Thanks Philip. That is exactly the way I thought it would have been done;
but wanted to check to make sure.
gary roe
quincy, illinois
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From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Philip
Weibler
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 6:04 PM
To: Thomas, Lawrence (M9)
Cc: Larry Stoll; Gary Roe; CBQlist; RI_models@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Zephyr Rocket at Quincy, IL
Hello Larry -
CB&Q operations at Quincy - which would include the Zephyr Rocket - were
complex until the inauguration of the Kansas City Zephyr and the American
Royal Zephyr in 1953.
I went through high school in Quincy in the early '50s and my parents lived
there until 1970, but being the usual lazy teen-ager I never saw the Zephyr
Rocket. It went through town in the dead of night while I was sleeping or
otherwise occupied.
Some clues as to the track layout can be gleaned from Google maps, but I
suppose I'll have to combine various sources to come up with a difinitive
map or track layout.
Let's see what we can do by way of a written explanation:
At West Quincy, Missouri, Keokuk Junction is essentially the same as it
always was: a wye off the north-south main which allows trains from either
direction to access the Mississippi River bridge. The alignment was changed
slightly when the new bridge was built in 1960 just north of the old swing
span bridge. To the best of my knowledge, the Amtrak train to Quincy uses
this wye to turn the train for its return to Chicago after servicing in West
Quincy. (I've wondered if we could prevail upon Amtrak to let a few ticketed
passengers ride across the river and back to observe this operation.)
Back in the "old days" - as an example - the northbound Zephyr Rocket would
pass West Quincy, go on the south leg of the wye and cross the river. On Bay
Island (or Quinssippi Island) a switch would take the train off the main and
head it south to the Lower Bay Bridge (home of the Pier Restaurant now). The
line curved around to the old depot at Second and Oak so that the train was
again headed north.
Running north to Carthage Junction the train would go on one leg of the wye
there to connect to the Galesburg main, cross the Upper Bay Bridge (all this
is on the Illinois side) and head west across the river. On the Missouri
side the train would use the north leg of wye at Keokuk Junction to head
north again.
A westbound passenger train on the Galesburg main would head south from
Carthage Junction to the old depot, then cross the lower bay bridge and head
north to the connection with the mainline, then continue westward.
This loop-the-loop process for passenger trains took 20-30 minutes. When the
Q decided to butt heads with the Santa Fe for Chicago-KC passenger traffic
with the new Kansas City Zephyr in early 1953 they knew they could not live
with this delay. The KCZ went mainline all the way, stopping at what was
euphemistically called "Quincy(West)". I wonder how many passengers stepped
off the train only to discover to their horror that they were in Missouri,
not Illinois. The 'old' depot at West Quincy was a grey painted
coach-on-the-ground, the temporary replacement was the heavyweight lounge
car Riverview plus a baggage car, both on the hoof.
The new, CB&Q 'modern' style station was built in 1954 and lasted, I
believe, until the Great Flood of 19-aught-93.
To the best of my knowledge there were no back-up moves necessary for the
Zephyr Rocket, but I will defer to those with better memories. There was a
beautiful b&w night photo of the Rock Island trainset at the old Quincy
depot which I will have to track down one of these days. PAW
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