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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