NS Routing in East St. Louis

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Could someone shed some light on the NS routing through E. St. Louis? If you follow the line from Belleville, IL it will head pretty much due West, crossing two set of double tracks. Only one of these has a connection that would allow a West bound to go North. After the 2nd set of diamonds (which has the NorthEast connection, I do not know the owner of this linebut do not think it is NS) the line makes a hard turn to the North. It then runs along side the previously mentioned double tracks up to around Brooklyn, IL and never connects with them. It then heads NorthEast to Granite City. It does not connect to the bridge crossing the Mississippi even though they have a yard along Hall St. in North St. Louis.

After that long introduction, my question is how does NS route their trains to the Hall St. yard? Do they have trackage rights on a different railline to cross the river? I have lived about 40 miles East of all this mess and don’t dare go to East St. Louis to watch trains, just try to follow the routes from Google Earth. Any help or insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2

Have you tried the internet? Especially the site below?

http://www.aeromoe.com/NS.html

SPV (Steam Powered Video) maps show NS trackage to Brooklyn Yard (Ex Wabash) right across from the KCS Venice Yard(ex C&A).

Don’t think they have their own bridge across the river to former Wabash tracks.

3

The main bridge in the vicinity of Hall Street is the Merchants Bridge. It also connects to the vicinity of Brooklyn. Wabash once had a yard on the Illinois side in that area. I have seen Wabash trains cross the Mississippi on the Merchants Bridge but I lost interest after the N&W took over.

The yard is called Luther yard and the bridge was owned by the Terminal R.R. Association, but I’m not sure if they still do. Heimburger’s book called " Wabash," and H. Roger Grant’s book “Follow the Flag,” have a lot of detail.

4

Thanks a bunch! I tried to search the internet but I had very limited success. That website is AWESOME for me!

Thanks guys for the info and leads!!!