Well, I haven’t. But I hear the trainwatching is great.
Who would like to tackle any or all of the following questions, and opinions are welcome:
Is the “Kingsley Inn” the name of the bed-and-breakfast with a great view of the Southern Transcon. (old ATSF mainline) bridge across the Mississippi?
What other spots are worth it, whether including a hostelry, restaurant ot no?
Any other general sightseeing tips or other RR lines would be nice to know.
We can just as easily detour thru Galesburg, IL on the way back home. Is it worth it? Is there a diamond or competing Class I situation like at Rochelle? If not, what is there of interest to the common railfan like me? (Be brutally honest; I’ve already toured Knox College and the Carl Sandburg libe.)
Thanks for the effort! [8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][:p][8D]
The bed and breakfast is called the Kingsling Inn and there is a very good resturant downstairs called Alpha’s. both have a very good view of the Transcon as well as the old BN line (K line I believe). The two depots are good spots to watch trains from along with the Amtrak Depot at the Santa Fe yard.
While eating at Alpha’s I see several trains.
Dave
A better place to stay might be the Super 8 on the west side of town. Several years ago I was there overnight and the BNSF crews stay there. Had a couple of very interesting and informative talks with crews.
Update–my buddy and I have reservations for Saturday nite in Burlington, IL; and for Sunday nite in Fort Madison. Both hostels are Super Eights, and we were darn glad to get reservations. Most places are full; and the Kingsley is completely non-smoking.
Will keep you apprised! Been seeing some great shots from intermediate places like Galva, IL.
Up-update: My buddy and I wound up staying at the “Fort Madison Motel” on Avenue L in Ft. Madison, Iowa. A real fifties motel that has been nicely upgraded and modified. The owner clued us in to the fact that we were only a couple of minutes’ drive from “The wooden bridge” that spans the Southern Transcon. at its widest point (basically two main tracks, three for a small yards and another that might have accounted for the small UP presence we saw there). Basically it’s the very western edge of Ft. Madison, which has only about 10,000 residents; and the bridge affords a view of the SF-now-Amtrak depot about a mile upriver/uprail. (The rail museum is almost another mile further yet, downtown–if you want to have a good view of trains shuttling back and forth, eat at “The Parthenon” restaurant; for a GREAT view try Alpha’s in the Kingsley Hotel.)
Despite the fact it was July 4 weekend, we had plenty of action. Something was always going on at the Wooden Bridge site, and down by the depot (after the Westbound Southwest Ltd. passed thru) we waited and chatted with two rail crews. The crew for the second and eastbound mod. freight was going all the way to Corwith Yards in Chicago. I believe that’s an old Santa Fe stomping grounds on Chicago’s southwest side, not CB&Q but I don’t know for sure.
We left town by crossing a combined road/rail bridge across the Mississippi into IL that must belong to BNSF owing to the crossbucks at the toll window–it cost a whole DOLLAR–would have been at least twice that much had state of IL owned it!
About two miles upstream/east on the Illinois side we got good shots of a westbound BNSF intermodal waiting for the signal to cross the bridge. Very classy–all stacks and practically no graffiti.
Ft. Madison is definitely worth a trip for Southern Transcon. fans. On the way back to Chi we detoured into Rochelle, IL, and saw an amazing amount of traffic for the Fourth of July–as usual, UP freights outnumbered BNSF by a rati