left-most coords if there is a string of cabooses beginning at that spot.) Parking to view this waymark caboose can be found at pin E, off Old Nickel Plate Road (cool railroad name!) to the south.

For a closer Google Map view of the caboose groups for each pin, use the links below:
A 5 cabooses (visit link)
B 8 cabooses (visit link)
C 3 cabooses (visit link)
D 1 caboose (visit link)

The offices for the yard appear to be at location C, in case anyone wants to try to actually get permission to visit.

I made the trek to the yard based on (visit link) where the following were reported in Madison:
CV 4040 steel, wide vision, Illinois Transit Assembly Office, from NECR Yard, White River Junction, VT
ICG 199578 steel, wide vision, Illinois Transit Assembly Yard, from Hallsville, MO, & Monticello, IL,
IC 9698 as PAL 9698, steel, wide vision, UP Yard
ICG as PAL, steel, wide vision, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
ICG steel, wide vision, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
N&W 518536 steel, cupola, built 2/69, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
N&W 518570 steel, cupola, built 11/69, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
N&W 518692 steel, cupola, built 3/70, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
SOO steel, wide vision, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
SOO steel, wide vision, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
UP steel, cupola, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard
? several other steel cabooses, Gateway Rail Services, 1980 3rd Street, near TRRA Yard

More about the Terminal Railroad Association from Trainweb at
(visit link)
"The T.R.R.A. was created in 1889, in order to create a secure method of efficiently interchanging passenger and freight traffic over the Mississippi River. Not to mention, operate and maintain St. Louis' massive Union Station, which included Railway Express Agency (REA) switching duties. The ORIGINAL railroads with ownership in the T.R.R.A. were the Missouri Pacific, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, Wabash Railroad, the Ohio & Mississippi Ry., the Louisville & Nashville, and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. The railroads with ownership in T.R.R.A. today include:

Union Pacific (UP)
BNSF Railway (BNSF)
CSX Transportation (CSXT)
Canadian National (CN) - Formerly Illinois Central (IC)
Norfolk Southern (NS)

The T.R.R.A. owns and dispatches the MacArthur Bridge, the Merchants Bridge, the "High Line" (that runs under the Arch) which connects the Merchants Bridge, the BNSF Hannibal Sub, and NS's old Wabash line to the yard in downtown St. Louis, their hump yard in Madison, IL, a line that connects their Madison yard to the A&S Gateway Yard in E. St. Louis by way of Valley Jct., and several other smaller branches and operations. The T.R.R.A. runs regular transfers to the Manufacturers Railway Co. at their "Brewery Yard", to the Alton & Southern at their Gateway Yard, to the KCS at their former Gateway Western yard in E. St. Louis, IL, and occasionally to the Union Pacific at their Dupo Yard in Dupo, IL.

Locations: The business address/office is located at 700 North Second Street, on the St. Louis side. The T.R.R.A.'s base of operations, engine facilities, and hump yard are located on the outskirts of Madison, IL."

More about Gateway Rail Services Storage Yard at (visit link)
"Gateway Rail Services is a railcar rebuilder specializing in restoring private railcars from the Heritage era of North American railroading. This yard stores retired railcars from Amtrak's Heritage Fleet including dome cars, observation cars, slumbercoach sleepers, Santa-Fe Hi-Level cars, old Pullman Gallery Cars and many random single level coaches."

Gateway's website: (visit link)

Looks like there is a pretty active railfan chapter that got to tour the yard in 2010: (visit link)
Current Use:
in storage yard


Type Of Caboose: Bay Window

Visit Instructions:
Please visit the location of the caboose, brake van, or guard van, provide visit details through photo or narrative.
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