All ,
The SP traffic from KC to Chicago was under the authority of the SPCSL,
which the SP guys told me stood for Southern Pacific Chicago Short Line. When
they first started in the 1980’s it was mainly a double stack train each way
with run through SP power. later when the SPCSL took over the old CM&W, they
started full trackage rights. I almost hired out then but had a good job at the
time. At first the crews were based out of Bloomington IL and vanned to Camp
Point or Augusta to change crews.They had job fairs in Springfield Il to
hire people to be based out of West Quincy. Was told by a SP engineer that at
the height of the operation, SPCSL had 44 turns based in West Quincy to covor
both directions. I have slides and video of some wild consists on these trains
as they passed Palmyra on the Brookfield main. Everything from SP SW1500’s and
SD7’s to SD45T-2’s/SD70M’s and AC4400CW’s. Plus whatever they were leasing at
the time. I remember seeing up to eight trains each way per day which was twice
to three times what the BN was running west of West Quincy. Coal , ore,
double stacks, junk trains, solid trains of coil steel, auto racks, anything the
SP could solicit traffic wise. Was also told that this operation over the old Q
was the most profitable operation for the SP at the time of their merger with
UP. All this on the old Q mainline thru Quincy came to a screeching halt
when the BN/AT&SF merger happened and they were granted trackage rights on
the Transcon thru Ft. Madison. Last SPCSL train I’ve seen was very shortly after
the SP/UP merger, there was a service interuption on the transcon and they
routed a eastbound coal train with UP power thru Quincy, this was around
1996/1997. Haven’t seen anything since then. I occasionally still see UP
trackage rights trains at Ft. Madison when I work the K-line.
This was a 999 year lease and last I heard, it was still valid if they
wanted to run over the Brookfield Sub.
Regards
John Jacobs