Are any of the sections of the Rock Island stll operable, and especially the Chicago-Omaha segment?
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Any sections of Rock Island still operable?
- Discussion relating to The Chicago & North Western, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road), including mergers, acquisitions, and abandonments.
Moderator: Komachi
Of course it is. The Iowa Interstate runs the segment between Chicago and Omaha, and to name a few others (by no means comprehensive, but merely off the top of my head), the UP has the Twin Cities to Kansas City line, as well as the line from New Mexico to Kansas, and there are a number of others I'm sure.
The Chicago to Omaha line is owned by IAIS and they have a group on yahoo with some good photos.Plus Kyle owns the old Kansas line from Denver to(I forget) Farmrail owns portions in Ok along with a few other smaller lines.The Little Rock sub is tore up only spots remain.UP owns most(due to the fact SP,Katy and C&NW picked up so much of the Rock at shut down) IC&E runs portions of the Rock in the Quad Cities area as well.On a different note the AOK in OK has some very neatly painted units Rock Island red and yellow.
Is it in any condition to provide fast service, at about 80 MPH, for both freight and passenger.
KYLE Railroad operates the old Omaha-Denver main from Limon, CO to Mahaska, KS, just outside of Belleville, KS. This line is owned by a port authority, I think. KYKE used to operate down to Smith Center, KS, but may have pulled out of there some years ago. KYLE also operates a few MP an UP lines in that part of the state as well. But as far as I know they are not cleared for 80 mph ops
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wess
How about the Golden State route that Union Pacific Now owns totally? Could it support some varnish today. Like a Golden State Express or the train that never was Golden Rocket?
they,ve been constantly working on it since SP,s Cottonbelt took it over. But its still a long way from that dream.
Well maybe in the old days wink wink.Not today however where trains for some reason cant run as close or as fast.I have seen this line up close and personal its single track and freight only from the looks of things.It would be neat if you could have Amtrak run a Golden State but that would be in the future.Other than that I know IAIS runs at a track speed of 40 mph(not the FRA 49 for non signaled routes) this route however is one of the proposed for the Mid west high speed route( best route for Chi to Omaha due to population at all stations plus the fact a LOT of colleges)and would be a bit faster than the 80 you asked for.As a little aside when the Rock was shutting down the local news covered it and one of the interviews was with a brakeman who rememberd back to a time when he rode a Rocket and the engineer had her flat out at 113 mph across Iowa.Ah the good old days .
I went to St.Gregory's College in Shawnee, Okla. back in '66. I think I remember the RI going through there. Just wondering if that route still exists.
Driving along US 6 last year, I noticed some new signals between Joliet, and let's say LaSalle. How far west is that line signalled now with the new stuff?
I took a vacation about a year ago and followed the Iowa Northern from Iowa City to Manly. Not a lot of action, but there are many stations that are still intact along the line. The IN is based out of Waterloo and they have an engine facility there. I also followed the RI from Lakota, IA to Lake Park which is now UP and then the Iowa Northwestern to the end of the line. I believe most of this line is restricted to 10 or 15mph although from just west of Lakota heading East the UP had one of it's "Super gangs" out there and they were placing welded rail on the line re-habbing it to 40mph status.
Too bad they cannot even operate a Mixed Train over the Golden State, as it's connecting train at Tucamcari, New Mexico would be the Sunset Limited.