Western Railroad Discussion > Ft. Madison 7/3

My brothers and I did a little road trip to Ft. Madison IA today. Went to the Fort Diner for lunch then spent about an hour trackside and nabbed a few trains.

1 WB Auto Train just after the bridge closed

2 Same train past the old Ft Madison depot now North Lee County Museum.

 

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3. A Southbound Coalie on the K Line 
4. Caught off guard with this EB UP monster stacker. 8139 or 8159 was the leader 
5. Same UP Train the head end going into Illnois 

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i saw a coal train on that "k" line yesterday.  where does that line come from and do only coal trains use it?

thanks for any info..............

66

6. This was the last train, a VBLUKCK they were calling it on the radio. With some heavy horses up front(cue the Jethro Tull).

Thanks fo looking everyone.

MILW86A 

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goneon66 Wrote:
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> i saw a coal train on that "k" line yesterday. 
> where does that line come from and do only coal
> trains use it?
>
> thanks for any info..............
>
> 66

Burlington down to St Louis.

Not all coal but that is a lot of the traffic. I’ve seen a coupe manifests and grain. I was doing work with the cam on in the background last week. I saw the bridge start to open for a barge. About a minute later I heard a train blowing and looked up to see a NB manifest on the K line. My mind told me it was on the transcon because it wasn’t coal and had a second of “Oh Sh&t bridge is open” before I caught up.

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ah, from the ex-cb&q line in burlington.  i wondered where that line went to.

thanks for the info...........

66

Good stuff Dave.   Big consist on the UP train.  I used to not like seeing the UPs on the Santa Fe, but now consider them a welcome break from the pumpkin parade.

Andy

I like that whiteface autorack first out to match up with the Whiteface NS power.


~ Mr. MRL

How much traffic does the Transcon see in 24 hours? What’s the rough breakdown between BNSF and UP?Is any time predominantly busier than normal?

Posted from iPhone

Believe the "K" Line is  reference to passing thru that  thriving metropolis of Keokuk, Iowa.

PWM

Good thing you didn’t go a day earlier. It was raining cats and dogs yesterday in Fort Madison yesterday afternoon. I left after setting for a long time and the radar showed it was going to rain for over another hour.

Posted from iPhone

Always watch for the WQMDMO/DMOWQM manifest, it carries power to and from RELCO in Albia, also NS traffic from Des Moines still goes down the K-Line to St.Louis.

Posted from iPhone