A Great Afternoon of Railfanning in Griffith, Indiana, Featuring 4 Illinois Central SD70s! 5/23/2024

Hello everyone! On the 23rd of May, I ventured up to Griffith, Indiana, for what would be a great afternoon of railfanning at this iconic railroad junction. Once home to five major railroad lines, Griffith is still a busy location in Northwest Indiana as it is the crossing of two of the busiest Canadian National mainlines in the United States. Here in Griffith, the former Grand Trunk Western mainline to Detroit and the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern mainline around Chicago. This junction is quite possibly the best place to see Canadian National in terms of total action and the variety of trains.

Each day, Griffith sees more than 35 trains per day with the majority heading to and from the two major yards in Greater Chicagoland; Kirk Yard in Gary, Indiana, and Homewood/Markham Yard in Homewood, Illinois. Kirk Yard is the busiest hump yard in the region for CN and is where the majority of manifest trains that pass through on either line originate or terminate. Homewood/Markham Yard is the primary intermodal and autorack yard in the region which also sees some manifest traffic. Almost all manifest trains through the Griffith Junction pass through on the EJ&E mainline next to the railpark, while most intermodal and autorack trains switch off the EJ&E mainline onto the GTW mainline and vice-versa.

This afternoon of railfanning saw a total of 12 trains and a number of special locomotives. In just the span of six hours, I saw two CN 100 units, two ex-CitiRail Units, a BNSF H1 Dash 9, and best of all, four Illinois Central SD70s. Perhaps the best feature of Griffith is the high volume of special locomotives that pass through here each day. The Illinois Central SD70s, aka the "Death Stars," are a daily staple on the EJ&E mainline. The Death Stars are in charge of local train duties on the route, taking local trains between Kirk Yard and Homewood. In addition, the Death Stars often take the short-distance manifest trains (the "A-trains") down to Champaign and Centralia, Illinois. It is more than typical to see multiple Death Stars, especially teamed up together. To my surprise, the trains the SD70s pulled through today were noticeably longer than expected, though it is always great to see these veteran units working to the best of their abilities.

As for other great catches of the day, the final combined intermodal and autorack train of the day had a great combination of a CN 100 unit with a CitiRail, and one of the westbound manifest trains had a CitiRail leader teamed with a BNSF H1 and a Union Pacific DPU. This same westbound train also had a rare and legendary Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) green covered hopper! MKT rolling stock is some of the rarest and coolest fallen flag rolling stock left on the rails, and this afternoon of railfanning was just one of two times I recall seeing one of these legendary rolling stock. Much of the other fallen flag rolling stock was a rather abundant collection of predecessor railroads of the modern Canadian National; namely Illinois Central, BC Rail, Wisconsin Central, and some Grand Trunk Western (GTW) mixed in as well. The Fallen Flags always make the railfanning more interesting.

On the whole, it was another memorable day of railfanning at one of my favorite railfanning locations here in Northwest Indiana. Seeing the Illinois Central Death Stars is always a welcomed sight and I hope it will be a sight to see at this location for years to come. I plan on returning once more to Griffith later in the year, more specifically in the fall, when I take my autumn railfanning trip with Cincy Railfan Productions. Be on the lookout for a video from late October!

Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!

-N&W475.