In early May of 2003, the bridge over the Big Bureau Creek between Bureau and Tiskilwa, IL partially washed out. It was severe enough to halt all mainline traffic over the bridge, so the IAIS began detour operations. Westbounds ran down the Peoria Branch to Peoria and got on BNSF rails. The detours then used the BNSF from Peoria to Galesburg where they accessed the BNSF Barstow Sub to continue their journey to Barstow and East Moline where access to the IAIS mainline was regained. Eastbounds followed the same route. About 7 trains total detoured account the bridge work.

A BNSF derailment on November 21, 2003 destroyed the diamond between the BNSF Barstow Sub and IAIS First Sub at Colona, IL. During the clean-up process, a switch was installed to connect the IAIS mainline from the east (Colona to Bureau) to allow IAIS trains to head west on the BNSF (to Barstow). Until a second switch was installed to connect the BNSF with the IAIS mainline to the west (Colona to Rock Island), the IAIS had to detour on BNSF rails.

An eastbound IAIS detour would proceed to 7th Street East Moline, the junction with the IAIS mainline, BNSF branch out of Barstow, and the IC&E branch to Albany, IL. Rather than line the switches for the IAIS main, the detours would line themselves for the BNSF to Barstow. Once at Barstow, the detours would snake their way through the yard in Barstow and gain access to the BNSF Barstow Sub from here. After gaining permission from the dispatcher, the detour would enter the mainline and proceed roughly three miles east to Colona where they would re-enter IAIS trackage via the switch.

Before the first switch could be installed completely, the IAIS still needed to run their freight, so the IAIS detoured over the BNSF from East Moline and proceeded east all the way to Galesburg, IL where the detours would either use the BNSF branch from Galesburg to Peoria to regain IAIS trackage, or in the case of at least one train, use the ex-ATSF mainline from Galesburg to Joliet to regain IAIS trackage there.

The second switch at Colona was installed on July 7, 2004 with the first trains operating through it on July 10. Every since then, the IAIS has been re-using their mainline through Silvis and East Moline. Upon arrival to Colona, the IAIS must tell the BNSF dispatcher they are ready for a signal, and when available, the dispatcher lines the signals and switches for their move. Only a few IAIS trains used the Barstow-Galesburg-Peoria detour route with only one or two using the Barstow-Galesburg-Joliet route. Every train from the end of Nov through the following July used the East Moline-Barstow-Colona detour route.

Enjoy the pics!