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Re:Lines West (and south)

To: "BRHS list" <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re:Lines West (and south)
From: "John and Carmen Jacobs" <jjacobs@s...>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 00:07:00 -0600
I know I'm whipping a dead horse but here goes. The folks that think that 
everything east of Alliance or Lincoln have been standing in the sun too long. 
I'm sitting here looking at a BN track diagram for the Brookfield 2nd Sub 
between the South end of West Quincy yards and MP40 4 miles west of Hunnewell 
Mo. And it ain't nowhere near FLAT!

>From MP9.46 at North River bridge it starts a climb that ranges from .33 % up 
>to 1.5% for the 7 mile climb to the flatspot west of Palmyra at MP16. Most of 
>the grade is .87 and higher.

My most vivid memory as a child was watching black & gray SD7/9's ease down the 
hill to tie onto a westbound that stalled. For a teenage railfan that hill was 
a gold mine for cab rides (I'm sure CB&QJohn will second that!). Flatlands 
indeed!

Why would the City of Quincy IL in the year 2001 apply and get grants to build 
a 18th street bridge over the BNSF tracks? According to the Quincy paper its 
because of all those (22 a day) slow moving trains tieing up the three grade 
crossings (Bob Campbell can you verify that ?) in town for precious minutes in 
case a emergency vehicle needs to get to the north side of town. At least the 
people that designed it are going to put a bike path on one side and a 
pedestrian walk on the other. Flatlands HEH!

It still amazes me when I see a coal load go down the hill at Burlington. What 
would we do without Dynamic brakes---- seems to me those flatland motors don't 
need them. It's a testimony to the skilled engineers that keep the coal loads 
from ending up in a pile on the riverfront and get the tonnage up to the Shops 
and west.

I know the west was hard to tame but the H&StJ and B&MR had a hard row to hoe 
getting across Missouri and Iowa.

Sorry for the ranting, I'll retreat to my cave!

Sincerely,
John Jacobs 


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