I just don’t understand why the Burlington abandoned the line through Nebraska City. It would have been easer to go from Nebraska city all the way to Lincoln instead. I know there was a BN Bridge once crossed the Missouri river. When was this Bridge and this line Abandoned? When did the Bridge get removed? Is there a web site with Photos of this Bridge? It just goes beyond me to reason why the BNSF runs their Trains all the way to Pacific jct all the way to Lincoln when the Nebraska City Branch could have been used as a Westbound Main. It would’ve been much shorter. Im lost? Any thoughts?
Thanks,Allan.
The line east from Nebraska City 5 miles to Payne, Iowa was abandoned by BN (not CB&Q) during 1982 and the bridge was blown up on Dec 15, 1984.
During the 1980s BN had to upgrade thousands of miles of line and they were not charging their coal customers enough to pay for these improvements. The Pacific Jct. bridge was replaced about that time, it needed to be upgraded as part of the mainline to Chicago. I would guess the line south from Lincoln through Falls City to Kansas City needed to be upgraded for coal trains at that time. They probably could not afford a third bridge across the Missouri, and it probably needed replacing during the 1980s.