Passenger Trains > UP handling of Amtrak reroute of #21-Texas Eagle

The UP seems to be giving the Texas Eagle reroute priority on the old Chicago and Eastern illinois line from Chicago to St. Louis. The regular line is getting work done on it on near St. Louis July 16-23. It looks like the UP is trying to move the Amtrak train through as fast as they can.

1. The Texas Eagle northbound at the north end of CP Block siding (about 135 miles south of Chicago) today.  A few years ago just north of this spot very strong straight line winds blew a lot of corn down and knocked a UP stack train off the track.

2. I went to the south end of the passing siding because I saw a freight being held for the northbound traffic.  This northbound stack train with 2 KCS units was following the Texas Eagle on the trip north.

3. The southbound UP train got a green signal and headed back on to the mainline and headed southwest.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

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How often does the Eagle run on the C&EI?  These detours recur over the years

Nice trio from the CE&I!

The State of Illinois and the US Government have been working for a number of years (5-6 IIRC) on upgrading the Chicago-St. Louis routh for high speed rail.  The reroutes are usually for a week when UP sends its track gang in to relay track and bring things up to high speed standards on the line through Springfield. The crossings are all upgraded to reduce the possibility of driving around the gates and hitting a train.  They run some spots up to 110 MPH now, but not the whole line. The dates for completion keep getting moved back, so I am not sure of the latest estimate for the whole line.  The obvious problem will still be the lines through Chicago and St. Louis won't be high speed and that slows end to end times down.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

Nice catch.  We were returning from chasing the NKP 765 to LaFayette IN when we saw a southbound was lined up across the TPW at Watseka.  Lo and behold it was 21.  And up at St. Anne I caught the same stacker you got.  I believe the UP symbol was AASCN.  Dan

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