Welcome to Dewarville, Illinois

Dewarville is an upper middle class suburb somewhere vaguely west of Chicago in DuPage County. A city of around 146,000 people, Dewarville has been associated with the railroad almost from its founding in 1831. Not far from the city itself is BNSF's Dewarville Yard and Dewarville station is served by both Amtrak and METRA. Why don't you glance at this guided tour of our city where our motto is "Familiar yet Unique."

1. Dewarville Yard

Dewarville Yard was relegated to secondary status when Burlington Northenr merged with Santa Fe in 1995. That said, it still sees quite a bit of traffic but serves in a secondary role to such yards as Cicero and Corwith in the Chicagoland area. However, Dewarville Yard is seeing a greater rise in intermodal traffic as high priority "Z" trains waiting to enter Cicero often arrive here if Cicero is full. Dewarville Yard also sees quite a bit of grain traffic from BNSF and other railroad's trains from the ADM facility (see #6). The yard also sees a regular interchange sand train from the Illinois Railroad shortline. Run-throughs of other Class I roadroads or Union Pacific (which has trackage rights here) trains are not uncommon.

2. Railway Express Agency Building*

REA was a predecessor to FedEx and UPS but this building has been derelict since REA went out of business in 1975. BNSF wanted to tear this building down to make room for more yard tracks but local railfans petitioned to save it. The building was recently restored, however, to the chagrin of local railfans, BNSF Is likely to use it for their own purposes as office space.

3. Fox River Bridge

This bridge fords the Fox River. Can't you see it flowing lovely under its girders?

4. Dewarville Station

Dewarville Station is a major transportation hub for DuPage County. Dozens of METRA BNSF Line commuter trains on the Aurora-Chicago Union Station route stop here every day. The train also sees eight Amtrak trains each day: the California Zephyr from Emervyille to Chicago; the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago; and the Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg from Quincy, IL to Chicago. Local railfans enjoy congregating here to watch not only passenger trains but BNSF freight, Union Pacific trackage right trains, and the occasion flood or weather detoured freight from Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and Kansas City Southern. Occasionally, historic rolling stock from the Illinois Railway Museum may make an appearance. Out front of the station, the local community has restored and placed a historic CB&Q Burlington Route passenger car* in front of the station as a tribute to the town's railroad heritage.

5. Downtown Dewarville

As you can see, downtown Dewarville has much room for growth. A mix of office buildings, historic buildings, and McDonald's* represent a slice of typical middle American life.

6. ADM Complex

Archer Daniels Midland is a major American and global food corporation and this grain elevator is but a bit of a vast complex. Whether that complex is near Dewarville, somewhere south in Illinois, or even across the Mississippi in Iowa is something folks here aren't quite sure of yet. BNSF, UP, and CP bring in covered hoppers to load and deposit grain. Some of those grain hoppers end up in Dewarville Yard where they are joined to larger trains to travel elsewhere in the BNSF system.

7. Small Engine House*

Part of Dewarville Yard, this engine house provides some basic maintenance facilities for the BNSF road power assigned to the yard. Major repairs are handled elsewhere.

(*Use your imagination)