Abandoned Track near Bridger Jct, WY., and other questions

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

As you all know, I had gone on a 4,000 plus mile railfan trip with a friend of mine, however, there are several things that I saw on the trip, and after the trip that baffled me.

1.) Bridger, Jct, WY. North Bridger Jct, along the paved highway (I forget what road this is) there seems to be an over grown track that follows the road for some way, however, at the grade crossings, the rail has been torn out, who owned this track, and why was it abandoned?

2.) Herzog HZGX 170/1700, I saw this interesting contraption in Seward, NE, What does this thing do, looks like a bunch of modified intermodal well cars.

3.) Along I-94 in Montana, I noticed that there was a cut of TOFC cars with UPS trailers on them, with no power what-so-ever, whats the deal with this.

4.) Cherryville, MO- I recently got a job driving a Hino Delivery truck, and my route takes me to Springfeild, MO twice a week, on the return trip, I go to Cuba, MO via Salem, about 42 miles southwest of Cuba, between Cherryville and Steelville, I pass over a paved over grade crossing that looks like it has seen some service, the box at the crossing says BNSF Railway, and the power light on the box was on. if the tracks were out of serivce, wouldn’t they shut the power of to all the signals on the route?

Any help would be apreciated

2

That would be part of C&NW’s cowboy line. They gained trackage rights on BN from there west to Casper.

3

[quote user=“bnsfkline”]

As you all know, I had gone on a 4,000 plus mile railfan trip with a friend of mine, however, there are several things that I saw on the trip, and after the trip that baffled me.

1.) Bridger, Jct, WY. North Bridger Jct, along the paved highway (I forget what road this is) there seems to be an over grown track that follows the road for some way, however, at the grade crossings, the rail has been torn out, who owned this track, and why was it abandoned?

Like he said, the CNW Cowboy.

2.) Herzog HZGX 170/1700, I saw this interesting contraption in Seward, NE, What does this thing do, looks like a bunch of modified intermodal well cars.

That’s the Herzog Multi-Purpose Machine as described here:

http://www.herzogcompanies.com/rrservices/mpm.php

3.) Along I-94 in Montana, I noticed that there was a cut of TOFC cars with UPS trailers on them, with no power what-so-ever, whats the deal with this.

I imagine it was set out for some badorder, hotbox, wheel wear, coupler problem, brake problem, etc.

4.) Cherryville, MO- I recently got a job driving a Hino Delivery truck, and my route takes me to Springfeild, MO twice a week, on the return trip, I go to Cuba, MO via Salem, about 42 miles southwest of Cuba, between Cherryville and Steelville, I pass over a paved over grade crossing that looks like it has seen some service, the box at the crossing says BNSF Railway, and the power light on the box was on. if the tracks were out of serivce, wouldn’t they shut the power of to all the signals on the route?

It’s probably wired into the local grid, they may or may not have control over it.

Any h