This evening I picked up a McDonald’s and made it to Eola just in time to see westbound Amtrak train 383 (the Illinois Zephyr) blast through on its way to Quincy, IL. My question is with the flooding on the “Old Miss” and surrounding areas, where has this train been spending the night…I don’t think it will be allowed to cross the Mississippi River and spend the night in West Quincy as usually it the case…but perhaps I am wrong.
From everything I’ve seen on the news, I think you’re right about West Quincy not being a stopping place. That side of the river is definitely in the flood plain of the Big Muddy, while the Quincy side is up enough to be safe. I suspect they will park the train somewhere on the Illinois side. I also saw a story (maybe on the site’s newswire) that the ACOE had closed the gates below Hannibal which effectively shut down the BNSF line between Quincy and St. Louis. (I don’t remember the Lock and Dam number just below Hannibal, but I think it’s either 20 or 22.)
Edit: As of 9:52 CDT, Amtrak is showing 383 still at Galesburg, having arrived at 8:42. No ETA for Macomb or Quincy other than the scheduled times. It sounds like they may have annulled the remainder of 383’s trip this evening.
Maybe they will originate/terminate the trains in Galesburg instead of Quincy. Hopefully they don’t cancel those trains also, but with how bad the flooding has been it is certainly possible.