Western Railroad Discussion > ? on CB&Q wye/junction at Ashland NE

Just looked at the layout of the junction
at Ashland, where the CB&Q main from
Pacific Jct via Plattsmouth rejoins
the line from Omaha. There's a wye,
with SW to Lincoln, N to Sioux City
or whatever it is, and ENE to the
Plattsmouth bridge-- and the line
to Omaha splits from the middle of
the south leg of the wye and heads
NE across the NE leg of the wye.
In other words, no direct route
for a train from Omaha to turn north.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=41.04254~-96.35323&lvl=16&sty=h

Was it always like that?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/10 17:06 by timz2.

I doubt there were many Omaha to Sioux City trains and they might have just routed them thru Oreapolis instead of the straight shot west, I don't know for sure.

Pretty much, about the only thing that's been abandoned was the direct line from Ashland to
Wahoo which was pretty much redundant. The St. Joe/KC trains went north directly from
Pacific Jct to Council Bluffs and the Eastbounds from Lincoln turn north at Oreopolis which
is the interesting junction north of Plattsmouth.

Also, you could easily go from Omaha directly to Ashland, service the depot, back east to clear the wye and then head north.

BNSF6400 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Also, you could easily go from Omaha directly to
> Ashland, service the depot, back east to clear the
> wye and then head north.

I saw this back about 2002 or so. When there are heavy EB movements out of Lincoln east toward Creston, the DS likes to route WB's over the Omaha sub. Also, it is common for westbounds from KC to be routed up the Napier Sub to P Jct, then west on the Creston sub into Lincoln. So these Napier Sub trains can also be routed up the Omaha sub. Once their was a MKCKSIO (KC to Sioux City manifest) that was a Napier Sub reroute that also got caught in an Omaha sub reroute. So when it got to Ashland off the Omaha sub, it had to pull all the way down past the depot, then back up on the Louisville line, then head forward onto the wye so it could then go north on the Sioux City sub. I'm sure it has happenned more than once, but that was the only time I saw it.

Also, the CB&Q had a branch back in the 1920s and 1930s that split off from the Omaha line somewhere between Chalco and Gretna that went straight west over to the Sioux City line. But it was abandoned by 1935.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/10 19:22 by cdub.