Labor Day along the BNSF. Featuring BNSF America 250 engine 2026

Original film date: September 7, 2026 Contributors: ‪@CandMgirl‬ ‪@stpchc‬ ‪@MetraBNSF‬ Locations: Western Springs and La Grange, IL The main feature of the day was BNSF America 250 engine 2026. One of three red, white, and blue BNSF engines with special livery honoring America’s 250th birthday. On this Labor Day, BNSF 2026 was assigned to lead priority intermodal Z-CHCSSE1-07U from Chicago/Cicero, IL to South Seattle, WA. We get a nice horn salute from the engineer of this hot Z intermodal as they pass through Western Springs, IL just before 2:00pm. In addition to BNSF 2026, we follow Cicero - St Paul, MN Z intermodal Z-CHCSTP1-07U through La Grange, IL. We also catch up with the eastbound Z coming from Portland, OR (Z-PTLCHC7-04A). The long distance Amtraks also come through along with a couple of Metra trains. One outbound train expressed past La Grange Road due to earlier positive train control (PTC) issues and needed to get to Aurora to make up time and become another inbound. An inbound Metra expressed past La Grange which is a regular scheduled weekend/holiday express train in the 3:00pm hour.