Chasing a Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad Kankakee Turn!

On Friday, Oct 10th, 2025, the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern was on me and ‪@WesleyRails‬'s agenda. After learning they would be running to Kankakee, which only happens about once a month, we made a bee-line for the northern Illinois town and got to see them interchanging with the CN, and some rare mileage north of St Anne. We followed them south to Iroquois Junction with some interesting operations at the junction and on the MILW. Enjoy! Chasing KBS Local, KBS Kankakee Line/Danville Line: KBS 701 GP38-2 (KBSR) RS3L* KBS 702 GP38-2 (KBSR) RS3L 0:00 Arriving Kankakee, cutting its 2 inbounds off at the north end of the siding under a historic NYC signal gantry. 1:51 They pulled their outbounds from the CN interchange off-camera. Here they are seen returning light engine after dropping their inbounds, crossing Harrison Avenue. 2:01 Crossing Greenwood Avenue 2:45 Shoving the outbounds out of the siding to get both motors on the head end. All 3 of these cars were fertilizer empties consigned to Donovan Farmers Co-Op's fertilizer plant just south of Donovan, IL. 4:36 Headed south, the train crosses the Kankakee River at Aroma Park, IL! 6:13 Passing the abandoned NYC G Head trilight signal just south of St Anne, IL. This once acted as the distant to St Anne. 6:55 Passing the ex-TP&W RS11 converted into one of the KBS's snowplows in Beaverville, IL. 8:01 Picking up a bird seed empty at Beaverville, consigned to Wagner's bird seed plant at Cutmer, IL on the Milwaukee Road. 8:41 Passing through Donovan, IL with quite an oddball consist. 9:42 After dropping the 3 fertilizer empties from the CN at Donovan Farmers Co-Op's fertilizer plant, the train now heads south on the Danville Line (former Milwaukee Road Terre Haute Division) just south of Iroquois Junction with the single bird seed empty. 10:04 Later, the two engines are seen back on the NYC trackage engine light crossing US-52 in Sheldon. The crew would tie down for the weekend at Kentland Elevator & Supply on the south side of town.