Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Atchison, KS branch status

What is the status of the BNSF Atchison, KS branch? Before I moved away it was out of service due to flood damage. That was about a year ago....

Thanks,
Tom Parisoff
Boylston, MA

There was no damage sustained to the bridge at Atchison over the Missouri River. It is still functioning and in service. However, the track from Winthrop (town on the Missouri side) to Rushville (connection with the St Joe Sub) is all out of service with no plans on restoring that section of track. In fact, the switch at Rushville has been removed.

Now, as I said, the bridge remains in service. It is used as a tail track to turn power in Atchison. As long as the bridge remains standing, it must be able to operate as the Missouri is a navigable water way. The bridge in St Joe still sees rail service but is usually left open to River traffic. The bridge in Atchison from what I see as I go by on the falls City sub is usually left closed to River traffic. There are no plans as yet to remove the bridge at this time but it may get cost prohibitive in the future to maintain the bridge just for turning power.

Nothing left of it north of Topeka.

This photo shows the washout west of the BNSF connection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redfusee/7168818874/

Hiball, Karl

Fortunately, being from St. Joseph, I was able to shoot a lot of the Topeka-St. Joe locals. I knew that once the merger happened, the branch was pretty much toast, maybe even before the merger as I remember the ATSF local running on BN to KC then on to Argentine...can't remember if they went on to Topeka after that. Still, it was nice to shoot the local with anywhere from 2-6 units. I remember F-units on those locals back in the late '60s-early '70s.

Ok, here's another question...with the branch out of service, I assume the UP still runs it's local...KC-St. Joe?

Tom Parisoff
Boylston, MA