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Trains News Wire FLASH: Barge stikes KCS Mississippi River bridge in Missouri
Kansas City and St. Louis are both west of the river.
Thank you Mr. Pumphery. As usual, we, as readers, must consider intent, not content, when consuming articles posted by the ‘News Wire’ staff.
Thanks, I did not realize the KCS crossed the Mississippi River twice between KC and St. Louis.
The line to St Louis from where?
stikes .??
The line crosses the Mississippi once. From the west, east of the bridgehead, it has two branches: one south to the E. St. Louis area, and one northeast to Springfield IL. This line is one of the remnants of the Alton.
Two other comments: 1) The bridge crosses the river between IL and MO; it’s not just in MO. 2) The Mississippi is at flood stage, or just under, so there is not much clearance under the span and the river is flowing quite briskly, making navigation more difficult than usual.
Any word on detours? If they use NS west from the St Louis area, can they get back on KCS at or near Mexico, MO?
TUG BOAT PILOT “HITS AGAIN”
If you go to mapquest.com and type in “louisiana, mo” and hit “search”, zoom in close and convert to a satellite image, you can very plainly see the bridge crossing from Illinois into Missouri. The track is labeled “Illinois Central”.
St. Louis to Kansas City, Mr. Kelly.
The KCS doesn’t really go to St. Louis proper. Their line comes down the Illinois side of the river ends up in East St. Louis, IL. The bridge in question is a swing span, and in news photos appeared to be open when struck.
Whoever wrote the article needs to change the line destination to Kansas City. One look at the KCS route map and you’ll see that KCS services East St. Louis, IL, on a branch down western IL before ever crossing the river.
Furthermore, from personal experience in Louisiana, MO, the line to St. Louis is a BNSF line running from Hannibal and West Quincy, MO. The only wye available would force KCS to shove backward onto the BNSF line in order to grant it access to St. Louis, MO. Otherwise, the line goes straight to Mexico, MO, where it’ll meet with the NS line from STL, cross over the NS and US-63 south of Moberly, MO, on into Higbee and proceed to KC.
Ban the Barges!