These are a few shots taken Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 01, 2005). We are westbound on main track #2 aboard train B CHCWAT5 29N. Lead engine is BNSF 6763. This is BNSF's Mississippi river bridge spanning Niota, IL and Ft Madison, IA. [ 03. February 2005, 08:55: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]
Nice pics Don, Fort Madison is somewhere I hope to get to within the next couple of years, but I doubt i'll see it from that angle! Anyone know wether you can use the road deck as a place to shoot photo's from at the Fort Madison end? Would think you could get some nice shots with that curve...
Great photos! Does anyone know why the guard rails start out being narrowly spaced on the left track, but are widely spaced on the right track? Then the right guard rails become narrowly spaced near the end of the bridge? Hank
Martyn, you might on foot. You can't park on the bridge, it's just too narrow. It may even be too narrow on foot. There is no sidewalk. The bridge is owned by BNSF. If I really wanted the shot I'd go for it, just be aware of the risks. Actually, I never noticed that until you pointed it out. Knowing the railroad, there probably is no reason for it.
Yeah, those guard rails, for a moment I thought that might be one of those "one track wide" bridges that had overlapping double tracks on the bridge. Anyone remember the term for that?
Wasn't it on a gauntlet track bridge in Maryland that a deadhead Conrail loco set creamed a Northeast Corridor train 15-20 years ago? Hank
Hello, I just joined this board a few minutes ago when I noticed this thread about Fort Madison. My Grandfather operated Santa Fe loco's in Fort Madison his entire life (after he got out of the Navy in WWII). I have a few nice pictures of his 4-6-2 Steam Loco taken in '49 and his F7 Catwhisker taken in '51 or '52 in Fort Madison. If anyone wants to see them I can try to post them here. He also operated the Steam Loco that's on display near the river in Fort Madison, according to my Grandmother. I just recently started collecting N scale stuff and I plan to start a layout soon (see my similar post on Nscale.net). I plan to recreate some of the aspects of my Grandfather's career in the Fort Madison area so if anyone has any info they'd like to share...well I'm all ears. Thanks, Brian ps...nice pics of the bridge!
Yo Brian, welcome to Trainboard, and I for one would LOVE to see the photos of your grandfather's steam (especially) and diesel locomotives. What railroad did your grandfather engineer for? Duuh, I see you said Santa Fe. We have a "Fallen Flags" section which has forums for all the old railroads that are no longer with us. You might want to post them there. Wherever, they will be welcome.
Welcome Brian. I know I'd like to see those shots. I'd like to chat more but I must leave for work so I can cross that bridge again. On duty at 23:00...its going to be a LONG night!
Thanks for the great reception everyone. Yes, I'm looking forward to chatting with all of you. Here's a few of those photos.......enjoy! Brian [ 05. February 2005, 21:46: Message edited by: CatWhisker ]
Brian, Is that your grandfather in front of the diesel? That makes the photo priceless. I have a dialup accelerator that drives me nuts by reducing the clarity of the photos. What type steam loco is that? Thanks for posting them.
Brian, welcome to the TrainBoard. That's a nice photo of the F-Series diesel and I assume your Grandfather. Apparently Fitz is receiving the steamer photo, but all I see is a Red-X. Does anyone have an idea what the difference might be?
Hopefully I fixed the red x problem. The steam loco should be showing up now. Yes, that's my Grandpa in the photos! The road number on the steam loco is 3427. He mostly operated freight lines until the late 60's but he occasionally operated passenger lines as well. [ 06. February 2005, 03:06: Message edited by: CatWhisker ]
3427 should be a Pacific, 4-6-2, which would put her in passenger service. Great that he got to run both freight and passenger service.
Brian, It's great to see those old family photos during the golden age of the ATSF (my opinion). Like Fitz said, being a family photo makes them priceless. Got anymore? Perhaps we should start a family railroader photos thread. Heres a few pics of my great grandfather (engineer) and father on Erie railroad consolidation #2100 in 1947 at Spring Valley, NY.
