curious...

[Anonymous]

almost every time i'm near the bnsf chicago-galesburg line, i see a UP train haulin a$$ towards chicago and i'm wondering what's it doing there...i remember back in the day that southern pacific had trackage rights from kansas city to chicago. maybe that carried over through the merger (SP-UP). just a stupid question to throw at whoever wants to answer it...

[jeffhergert]

Yes, the UP has trackage rights between Chicago and Kansas City on the BNSF. There is UP crew pool based at Ft. Madison, Iowa that I think runs both ways. I'm not sure on that, but I have seen vacancy bulletins for those pools. Every once in a while there will be an ad for the UP hiring at Ft Madison.

[Anonymous]

lol...my mistake, i guess there are 2 bnsf chicago-galesburg mainlines. i was talking about the original BN main via mendota etc and not the original sante fe main.

[Anonymous]

UP trains run over old tracks of the Q?! And the UP and CB&Q-GN-NP were arch rivals!

[jeffhergert]

I'm speculating here, but possibly the BNSF has discrestion of which way east of Galesburg to route UP traffic. If the exATSF is congested, maybe they'll use the exBN. I don't know, just guessing on this.
Also, I seem to remember back before the BN merger when the Q was more independent, that the CBQ and UP had a run thru train from Chicago via Grand Island to some where west (probably North Platte). I've seen pictures of this train (early 60s) with pooled power.

[BaltACD]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cjm89

UP trains run over old tracks of the Q?! And the UP and CB&Q-GN-NP were arch rivals!

All the Arch rivals have trackage rights over the competitions tracks at various locations around each others systems. They find the the cost of the trackage rights is cheaper that owning and maintaining their own right of way and track.