I worked as a relief operator at Concord, Il a lot in the 1950's and
remember handling some ore trains southbound out of Beardstown, Il. As I
remember, the ore was always contained in rust colored ore cars that were
smaller than a coal hopper. The loaded cars were very heavy and an ore
train had to be split up into 2 or 3 sections to get up the Arenzville, Il
hill. Seems like that hill was a 1.5% to 2%, if that's possible. I believe
they used to keep a pusher engine down by Arenzville to help trains up that
hill but that was before my time. John Mitchell can probably comment much
more accurately on this than I.
Bob Weber
From: "Doug Harding" <dharding@c...>
Subject: [BRHSlist] Re: Iron ore trains on the CB&Q
> Don't know anything about the Ore Trains through East Dubuque. But I
> have heard there was a Granite City bound ore train in the 40/50's that
> came out of Minn on the CGW to Marshalltown, Iowa where it was handed
> over to the M&StL who took it to, I believe, Monmouth, Illinois where I
> understand the CB&Q took it to Granite City. The ore was handled in old
> two bay coal hoppers. Anyone know more about this operation?
>
> Doug Harding
> Iowa Central Railroad
> www.cal-net.net/~dharding/ <http://www.cal-net.net/~dharding/>
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