Western Railroad Discussion > Trains and Barges

Saturday evening, Southwestern Wisconsin and Northeast Iowa received their first appreciable snowfall of the season.  It has been unseasonable cold here and yesterday it was only 12 degrees at 0600.  Weatherbug said it was going to be sunny and blue skies all day so I headed out to get some snow shots. About mid afternoon, I found a nice location with good light for an eastbound on the BNSF, just south of Lynxville, Wisconsin.  This is just north of Lock and Dam #9.  There was a southbound Towboat with a 12 barge tow approaching the locks and a light boat heading out to help line him up.  You can see northwards all the way to Ferryville, WI,  along the river bank and I spotted an Eastbound pig/stacks heading my way.  

The lock and dam on the Wisconsin side of the river all have public access and viewing areas along with clean restrooms.  If you are ever in the area, it is really interesting to watch the process of locking the tow/towboats.  Many are large enough that they need to be split and locked in two sections. Plus, it's a nice spot to watch trains. (:^)

All three images 11/18/18

Dave 

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Beautiful photos! As one who teaches about inland navigation in North America (among other things) I really enjoyed your inclusion of the barge tow.

Beat wishes,

ShastaDaylight

GBW309 Wrote:

> The lock and dam on the Wisconsin side of the
> river all have public access and viewing areas
> along with clean restrooms.  If you are ever in
> the area, it is really interesting to watch the
> process of locking the tow/towboats.  Many are
> large enough that they need to be split and locked
> in two sections. Plus, it's a nice spot to watch
> trains.
>
> Dave 

Thanks for the excellent post. I agree with the facination of watching the locking process. We got to do that some years ago in Jim's country at Lock/Dam no. 7 with one of the "Amercian" cruise riverboats going through and the CP trains behind us. The boat had to lower her stacks to clear the I-90 bridge.

BB