Milwaukee, Wisc.: Karl Ratzsch, 320 E. Mason St., downtown, and Mader’s, 1031 Old World 3rd St., downtown, both feature hearty German fare. I’ve been to both, enjoyed them both, and would go to both anytime I’m in town.
Elmhurst, Ill.: 100 South Chop House, 100 South York St. The restaurant is close to the downtown passenger station, about 75-ft. south of the triple-track Overland Route mainline. During the summer they have outdoor seating, with a no-cover-charge “floor show” courtesy of Union Pacific. Get there about 5 o’clock on a weekday and you won’t be disappointed - there’s commuter scoots, manifest freights, auto racks, grain haulers, double-stacks, and coal buckets (both loaded and empty), up the wazoo! Never has an adult libation tasted so good alfresco than at this joint! And the food is pretty good as well.
St. Louis, MO: O’Connell’s Pub, 4652 Shaw Blvd. (where Shaw, Kingshighway, and I-44 meet). The building was built by Adolphus Busch at a time when breweries could own taverns. O’Connell’s is a “local’s” pub that specializes in very good sandwiches - both hot and cold. If there’s a better tasting hamburger in the United States, I’ve yet to find it. If I can have only one meal in Saint Louis, it’s an O’Connell’s hamburger with grilled onions and their special lettuce salad served with sliced salami.
St. Louis, MO: White Castle, 806 S. Broadway, downtown (just north of MacArthur Bridge). The White Castle hamburger chain serves ostens
Great Bob! We do need to eat and what can be better than eating while we watch trains? We will definitely check out some of these suggestions [dinner]
And what about sleeping? Any suggestions for motels with a nice view of some railroad activity along the route I have proposed? Especially in the Omaha/Lincoln and Kansas City areas. [zzz]
They haven’t hooked me yet–I’ve never been able to buy one!
(Best I could do is rent some for a couple of hours.)
Morten, I can go along with many of Bob’s (other) recommendations. My wife and I sat with each other at Ginny’s Cafe (it wasn’t crowded enough to see whether those special tables were being put to good use).
One caveat, though: I’ve never seen so many extreme reviews of a place as I have of the 100 South Chop House in Elmhurst. Some people really love it, and others have a really bad experience with the same foods. I’ve never dined there–back when it was The Paradise they offered great food at good prices, and better window views from the interior.
We have dinner in Elmhurst more often at Two Brothers from Italy–about a block and a half west of York on Park. It has outdoor tables available in the summer as well, and the food (pizza and more traditional Italian dishes, as well as some other fare) is consistently good. You get the same trains, but there may be some plantings obscuring a direct view of them in spots.
We never had much luck with lodging very close to the tracks. There are some good motels in DeKalb, Illinois (between Elmhurst and Rochelle) that fit the bill. We used to go to the Baymont there, but it has changed hands since our last visit. The freights are frequent, and sometimes fast–timetable speed is 70 m.p.h., achieved only by intermodals, auto racks, and the perishable trains–sometimes.
In North Platte, we stayed at one of the less-expensive chains. It was on Jeffers Street north of the tracks (west side of the road), only a couple of blocks from the bridge over the tracks. If you had the time, it would be a good, short walk to where plenty of action could be seen.
If you have time and want to explore the Mississippi river crossings, drive north from St Louis on the Missouri side of the river. I believe Hwy 79 is the road you want to take. Also the BNSF has a line that roughly follows the river. In Louisiana MO, you’ll find the KCS’s swing bridge accross the river. The KCS also crosses the BNSF line there right next to the highway. Further north in Hannibal MO, the NS crosses the river on a lift bridge. The NS line crosses the river, then accross the BNSF line and dives into a tunnel all in the span of about 100ft. And there’s a public road that leads right to it. The bridge and BNSF/NS interlocker are guarded by a tower right on the rivers edge. North of Hannibal the BNSF crosses the river on a high bridge. The BNSF has a decent sized yard on the Missouri side and the Burlington Junction Railway handles all the switching on the Illinois side. And there’s a lock and dam you can park at and watch a barge “lock through”. At Keokuk IA the Keokuk Junction Railway crosses the river on a double-decker swing bridge. The top deck was for automobiles but is now closed. You can walk up the west approach of the highway deck to a lookout on the river. Just north of the bridge is a hydro-electric dam also equipped with locks. There’s a small yard on the Missouri side and the BNSF line from St Louis is located there. In Ft Madison IA, the BNSF transcon crosses the river on a double-decker swing bridge too. The top deck is open to motorist and you have to pay a small toll at the toll booth/contol house located on the bridge. The last time I was there you only paid going east and the toll booth operator was a BNSF employee.
Thats the furthest north I’ve been on the river. I think the BNSF line that goes through Rochelle crosses the river at little farther north in Savanna IL. So maybe you could make it that far north then turn and head east t
Morten, about the ‘best view’ of a train crossing the Mississippi River would be at Sabula, IA–just across the river from Savanna, IL. The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern (now it’s owned by the Canadian Pacific and it is the old Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad). Although the train count won’t be the highest there, the road trains and a local or two can usually be found working around town there during the day. The trains head over to the Iowa side to either work the small yard at Samoa, IA or continue their runs south toward the Quad Cities, or north to Dubuque, IA and beyond. Here’s a view of train #273 from last October coming across and going to make the left turn to head south.
And the railroad here uses nothing but SD40-2s besides! The trackage on the Iowa side going both ways runs right along the Mississippi River too. And if you manage to get a train going north (like a #271 or an odd-numbered 600-series ethanol empty), he’ll do the street-running through Bellevue, IA about 20 miles north of here as he heads up to Dubuque.
The UP crossing of the Mississippi at Clinton, IA is OK, but you’ll be shooting through the bridge trusses unless you go for the tele-mash view of a westbound coming off the span. You might want to also think about the BNSF bridge down at Fort Madison, IA. That has the double track ex-Santa Fe main on the bottom and the highway bridge up on the second level. There is a marina on the west end of the bridge and you can stand down there along the banks of the Mississippi River and shoot away. The BNSF bridge at Burlington, IA is ok, but there is a water-treatment plant near the west end of the bridge, and those sorts of facilities are sort of touchy about folks with cameras…not that I’ve heard of any problems, but there isn’t much ‘free space’ at Burlington, and you
Hannibal and Ft. Madison really does look promising. I’m using bing maps to check out the locations and they usually show most of the rail lines, but in Louisiana, MO the KCS line stops after crossing the river and seems to join the BNSF line. When I switch to aerial view I can see that it doesn’t join, but cross the BNSF and continues west. Strange that this line has been omitted on the map.
Have you any idea of many trains run on the KCS and BNSF lines in daylight here?
The BNSF mainline in Ft. Madison, IA will be busy–probably the highest number of trains would be seen here. Say somewhere above 40 trains a 24-hour period. The KCS at Louisana, MO is not that busy. They probably only run 6 trains over a 24-hour period. They run Kansas City to East St. Louis this way, going east to Roodhouse, IL and down to EStL. They also run an intermodal train that connects with CSX in the East St. Louis area. The KCS tracks continue west after crossing the BNSF diamond between HWY 79 and the west end of their river bridge. Nice shot, but your wait there for a KCS train may be a long one.
Hannibal is nice, but the tunnel portal, the BNSF diamond and the edge of the Mississippi River bridge are all wedged into a narrow ledge–sort of hard to get a good overall shot of that spot. If you go there, check out the “Lovers Leap” overlook just south of Hannibal. Neat angle for southbound BNSF trains as they clear town. You can see the NS trains from here too, but they are sort of far away. As for activity, the BNSF is mainly coal trains–say maybe 8-12 trains a day total. The NS is probably about the same for traffic, but their business on the line is dominated by autoparts traffic, so if the production lines are down, there might not be much moving on the NS during the holiday period. I’m sure you still have some trains, but just letting you know. So I’d think in daylight for Hannibal, you might have 8-10 trains on the two lines on a good day.
When I look at aerial photos of Hannibal I can see that there seems to be some kind of parking and a marina next to downtown and the parking is actually between the NS and BNSF line. It looks like a nice spot to wait for trains, but maybe this is private property? Do you know anything about that?`
We probably won’t been in the St. Louis area until maybe Friday 9th or so. I guess the traffic is back to normal by then, but other factors like “the crisis” will probably cause a slow summer anyway?
From what I can see there seems to be some kind of street running there close to the Amtrak station. But maybe this isn’t really street running? Is it just Amtrak that uses this line?
The area in downtown Hannibal along the riverfront is parking for the boat landing. You should have no problem parking there although there is a bit of a levee there to prevent the Mississippi River from flooding the town.
As for Springfield, IL the area right south of the Amtrak station does do a bit of street running. However there is more to the town than just the street running. There is still a manned interlocking tower where the UP/Amtrak line crosses the old Chicago & Illinois Midland (now the Illinois & Midland) on the north side of town. The tower is called Ridgley, but there may no longer be an operator there in July of 2010–the UP is working on putting in a new switch or two, and it’s likely the operator will be gone in the near future.
A few photos from a ride a few members of the North Western Illinois Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society took on Amtrak from Chicago to Springfield and back last September can be found here:
You may have to go back to ‘page 10’ to see the shot of Ridgely with the Union Pacific train going past. As for freight traffic in Springfield–the train pictured going past Ridgely is the Bloomington, IL to the Alton & Southern yard manifest that runs every-other day. He goes down on something like Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and comes back north on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There are grain extras, but the freight traffic on the UP is sparse through Springfield.
There are also some views of another UP train, a coal train going past another tower. That UP train was running on the old C&IM, crossing the Norfolk Southern at Shops Tower. That tower stands at the north end of the old C&IM yard. It is no longer manned. This coal train was received from the UP by the I&M and is
Are you saying the operator works in the building on the bridge? What kind of safety concerns are there for changing operators? Does the operator have to give formal protection for the relief operator to walk to the building?
I hear Ridgely Tower is going to close. What a great tower.
When in St. Louis you should go to “the Hill” section for Italian-American fare. No trains, but great food in a neighborhood setting.
If you are in Indiana, seek out the “Monon Connection” museum/restaurant in Monon. Carl, his wife (sorry, forgot her name), and I toured and dined there a couple of years ago. The food is middle American small town (good breakfast, burgers, pork tenderloin,etc). The museum is a stunning private collection. Stunning.
Ed, yeah there is an operator out there in that shack on the Sabula bridge. He controls the bridge opening and closing of course. I think he still may control a short stretch of CTC where the wye is just to the west. That’s where this line joins the north-south route that runs from Dubuque to Clinton, IA.
I don’t think they provide any formal protection when they change operators. There are only 12-15 movements on the line and the operators at the Sabula bridge keep everything flowing.