Western Railroad Discussion > Rock Island sadness

So there I was camped out, waiting for a routine westbound UP train. And I was going to use this old elevator to compose my shot. I started thinking back to when this track actually had empty hoppers spotted for loading. Probably a few decades! And the stories that small but classic, one-of-a-kind elevator could tell... Sadness once again prevails with the knowledge that this was once a Rock Island double main line called Golden State Route...

1. UP scene looking east in Alma, KS on March 23, 2022.

Thanks for looking now & thinking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/22 05:41 by santafe199.

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Very nice observation Lance.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

unless you do unit trains...UP does not want to talk

I don't know Dan, I see several general freight trains rolling thru Cheyenne.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

in 83 i worked to reconfigure grain tracks for the BN hold 25 car blocks, to combine into 50 car blocks,  i guess we see service at Lodgepole, Julesburg, Big Springs, Kit Carson with smaller cuts, but to get the good  grain rates on the majors you need a bigger blocks i imagine.

Very well done, Lance.  So much of railroading elicits such sadness now.  I sure miss the locals. 

And just where did the crews go from to????

Lee Hower - Sacramento

dan Wrote:
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> in 83 i worked to reconfigure grain tracks for the
> BN hold 25 car blocks, to combine into 50 car
> blocks,  i guess we see service at Lodgepole,
> Julesburg, Big Springs, Kit Carson with smaller
> cuts, but to get the good  grain rates on the
> majors you need a bigger blocks i imagine.

I understand that wioth grain and other such bulk commodities but to say unless loads are in blocks the UP won't accept them isn't what I see every day going by my front window.
In fact the bulk of the non container traffic is general merchandise.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Sad indeed. I have felt the same way riding along the former PRR ROW in northern Indiana, on which I traveled as a passenger back in the early 1960s. It's also sad to see grain elevators once served by a railroad now standing bereft of the former ROW.

Lance, great picture of what we once had. It looks like the spout coming down has part of a flex type funnel to load boxcars, probably missing a few feet, It might of never seen a hopper.  KCRW287

Nice shot, Lance!  Is the track to the right the GSR?

Thanks.

RC Lundgren

yes

Such a terrific,evocative photo. My very first train ride was on the Rock Island Rocket. I was four years old, and the trip was from Monroe, Iowa to Newton, Iowa, about 15 miles. It was the launch of a lifelong love of trains.

            I always check the elevator in the small Oklahoma panhandle town where I do a mail route. They get 4 to 14 cars two to three times a month on the U.P. via the local.  I grew up watching the Santa Fe work five elevators in my home town, usually took 45 minutes. Four unit set of F's or a GP7 and a few F7B units.    Glad I got to watch that as a kid.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/22 16:13 by dcfbalcoS1.

Always sad to see a remeant piece of a Fallen Flag, Nice narrative.

Larry

There were tracks such as this all over the place called team tracks.  Now you can hardly find evidence of them.  When railroads replaced main line rail they ripped out the team tracks because they did not want to run a local.  The x-T&P (MP, now UP) is a prime example of this west of Ft Worth.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 09:46 by tomstp.