Nice shots along the Mississippi River. Surprised at the single track and tight curves in places. I would have thought the BNSF was mostly double track and a lot more straight in alignment in Western Wisconsin but it looks like the bluffs and private property and river leaves them little other choice in places.
BNSF is largely a two-main-track racetrack up the east side of the Mississippi, from roughly East Dubuque, IL all the way up to St. Paul, MN, with the exceptions being several very short stretches with single track river crossings. This is the route of the Twin Cities Zephyr back in the day. The trains really roll on the BNSF route up the east side of the Mississippi. The curvature for the most part is broad and sweeping, allowing for fast running.
On the west side there are two distinct track segments for the CP.
North of La Crescent, MN is the former route of the Twin Cities Hiawatha and it still hosts Amtrak Empire Builder Service. This line used to be double track but was single-tracked several decades ago. For the most part it too has broad sweeping curves to allow for some decent freight train speeds.
South of La Cescent, MN to Dubuque, IA is all single track with much more tight curvature and hence lower speeds.
I recall reading in Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy history that 100 years or so ago, the entire main line from Savanna, Il north to the Twin Cities was rebuilt. Many, many miles of curvature were eliminated as a result of the reconstruction, in effect creating a super railroad, which set the stage in future years for the world class high speeds the Zephyrs achieved along the route.
I’ve often thought, wouldn’t it be neat if the northeast connection between BNSF and UP at the Rochelle diamonds were restored (that is seen through the webcam)? What a fast Chicago-St.Paul run that could be created using the combined UP/BNSF route?
BNSF does have a fast route Between Chicago and the Twin Cities. It is single track CTC from Chicago to East Dubuque where a line from Galesburg joins in. Then it is two main track for probably 95% of the rest of the way up to St. Paul, as previously mentioned, and the trains just ROLL on this fast piece of railroad. It is quite the show.
It is single track to just east of Savanna. And that single track line from there to Aurora used to boast some very fast (70 mph +) runs in Steffee’s annual report over extended distances.
kgbw49, am aware of the Burlington’s fast running. The joint UP/BNSF route would be roughly 8 miles shorter Chicago Union to Rochelle. Would use the north end of Union rather than the south. Going west, the City trains when on the Northwestern stopped at Oak Park and then Clinton, IA, and the Zephyrs stopped at Aurora and then Oregon,IL, so it’s difficult to determine what the times were to Rochelle. Much of the Northwestern’s route was/is arrow straight though, with a similar commuter district.
I can’t get this to link, but here are Zephyr avg. speeds from 1940 (!!!)
The Burlington Race Track - Chicago to St. Paul Speeds - 1940
The Burlington diesel-electric powered lightweight Zephyr’s were faster than any steam locomotive powered passenger trains in the 30’s and 40’s. Though the Pennsylvania west lines and the Milwaukee Road, and Northwestern Chicago to St. Paul runs also showed great speeds with great steam power (4-6-2 K4s Pacifics on the Pennsy and 4-4-0 Atlantics on the Milwaukee) the performance of the Zephyrs unveiled the ultimate fate of steam power, which was all gone by 1960.
The chart below shows start to stop speeds of 60 mph or greater, with Zephyr speeds in the 1940’s.