The ex Mopac line from St. Louis to Poplar Bluff, Missouri shows 3 trains daily. The majority of UP’s freight from St. Louis moves down the Illinois side and crosses at Thebes.
I realize most of the rail yards are on the Illinois side, as is the interchange with CSX others. Is the the only reason for the Missouri line being so void of freight traffic. Is it a more challenging line with grades and curves also?
Will that line ever be used as a directional line, as the Little Rock/Pine Bluff lines are?
The Missouri side is much more rolling, and mostly single track. Also it leaves you on the wrong side of the Mississippi River. Most UP traffic for Chicago does not go via St. Louis, but cuts off the River Line at Gorham and heads for Chicago. The TRRA controls the bridges at St. Louis and getting across them can take hours, This is why most traffic off the Golden State Route doesn’t go this way either. The TRRA problem is the biggest reason that St. Louis isn’t a more important gateway between east and west.
I will admit that I know little about the St. Louis area, and nothing at all about the RR bridges across the Mississippi, but (if this isn’t the case already) why not have two bridges and use directional routing over them? If RR traffic over the Miss. is such a problem, why aren’t more bridges being built?
Building an all-new bridge over the Mississippi River (or Ohio River, for that matter) would be an expensive proposition, to say the least. Clearances for navigation would have to be provided and the sheer size of any bridge south of St. Louis would drive the cost up.
Use Google Earth and try to find the Arch. Just down river is the I-70 Bridge. Next to that are two bridges that I think are pure rail. Anyone wanting to go from the Illinois side to any point to south and west of St. Louis by rail will have to navigate a fearsome set of tracks. I have been thru there at all hours by truck and every time is a freight train painfully creeping for the river.
They did build a few new bridges but not for rail.
Im convinced that you can bridge and diamond the whole place and still have the problems in the St. Louis area.
Down here north of Little Rock we go several trains a day, at night between 10 PM and 4 AM the main vibrates with locomotives running hard both directions.
I have been to St. Louis only a few times and twice by AMTRAK. SV is right. The freight trains proceed at a snail’s pace. AMTRAK scoots right along at maybe 10mph. BUt one time we had to follow a freight across. I enjoyed the ride. Merchants and MacArthur bridges are rail only now. The EADS bridge is for autos and light rail. A new highway bridge has been funded, not fully designed.
Yes, only two of the St louis area bridges still see freight.
Alton, IL - West Alton, MO
Bridge #46 is another Chicago, Burlington and Quincy bridge that crossed at Alton, Illinois just north of St. Louis. This swing span drawbridge was used by Burlington Northern until 1988, and was the last moveable bridge the river encountered as it
flows southward. The bridge was just north of the US 67 bridge pictured. Terraserver imageGoogle imagePhotoPhotosMidwestplaces article
44 b/w photos can be viewed on the following website by searching
“mississippi bridge” and going to #20 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/
Traffic- abandoned
Bridge type- swing span
St. Louis, MO - Venice, IL - Merchants
Bridge #47 is called Merchants bridge. It opened in 1890, after Eads bridge, and
has been operated by Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis since.
Hmm, it seems they took two seperate images and spliced them together. There is nothing really of interest at the I-70 bridge execpt a gambling riverboat on one side and I think Granite City on the other some distance up river. Busch Brewing is right to the south of there.
Some of the bridges on the I-70 in Missouri may no longer exist because on one of my final revenue hauls I had to detour around some bridges being demo’ed by brute force wrecking ball over several nights.
Regarding the Illinois side approaches to the I-70 Bridge I recall to the right (North) was alot of trackage as if a yard used to be there along with what I think was Stockyards and etcetra. With the value of scrap today you think all of that rusting rail will be worth something if they get to it before it vanishes into the mud.
No, I took it down pending further work on the computer. I am trying to reach a final design that is able to be transferred onto decal someday… that is one project that will not be completed any time soon. Paint is nice but does not cut it.
I have been working on the custom artwork little by little for a long time and eventually will have a avatar posted pernamently on my forum profile.
I was stationed at Scott AFB, and spent a lot of time railfanning in the St Louis area, and was always captivated by the bridges. As a quick note on that, the east approach to the McKinley has been removed (double track wooden trestle). It was a very long trestle, and I found that especially fascinating. I was fortunate enough to get some great shots of it in 2000-2001. It was literally falling apart where it stood. There were a few sections where the wood had completely fallen away and just the rail was dangling in the air.