----- Original Message -----
From: <atsf3460@a...>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 11:31 PM
Subject: [BRHSlist] Railfan trip along the old Burlington to Ottumwa 3/3/01
> Friend and I travelled from Peoria over to Ottumwa on Saturday March 3rd
to
> train show and some railfanning along the way. Caught a westbound coal
train
> and paced him on Cameron Road between Cameron and Monmouth (two Grinsetin
70
> Macs). Stopped in Mt. Pleasant to see the station and toured Threshers
> grounds (2.5' gauge track with mainline rail is a funny sight!).
Oh, Please! That's genuine, full-fledged 36" gauge . . . and most of the
rail is 90 pound. When we're running a 27 ton 1891 Baldwin mogul around a
30 degree curve at 20 mph in order to make the 4% grade up to the station
with 4 40' passenger cars and a caboose, that 90# stuff reduces the amount
of re-aligning required each year!
The 90# rail came from a Burlington siding which had fed the coal-fired
boilers at the Southeast Iowa Mental Health Institute (now a minimum
security prison) - they were converted to oil in the early '60s and the
siding came out. CB&Q wanted to give the rail to the Midwest Central, but
some kind of tax consideration made it a bad deal . . . but they *could*
donate it to a local Boy Scout troop, which then *loaned* the rail to the
MCRR. I doubt there are many people still around who remember that deal,
btw.
Marshall
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