February 18, 2001
St. Louis, Missouri
Grading crews completed the ground work for the Burlington Yards today. The
preparations were made more difficult as the whole area was raised an
average of 10 to 12 feet to bring the level of the yards above the 500 year
flood level of the Mississippi. The gandy dancers have been progressing
down the West Burlington Hill and are expected to begin laying track through
Burlington later this week. On the east side of the river, the trackwork
has been completed all the way to East Burlington. It appears that our goal
of having track connecting Galesburg & Creston by July 4th will be
attainable. (Be sure to sign up for the Green Diamond tour on Thursday or
Friday of the Gateway 2001 NMRA National Convention!).
The caissons are in place for the first pier of the Mississippi bridge and
construction has begun on the second. The stone for the piers is currently
being quarried near Oquawka and will be delivered to East Burlington by our
own trains and then to the pier site by barge. The bridge design is
completed and material have been ordered.
Today, marking the B&MRR Superintendent's 46th birthday, the first B&MRR
locomotive was delivered to Galesburg. The fine steam locomotive is a USRA
design light Mikado that will be classed as an O1 and be assigned the number
4900. It
will be placed into service between Galesburg & East Burlington as soon as
the paint crews apply our attractive "Burlington Route" herald to the tender
and numbers & initials to the cab. We hope these locomotives will provide
us with flexibility for use on both drag and fast freights.
For those who may be interested, here are links to photos of the B&MRR as of
1/1/2001:
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/StageSouth.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/HelixWest.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/HelixEast.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/CentralAve.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/MainSt.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/CantDetail.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/DepotShop.jpg
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/mdepot/layouts/Lotz/StageNorth.jpg
Dave Lotz
B&MRR Superintendent
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