Loaded with “Pink Lady” quartz ballast from the company-owned Rock Springs quarry, a Chicago & North Western ballast train departs Janesville, Wisconsin, on the morning of July 8, 1995. The eastbound train is powered by a quartet of former Conrail EMD GP40s that C&NW bought from CR, along with an EMD MP15. The large yard full of auto racks and auto parts boxcars is traffic for the extensive automobile factory, General Motors’ Janesville Assembly Plant, on the south side of town. Opened in 1919, it was the oldest operating GM plant, until it was completely shut down in 2009.
