Bill:
I have been doing some research on Quincy for signals, and I believe I can answer most of your question. The connection you refer to was constructed in 1947. It was a junction between the Galesburg line, the Carthage line, and Track #66 (the wye track between the Carthage line and the 'B' Route of the Quincy Loop). At that time, Carthage Jct. was added to the employee timetables to designate the location. I have not found a reference to Carthage Jct. prior to that time.
Prior to 1947, the only route from West Quincy to Galesburg involved leaving the mainline at Bridge Jct (just east of the 1868 Mississippi River bridge), and using the 'A' Route of the Quincy Loop across Lower Bay Bridge 262.58, past the 1898 Quincy depot at 2nd and Oak, and entering the Galesburg main at MP 261.95 at the north end of the 'A' Route. On the long tangent north of Quincy, the Galesburg and Carthage lines were some distance apart and at different elevations, except at the extreme south end of the Carthage line (Carthage MP 70.56 = Galesburg MP 261.79) where the Galesburg line had dropped to roughly the same elevation. At the north end of the Galesburg tangent there was a substantial arch culvert at MP 261.33, which was in line with a 10' x 10' concrete box at MP 70.09 on the Carthage line. At this location the two lines were 90' apart and over 30' different in elevation. In the fall of 1946, plans were drawn up to fill the gap between the two drainage structures so that the Galesburg line could be relocated for the new connection. Curve 261 was realigned from (5 degrees 15 minutes I think) to 5 degrees 10 minutes and shifted west of the original alignment so it could drop in elevation. At culvert 261.33, for example, the relocated line shifted 27' west and dropped 10'.
At the actual connection, the shift in the Galesburg line was closer to 35' west of the original line. The Carthage line was shifted east from about MP 70.1 to a new switch at MP 70.30, which equated to Galesburg MP 261.55. The Carthage line was retired south of that point between MP 70.30 and 70.56. Another new switch was placed in the Galesburg main at MP 261.56, which was connected into Track #66, which was regraded and shifted (to 6 degrees 5 minutes), relaid with 112#, and converted to mainline. The original Galesburg line was shifted back to its original alignment between the southerly switch and the Cedar Street bridge at MP 261.79.
At the bottom of the grade of the new track, The 'B' Line connected to the new mainline, just as it did with old Track 66, near the east abutment of the Upper Bay Bridge 140.22. This switch was located at new MP 261.80. At the east abutment, there is a MP equation which is Galesburg MP 261.81 = Hannibal (loop) MP 140.18. West of here, the 'B' Line was the mainline across the river to West Quincy, and it used Hannibal Division mileposts. To my knowledge, Galesburg mileposts were not used west of the river until 1960, when they were used on that line almost to West Quincy.
The Quincy trackage is quite fascinating, and much more could be said about it, but I will stop here.
Glen Haug
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: bsrls@aol.com
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:09:13 +0000
Subject: [CBQ] Tracks at Quincy
List,
I have a question(s) about the track layout at Quincy, Illinois. Due to conditions of topography and the need to cross the Mississippi River the track arrangement was unusual. I made a map showing the basic track layout based on a CB&Q Valuation Section Map from 1919. This map is the only document that I have showing this area prior to the 1960's. A copy is posted to the files section in a Folder titled "Quincy Tracks".
In 1953 the loop track was removed from service thus eliminating one route for crossing the Mississippi River. In 1960 a new Mississippi River Bridge was completed and it provided a direct connection with the mainline from Galesburg.
It has been suggested that there was a connecting track between the main line from Galesburg to the Carthage Subdivision track just north of Carthage Junction at some time prior to 1960. This connection is shown as a dashed line on my map and is not shown on the 1919 CB&Q map.
Such a connection would make sense allowing trains to cross the river without going through the Quincy Terminal area except that it would have had to run from the top of the bluff to the bottoms in a relatively short distance likely requiring a very steep grade.
So, the questions are did such a connection ever exist? If so, when? If not, would the resulting steepness been a reason to precluded its use.
Thanks in advance for any help with these questions.
Best,
Bill Saenger
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