Glen,
Q's decisions concerning the C&I obviously worked. During the '40s
and '50s, some of the fastest scheduled passenger operations in the
country, occurred on that line. As I recall, some of those start to
stop scheduled speeds were in the range of 84 - 86 MPH. That required
running at more than 100 MPH. It seems like Oregon to Rochelle was
the really fast area.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
On Nov 2, 2010, at 4:36 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Re: Flagg Center to Savanna Mainline, and other similar segments
> Posted by: "GLEN HAUG" glenehaug@msn.com zephyr98072
> Mon Nov 1, 2010 9:42 pm (PDT)
>
>
>
>
> Rich:
>
> I believe all of the answers to your post are correct. I have been
> doing some research on signal history, and while the segment from
> Oregon to Savanna was not specifically mentioned in early
> correspondence, I found information written about several segments
> of the mainline where the Q's management was not satisfied with the
> geometry of their original main track, and they either postponed
> adding a second track until they had the money to relocate the
> original main, or they added signals at a very early date to
> provide a satisfactory operation. For a variety of reasons, they
> never got around to improving the original track, adding the second
> track, or postponed these improvements for many years.
>
> A prime example was the grade between Whitebreast (west of
> Indianola Jct.) and Troy (later replaced by Shannon) in central
> Iowa. When the Q extended the double track west from Chariton, in
> 1900, they skipped this 3 mile segment because they were so dis-
> satisfied with the eastbound grade of the original track up from
> Whitebreast Creek. The EB ruling grade had to approach 1.5%. The Q
> did not have, or chose not to spend, the money to relocate the
> original main, and made the decision to install 'lock and block'
> signals on the single main instead. They were ultimately able to
> get by for a long time, because the single main was still in
> existence in 1933 when CTC was installed between Chariton and
> Shannon, and it was 1936 before the second (EB) main was
> constructed. The original main was never relocated, and exists
> today as the Westbound track.
>
> I suspect the segment from Oregon to Savanna was another one of
> those segments that management wrangled with, wondering if the
> money necessary to fix the undulating profile of the track was
> worth it. In 1946, when CTC was installed between Flag Center and
> Savanna Tower, information provided indicated that traffic
> consisted of 12 passenger trains and from 9 to 12 freight trains
> daily. Also important was the fact that all but a couple locals
> were in fast through service. The proposed siding capacity was to
> be 140 cars, which exceeded by quite a bit the average freight
> train consist of 80 cars. This, coupled with the close siding
> spacing of about 6 miles average, was projected to enable most
> meets to occur without stopping. Whether the actual operation was
> this smooth or not, the expenditure for CTC probably put to rest
> any further discussion that might have taken place about the need
> to add a second track.
>
> Glen Haug
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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