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Who had the best Twin Cities - KC route?

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[quote user="CGW"] [quote user="sandiego"]Overall the RI was the best. Track conditions may not have been as good as CBQ but the RI still had 112/115# rail on the entire route and CTC on a good portion with ABS on the rest. Definitely the best alignment, fewest curves, moderate grades, shortest distance. South of Trenton, Mo. the line was new construction dating from 1940's. RI kept the track in OK shape, CNW was able to move trains from CGW line to RI line right after they started operating the line after the Rock folded up. Also, CNW ran a lot of "detour" trains over the RI around 1973 when they were moving all the Russian grain and they made much better time on the RI. The CNW would have kept running on the RI but the ICC raised a ruckus and forced them to stop. That CGW was a joke south of Des Moines, curves and grades galore, 90# rail, too few and too short sidings, the tangled-up mess at St. Joe, the antique Mo. River bridge at Leavenworth with the ultra sharp 12 deg. curve on the west end, trackage rights on the MP from Leavenworth to KC, and a small, cramped yard in KC. The Rock seemed to get most of their traffic from the Soo, at least in the 1970's (Remember the Soo's "Rocky-Soo transfer from Shoreham to Inver Grove)? Kurt Hayek[/quote]Even though I am a die hard fan of the Gee Wiz, I have to agree that the CGW did not have a good route to KC.  Back in the 50's the CGW looked into purchasing the Minneapolis-St Louis line primarly for the segment between Mason City and Marshalltown which would provide a much shorter route from the TC to KC by bypassing Oelwein and Waterloo.  The only problem I would see is there would need to be either a connection built at Marshalltown or a power run around procedure would need to be done because there was no wye connection.According to my sources, after the CNW purchased the RI Spine Line, the CNW ran both the RI and the CGW KC lines like a double track line for a short time while the RI line was being rebuilt.  I believe the CGW line was used for south bound trains and the RI line was used for northbound trains.  At that time, a tremendous among of grain traffic was moving south to KC.Does anyone know which route the BN used or still uses between the Twin Cities to KC?Jeff[/quote]I wouldn't think that the connection at Marshalltown would've been too difficult, since the CGW main entered Marshalltown from the southwest, crossed the CNW east-west main and the M&StL entered from the northwest and crossed the CGW main first, then the CNW main over there west of the Hwy 14 overpass.
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