They did the best they could to make it straight. IC built the cutoff with a 63 mile tangent on the north end, but needed 3 tunnels to keep it as straight as possible the rest of the way to the Ohio.
The only tunnel, and the highest point, on the GM&O was also in southern Illinois.
Alto Pass, 749’
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=12&Z=16&X=369&Y=5200&W=1&qs=|alto|illinois|
Here’s a decent list from the St Louis area:
NS Train Symbols St. Louis Region (Kansas City-Decatur-St. Louis)
111 Kansas City, Ks Roanoke, Va St. Louis District
112 Roanoke, Va Kansas City, Ks “
115 Princeton, In Kansas City, Mo Tuesday-Saturday
115 St. Louis, Mo Kansas City, Mo Monday only
122 Kansas City, Mo Oakwood, Mi
123 Decatur, Il Chattanooga, Tn Brooklyn/StLouis
124 Chattanooga, Tn Decatur, Il “
145 Buffalo, Ny Kansas City, Mo Hannibal District
167 Decatur, Il Knoxville, Tn St. Louis District
168 Louisville, Ky Granite City, Il “
17J Detroit, Mi St. Louis, Mo Brookly District
181 Oakwood, Mi. St. Louis, Mo Brooklyn District
186 E.St. Louis (UP) Bellevue, Oh “
18K Mitchell, IL (AS) Elkhart, In “
18Q Madison, Il (TRRA) Detroit, Mi “
223 Kansas City, Mo Atlanta, Ga St. Louis District
224 Atlanta, Ga Kansas City, Mo “
239 Georgetown, Ky Kansas City, Mo (UP) “
240 Argentine, Ks (BNSF) Sandusky, Oh Hannibal District
255 Oakwood, Mi Argentine, Ks (BNSF) Hannibal District
255 Oakwood, Mi Voltz, MO (Saturday only) Hannibal District
256 Mitchell, Il Sanduskey, Oh Brooklyn District
260 Voltz, Mo
first off we dont run trains on the bnsf line ( we have trackage rights but dont run on them ) from centralia to points west. and we have trackage rights on the ic from centralia south but dont run any trains there either. all trains go from st.louis to louisville . I have heard of no plans to lay rail to grayville,il and connect it with the csx. train d76 is a local it dont run to louisville and we dont have a d77.
From http://www.cityofgrayville.com/news.htm
Ethanol Plant to be built at Grayville
A local company plans to construct a fuel ethanol plant on Grayville’s south side as well as restore rail lines through the area to serve the plant.
The project was announced Friday, October 7th, 2005, afternoon by Ed Bailey of Browns, chief executive officer and president of Illini Cropland & Energy, and the company’s vice president, Allen Wilson of Fairfield, at the site of the ethanol plant just east of the Super 8 motel south of Grayville. Joining them was Mike Bryan, CEO of Colorado-based BBI International, a consulting firm to the renewable fuels industry, which conducted the feasibility study for the project and will guide development of the new plant.
The size of the plant is “yet to be determined,” Bryan said, but he estimated it to cost between $75 and $100 million, producing 60 to 75 million gallons of fuel ethanol each year. When completed, the plant will employ “someplace around 50 people,” Bryan said. Construction will take from 12 to 14 months and will create 50 to 100 construction jobs, he said. It will be constructed on an 80-acre site Bailey purchased earlier this year from SJD Farms, based in Evansville, Ind. Total annual revenue for the plant will be $80 to $120 million, depending on
the size of the plant, with 20 percent of that coming from the production of high-quality distiller’s grain for a number of agricultural purposes, Bryan
said.
The plant will use between 20 and 30 million bushels of corn per year. Bailey said he anticipates development of a distribution center at the site
to handle the outflow of the plant’s products.
Bryan said it will take 16 to 21 months before IC&E is ready to break ground at the site. “Basically, it’s a 2 1/2-year project until there’s steam coming out of the stack,” he said. Bailey said there is no timetable for restoration of the rail line, the
first phase of which will run from the
i live near the tracks and my work place is by the tracks here in fairfield, il any where from 10-22 trains in a 24 hour day. i like to stayup all night and wacth the trains every once in while.