In 1959 my family took a train trip from Omaha to Chicago to spend Christmas with my mom's parents with a side trip to Milwaukee on the North Shore to spend New Year's with my dad's relatives. We returned the same way. A few years ago I recreated that trip when I rode the Amtrak from Chicago to Oakland. We went through Omaha in the dark but on the return trip we stopped in Omaha just after dawn. For both directions this was pretty much the same time of day we made the trip in 1959/60. I was a little suprised when we pulled out of the Amtrak station built next to the old Burlington Station that instead of continuing due east across the Missouri River into Council Bluffs, Ia we instead turned south along the west bank of the Missouri past Offut Air Force Base and then crossed the river. My memory of our 1959 trip was that we had crossed the Missouri immediately upon leaving the Burlington Station but I decided it must just be a false memory of an event that had happened more the 50 years earlier.
I recently purchased Kalmbach's Great Trains Heartland and the first article is about the CB&Q's Zephyrs. On the last page was a picture of the westbound Nebraska Zephr, which I am pretty sure was the train we would have taken. It was taken at Council Bluffs on January 8, 1963 which would have been almost exactly 3 years after we made that same trip. The fact that it was going through Council Bluffs told me my memory probably was accurate. It would indicate the Burlington passenger trains did cross the Missouri at Council Bluffs and not farther south as the Amtrak did.
I wonder if anyone can confirm that the norm for eastbound CB&Q trains was to cross the Missouri immediately upon leaving Burlington Station in Omaha or did some of them turn south and cross farther down river. If they did cross at Council Bluffs did they immediately turn south along the east bank of the Missouri or did they continue eastward before turning south to take the mainline to Burlington, Ia.
The only route the CB&Q had on the Iowa side was south out of Council Bluffs to Pacific Jct IA where the east-west line was met. At one time, there was a diamond to allow trains from Omaha/Council Bluffs to head south to Kansas City. I believe all passenger trains used the PJ to CB line. As I recall, Amtrak also used this until the late 1980s or early 1990s. Amtrak was about the only trains normally using the line, the diamond at PJ being long gone. Most freight trains by-passed Omaha, those that did used the other CBQ/BN trackage on the Nebraska side that avoids the UP bridge at CB and the fee to use it. The BN took PJ to CB out of service and may have lifted part of it. Eventually it was decided to reopen the line, but Amtrak didn't return to it.
Jeff
Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. That clears up a lot. It's nice to know my 57 year old memory was pretty good. Now if I could just remember where I left my reading glasses.