Have uploaded a few photographs of Galena Junction from our November visit.
Located in "Galena Junction" folder in photos section:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/photos/album/223707347/pic/list
Lee
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Gerald & Virginia Edgar <vje68@...> wrote:
>
>
> Lee & I hiked down to the former Galena Jct site during our annual
> Thanksgiving father/son CB&Q railfan hike. It's an easy walk along the
> tracks from the foot of Red Gates Road as noted. The Galena Historical
> Society has posted a very good historic marker with vintage photos at trails
> end (trail developed from Galena to Galena Jct on ex-Q roadbed). Indeed the
> old swing span was taken out yrs back as the river is no longer navigable.
> The Historical Society has even more excellent photos mounted on markers in
> Galena proper that fully show all the old Q (& IC/C&NW) tracks into Galena,
> depots, etc.
>
>
>
> You may recall the last Q Agent @ Galena Jct was a speaker during the clinic
> of ret'd RR'ers at the BRHS Annual Meet in Dbq 2&1/2 yrs ago. he was the one
> that mounted the antlers on N end of the Galena Jct depot that show up in so
> many photos.
>
>
>
> Gerald
>
>
>
>
>
>
> To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
> From: bkrueger@...
> Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 21:50:41 +0000
> Subject: [CBQ] Re: East Dubuque & Portage photos?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian, Glad you found the photos. The Galena River swingspan is long, long
> gone. If you look on page 79 of Michael Spoor's "Chicago, Burlington &
> Quincy" volume two book, you will see some rusted steel braces attached to
> the top of the swingspan. My understanding is that patch/repair job was a
> result of a mishap in the middle 60's. Don't know what hit it, a high-wide or
> loose load or what..... The photo is from 1969 and I don't see the cabin, so
> I don't know when that was removed. My understanding is that the swingspan
> was replaced in the 70's.
>
> What is there now is a single track girder bridge. No need to swing a bridge
> as there is no traffic upriver toward Galena. I was up there roughly 5 years
> ago and my recollection is that I stood on the bridge and looked down and saw
> a round pier, which obviously was from the former swingspan. I always found
> it intersting that the current single span bridge was never upgraded/replaced
> to/with two tracks since there is double track approaching from the
> south(east by RR standards) and Portage with it's double track is only a
> short distance to the north(west by RR standards). I was once told that
> traffic didn't warrant it, but it would seem to be quite a bottleneck.
>
> The twin bridges are the ones which cross the Sinsinawa River. Those are of
> I.C. vintage. There is a road called "Red Gates Road", which is across from
> McDonalds in Galena. If you take that road and follow it 2 or 3 miles toward
> the river you will eventually come to the Burlington double track. The
> bridges are about 3 quarters of a mile by rail from there toward Dubuque. I
> was going to hike that a number of years ago but a bridge inspector literally
> popped out from under a bridge close by and informed me that if he ever
> caught me on the property again he would have me arrested. That sufficiently
> scared me to not trying that again.
>
> Google "Earth" shows the area in high resolution. You might try looking at
> that program to see the area from up high. It is interesting to follow the
> lines all the way from Savanna to East Dubuque.
>
> There are surely those on this forum who know much more than I do about
> Portage and Galena Jct. Perhaps someone might have more specific knowledge to
> share???
>
> Bob Krueger
>
> >
> > Since you live near Portage, are you up for a couple more questions?
> >
> > 1) The "Twins North of Portage" photo, those are the spans over the
> > Sinsinawa River?
> >
> > 2) I have not yet found contemporary photos of the Galena River bridge. Is
> > it the same today as then in the 1930s, including abutments, swing span
> > apparatus and round pier? If so, I assume the wood operator's cabin is long
> > gone.
>
> >
> > Bob, thank you again,
> >
> > Brian Chapman
> > Evansdale, Iowa
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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