Gambi80 wrote: Is Illinois a conceal and carry state? If so, just holster your glock, safety off. My brother is moving to Webster Grove(s) in less than a month. He's buying a house that has UP tracks (literally) in his back yard.
Is Illinois a conceal and carry state? If so, just holster your glock, safety off.
My brother is moving to Webster Grove(s) in less than a month. He's buying a house that has UP tracks (literally) in his back yard.
Illinois is a state that if you dont hold a firearms id card and you have a gun your going to jail, all guns must be in plain site, if caried in auto must be in trunk broken down and amo seperate from gun, hand guns clips must be empty and out of gun , they prefer guns have trigger locks. what i mean in plain site is in holsters at side. ive only been asked for my id card 1 time in 25 years, the times i was ccw i told the cop as he approached me with hands in clear site, or if i called the dispatcher i told them i was carring to tell the officier and when he got on scean i would surender my weapon, I have never had any trouble. st.louis is just as bad for crime so dont single out east side is all. there is places around hall street and broadway ave. area that i wouldnt be walking or standing with out a gun.
A very nice community, but one of those that give notice to you if you don't keep your grass cut. (I'm sure your brother will have no problems.) The UP tracks are the busiest on this side of the river, so he should get a good show. Best wishes to him, and to you when you visit.
I'm a little further south and have the BNSF in my back yard.
Its okay guys, I figured out that there was some sarcastic humor going on in the thread. It does sound like there is some heavy rail action to view out there. I appreciate all the info and suggestions from everyone. I will have to check out the Steel Mill. It sounds interesting. Thanks for all of the concern about my safety and security but dont worry, I've been in a few dangerous places a time or two and have a pretty good idea of how to watch out for trouble.
Thanks again.
I didn't imply your post was vulgar, but that the fellow who was asking sincerely for advice was being told how dangerous things were in what seemed to be a serious post. I mentioned that at the start. For all we know, he may be the type to believe all that baloney. There were some other people telling him to be cautious.
For the record, I am white also and have been over about every square foot of this two state area for over 40 years and have never had any problems. I believe I mentioned that. Even old and using a cane as I am, I would go on a walking tour of E. St. Louis right this minute.
And I don't believe I mentioned anything about high income people in Kirkwood. I'm a working stiff from the South Side myself and couldn't afford to live in Kirkwood. Wouldn't want to. I don't like the idea of someone coming around every week and telling me to cut my grass. I am well aware of the events there, and was out at the station yesterday for a couple hours to watch trains.
Perhaps it's best that we got this aired out, I don't know. But I hope the young man enjoys his residence here.
I dont believe i mislead anyone. you picked out exactly what i was saying, apart from that in 30 years ive never been bothered in any area in granite city , madison ,brooklyn, veniece, lovejoy,washington park st.louis, alorton, it didnt matter if it was 2pm or 2am, it amuses me to think that because there is crime and its reported by the media as the world comming to a end people believe this. the same thing happens in st.louis chicago new york dallas texas and so on . The key is if you go looking for trouble you will find it. back then and even today I dont have any problems in any of these areas . there was nothing vulgor about my post , and most people would have figure it out that this is a joke as they probley figured out by things read and posted that these are low income places and probley black community. and for the record i am white. but while your at it, and bashing me. why not bash kirkwood after that is a high crime area, didnt you read the post here and also look at the news paper and the news, they so mean there they went and shot the chief before going into the city hall and killing the mayor and several others. But i didnt here you say stay away from there. maybe its because the housing is for upper income people??????
truth be know your not going to have trouble in madison or granite city even brooklyn is safe the only area i dont like is cahokia, other than that have fun in the greater st.louis area
wabash1 wrote: gabe wrote: Nations wrote:Thanks for the information everyone. I know St. Louis has a lot of railroads so it should be a great spot. Sounds like Kirkwood and the Creve Couer/Maryland Heights areas are pretty good. I'll look for some of you at the Kirkwood Depot.I am sure some local is going to get mad at me for saying this, but in the interest of preserving the life of a forum member: the Illinois-side Madison/Venice/Brooklyn/East St. Louis has GREAT train action. But, do NOT get sucked in. Unless you really know where you are and where not to be, those are some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. I grew up 40 miles north of there.If you want to see Illinois-side action, try Granite City. It isn't as dangerous and has some of the action that Madison/Venice does.As JoeKoh would say: stay safe.GabeHow can you say this area is bad when you say you grew up 40 miles from there? Unless your in the town you dont know anything, just what the papers and tv will tell you. East.st.louis / madison / are fine towns granite city would be thrown in there also . brooklyn is a wonderful little town with all the dance and fine art places all the librairies of advance studies in biology and they at one time even had a on site doctor to get shots to cure you before you went home. then the little boro of lovejoy and vience, yes this is town that youcan get your excersize yes the fine art of jogging is not lost here were a lack of personal trainers pushing you to run harder and faster than you ever been. but on the more relaxed side take a trip to madison il to the trra and stop at bend road and relax to some train watching where you can see up csx ns a&s bnsf trains comming thru and when there is slack in them you can watch the trra flat switch yes thats just part of the adventure cause there will be a never ending trail of girls and women who specialize in the fine arts of personal messaga. yes every 10-15 minutes these working girls will come by to see if you need relaxing, so if a trip to st.louis or the east side is in your future dont let the old war stories stop you and make you scared just come on out and enjoy yourself .
gabe wrote: Nations wrote:Thanks for the information everyone. I know St. Louis has a lot of railroads so it should be a great spot. Sounds like Kirkwood and the Creve Couer/Maryland Heights areas are pretty good. I'll look for some of you at the Kirkwood Depot.I am sure some local is going to get mad at me for saying this, but in the interest of preserving the life of a forum member: the Illinois-side Madison/Venice/Brooklyn/East St. Louis has GREAT train action. But, do NOT get sucked in. Unless you really know where you are and where not to be, those are some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. I grew up 40 miles north of there.If you want to see Illinois-side action, try Granite City. It isn't as dangerous and has some of the action that Madison/Venice does.As JoeKoh would say: stay safe.Gabe
Nations wrote:Thanks for the information everyone. I know St. Louis has a lot of railroads so it should be a great spot. Sounds like Kirkwood and the Creve Couer/Maryland Heights areas are pretty good. I'll look for some of you at the Kirkwood Depot.
I am sure some local is going to get mad at me for saying this, but in the interest of preserving the life of a forum member: the Illinois-side Madison/Venice/Brooklyn/East St. Louis has GREAT train action. But, do NOT get sucked in. Unless you really know where you are and where not to be, those are some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. I grew up 40 miles north of there.
If you want to see Illinois-side action, try Granite City. It isn't as dangerous and has some of the action that Madison/Venice does.
As JoeKoh would say: stay safe.
Gabe
How can you say this area is bad when you say you grew up 40 miles from there? Unless your in the town you dont know anything, just what the papers and tv will tell you. East.st.louis / madison / are fine towns granite city would be thrown in there also . brooklyn is a wonderful little town with all the dance and fine art places all the librairies of advance studies in biology and they at one time even had a on site doctor to get shots to cure you before you went home. then the little boro of lovejoy and vience, yes this is town that youcan get your excersize yes the fine art of jogging is not lost here were a lack of personal trainers pushing you to run harder and faster than you ever been. but on the more relaxed side take a trip to madison il to the trra and stop at bend road and relax to some train watching where you can see up csx ns a&s bnsf trains comming thru and when there is slack in them you can watch the trra flat switch yes thats just part of the adventure cause there will be a never ending trail of girls and women who specialize in the fine arts of personal messaga. yes every 10-15 minutes these working girls will come by to see if you need relaxing, so if a trip to st.louis or the east side is in your future dont let the old war stories stop you and make you scared just come on out and enjoy yourself .
As I read this, I kept expecting Wabash1 to say that his post was a spoof, but he didn't. Wabash, It is vulgar in the extreme to mislead a stranger. Especially when you don't know his level of sophistication. The "fine art places" are topless joints, and the doctors who give shots are VD doctors. The "personal masseuses" are street prostitutes and the jogging, presumably, is running from strongarm robbers,otherwise known as muggers.
The advice to go over there with someone who knows their way around is good. I've spent a lot of time in the Tri-City area, (Venice-Madison-Granite City) and it's still a great trainwatching area. Granite City Steel itself is worth the trip. I've been in there. There are many places where you are safe. People wouldn't live there if there weren't.
You can say a lot of the same things about Basra.
That having been said, I am not saying they aren't nice towns with positive attributes. What I am saying is that they are places that, if you don't know where you are going, you can get in trouble in a hurry. Thus, if you are from out of town, I would not go there unless accompanied with someone who can keep you in the nicer parts of the town.
Also, some of the best train watching spots are not the greatest parts of the communities.
I know this not only from frequent visits, relatives from the area, but crime statistics. But, as you say, there are parts of each town that aren't bad places to live.
G Mack wrote: Hello guys,Since this thread is about the St. Louis area, I have a couple of questions about the East St. Loius area, one of which is off topic but still rail related in a way. Not long ago, I was near Granite City, Ill and remember seeing a huge steel mill complex. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this mill? It looked to be one of the integrated mills (I think thats what they call them) that brings in iron ore and produces new steel. This intrigued me as there doesn't seem to be near as many of these type mills as in the past and I wasn't aware of one being in the St. Loius area.Also, when you look at a SPV atlas, it shows a lot of rail yards in the East St. Loius area. Do many of these yards still exsist or are they now abandoned? Hasta luego,Gregory
Hello guys,
Since this thread is about the St. Louis area, I have a couple of questions about the East St. Loius area, one of which is off topic but still rail related in a way.
Not long ago, I was near Granite City, Ill and remember seeing a huge steel mill complex. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this mill? It looked to be one of the integrated mills (I think thats what they call them) that brings in iron ore and produces new steel. This intrigued me as there doesn't seem to be near as many of these type mills as in the past and I wasn't aware of one being in the St. Loius area.
Also, when you look at a SPV atlas, it shows a lot of rail yards in the East St. Loius area. Do many of these yards still exsist or are they now abandoned?
Hasta luego,
Gregory
Presumably you are referring to Granite City Steel. It is an impressive operation. I rail-fanned it about 4 months ago. I saw TRRA engines, NS, CSX, and Alton Southern motive power, and plenty of rolling stock. The thing I find most interesting about the yard are the lines that once served it but no longer do: CNW, IT, Nickle Plate, Litchfield and Madison, and the IC. There are probably more pulled-up tracks around the facility than active tracks. Although, there still is a lot of action.
I don't know what specific yard you are referring to. But, here is what is no longer there: Litchfiled and Madison (although there is a sliver of the old line that leads to Granite City Steel), CNW (dito, it now takes the Old Alton/GM&O/UP into St. Louis), IC's Chicago-St. Louis main (It now takes the Ald Alton/Gateway Western/KCS line to St. Louis--I would love to know how many IC trains a day go via this route), the Nickle Platte (all traffic is now routed via the Wabash/NS main); IT (some track still is operated by NS, but very little). I am pretty sure CB&Q had a route into this area as well and that such trains are now-rerouted on the ex NYC/UP main. Also, the C&O line is now replaced by Metrolink. Finally, there was a second NYC line into St. Louis, that branched off from the main at Hilsboro, Il. I think this line was pulled sometime during the early 70s.
That having been said, there is still no shortage of rail lines and rail yards in the area. St. Louis Union Station ran a "dinner train" in this area about two years ago (the engines that pulled it are the new NS tuxedo F units). It is one of those things I always meant to do, never got around to doing it, and now can't because I let the opportunity pass me by.
I've been to Kirkwood many times and it has always been busy through there. I've also heard a little bit west of there are the towns of Eureka and Pacific where the BNSF and UP tracks run very close together, within sight of each other. The BNSF in that area isn't known for being very busy but the UP is usually quite busy with lots of coal trains. The BNSF line also runs through Kirkwood a little bit south of the UP mainline but due to the low amount of trains I'd stay by the UP unless you knew something was on the BNSF.
Nations wrote:I am going to be moving to St. Louis soon and was looking to live in the West County, Kirkwood area. How is the train watching there and does anyone have any input on the neighborhoods? (places to avoid living or places that would be great to live in) I noticed there were some apartment complexes fairly close the tracks near the Chrysler plant if anyone knows anything about them. (Timberlake apts and Autumn Oaks) Thanks.
Eolafan is correct in stating that you can spend a lot of time at Kirkwood Station and see a lot of activity. The apartments near the Chrysler plant are OK but that is an area of heavy traffic, and during the flooding an entire main highway, 141, was closed. (BNSF isn't even operating there because their tracks are underwater.) We don't have flooding all the time but enough to be aggravating.
Lot of trainwatching here, as others have noted, but my opinion is that Kirkwood is the best.
mudchicken wrote:BNSFKline where art thou?You're going to watching a lot of UPRR Sedalia Sub and BNSF River Sub. depending just where you land. Our company has an office in Webster Groves that looks out over the UP (Part of the parking lot is leased UP R/W) that is very busy. Sounds like you will also be in the backyard of the National Transportation Museum.
BNSFKline where art thou?
You're going to watching a lot of UPRR Sedalia Sub and BNSF River Sub. depending just where you land. Our company has an office in Webster Groves that looks out over the UP (Part of the parking lot is leased UP R/W) that is very busy. Sounds like you will also be in the backyard of the National Transportation Museum.
Kirkwood is alright not to much crime for the area, south st.louis seems better area. as far as train watching 10-20 min and you can be watching trains just about anywhere. go downtown or over to madison illinois, go down to pacific mo. ( by six flags) right there where you are by the chrysler plant or out west towards st.peters or berkley is ok. and to the transportation museum. lots to do in st.louis,mo even go watch planes take off and land
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