1969 Railroad Geography Test

[eolafan]

Wow, in order to even come close to Aceing one of these tests, you would need to be about my age, mid fifties...example, the Madison, WI answer should be either C&NW or Milwaukee Road but neither exists any longer and the railroad of record there now is the WSOR (FYI, neat old display train of Milwaukee Road passenger cars and an old E9 shell at the old Milwaukee passenger station near the U.W. Madison campus...now a restaurant I believe).

[nanaimo73]

I guess they all thought it had "Superior" traffic potential.[:D]
Watertown SD is another, GN, C&NW, CRI&P, M&SL.
CMSP&P had the most track in SD and they surrounded it but stayed out.

[VerMontanan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

1-MP,2-IC,3-CP,4-CRIP,5-UP,6-Milw,7-GN,8-ATSF,9-CNW,10-PC,11-C&O,12-B&O
I did it from memory and got 5 wrong. I had to look up Hills.I am sure I've seen another one of these in Trains with Superior,NE. Daveklepper (looks RSA, we have many around here) you have GN and CMSP&P mixed up.UP got to Butte first on 40lb narrow gauge 12 26,1881 and built to Garrison but sold that to NP.GN came in over Elk Park Pass and then built to Seattle.1969 is a lot better than 2005 for these tests, isn't it.

.
Very Good, Nanaimo! All correct!

As for Butte and Silver Bow, while UP operations were centered in Silver Bow, don't forget that UP's Salt Lake City-Butte "Butte Special" operated directly into the Mining City (to/from the BN/NP station) until Amtrak day, 1971.

I've always been fascinated by why so many railroads served Superior, NE. The town was on CB&Q's east-west line across the Southern portion of Nebraska hugging the Kansas border (and even entering Kansas) and was on an obscure Missouri Pacific branch line to Hastings, NE. But I always wondered why ATSF, and more amazingly, C&NW built there...and stopped!

[nanaimo73]

1-MP,2-IC,3-CP,4-CRIP,5-UP,6-Milw,7-GN,8-ATSF,9-CNW,10-PC,11-C&O,12-B&O
I did it from memory and got 5 wrong. I had to look up Hills.I am sure I've seen another one of these in Trains with Superior,NE. Daveklepper (looks RSA, we have many around here) you have GN and CMSP&P mixed up.UP got to Butte first on 40lb narrow gauge 12 26,1881 and built to Garrison but sold that to NP.GN came in over Elk Park Pass and then built to Seattle.1969 is a lot better than 2005 for these tests, isn't it.

[daveklepper]

I know the following: Wells River was where the Canadian Pacific handed over the Red Wing and the Allouette to the Boston and Maine. Butte was on the electrified portion of the Great Nrothern and interchanged with the Butte Aanaconda and Pacific also electrified. The GN was at 3000V DC and the BA&P at 2200, but the GN locos could run under the reduced voltage BA&P wire for interchange. I think that at one time the B&O had a branch to Buffalo, but it may have been Rochester, one of these should be B&O and one PC. Pueblo is the northern point on the Sante Fe line from Raton where it joins the D&RGW and the Colorado Southern (Burlington) for the "Joint Line" through Colorado Springs to Denver. The rest would probably be guess work for me.

[VerMontanan]

Here's another one.....time frame around 1969

Cities are:

1. Pueblo, CO
2. Hills, MN
3. Wells River, VT
4. Sioux Falls, SD
5. Butte, MT
6. Excelsior Springs, MO
7. Nelson, BC
8. Superior, NE
9. Lander, WY
10. Gauley Bridge, WV
11. Buffalo, NY
12. Rochester, NY

Railroads are:

Milwaukee Road
Canadian Pacific
Chicago and North Western
Great Northern
Baltimore and Ohio
Penn Central
Rock Island
Santa Fe
Chesapeake and Ohio
Missouri Pacific
Illinois Central
Union Pacific

This is a "handmade" version of the first ones, which I remember from TRAINS. It was something along the line of "Railraods, where they shouldn't be" or something like that.....

[nanaimo73]

[:D]
Perfect answer, and that got you a star for your 50th post as well.
For your test below, we'll say Butte includes Silver Bow.
My Dec.1972 Official Guide shows Butte on their map, so I guess they had rights into the city. Did they give up the rights in the 1980s or 1990s?
Test 1 was in the second section of 3-69 Trains and test 2 was from a reader in 6-69 Trains.

[VerMontanan]

Test 1:

1. Bentonite Spur, WY: C&NW - the end of the line...almost to Montana.

2. Chaffee, MO: C&EI. They had two southern Illinois branches: to Joppa, IL on the Ohio river, and across the Mississippi River to Chaffee, MO where they interchanged with SLSF. The Mississippi River Bridge, now used by UP (and BNSF on occasion) was primarily a SSW (Cotton Belt) bridge owned by the Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge Co.

3. Pensacola, FL: SLSF: Southernmost point on the old Frisco.

4. Norton, VA: L&N. We often consider Louisville and Nashville to be in Kentucky and N&W in Virginia, but both served Norton.

5. Centralia, IL: Could be CB&Q, but answer has to be Southern (their line to St. Louis), as CB&Q has to be the answer to number 9 (as Southern didn't serve Paducah).

6. Sioux City, IA: GN. Only their line to Bieber, California went further south. (Actually, GN constructed the line all the way to Ashland, NE operated by CB&Q).

7. Seymour, IN: CMSt.P&P (Milwaukee Road). This was the easternmost point on the railroad (though it once went as far as Westport, IN; originally Chicago, Terre Haute and Southeastern Railway).

8. Madison, WI: IC. Illinois Central's only entrance into Wisconsin.

9. Paducah, KY: CB&Q (see no. 5 above).

10. Shawneetown, IL: B&O; served by a branch off the Cincinnati-St. Louis main at Flora.

11. Cairo, IL: Penn Central. This ex-NYC branch from Paris, IL was NYC's southernmost point.

12. Eunice, LA: CRI&P. End of a long branch line from Little Rock, AR.

Test 2:

1. Huntingdon, QC: PC; on New York Central's long branch to Montreal from Syracuse.

2. Dayton, OH: EL. On one of Erie Lackawanna's few branch lines in Ohio, between the main line at Marion and Cincinnati.

3. Keokuk, IA: N&W: (Former Wabash) the end of a long branch line from East Hannibal, IL on the Decatur-Moberly main line.

4. Winchester, VA: B&O. On Baltimore and Ohio's lone branch into Virginia from Harpers Ferry, WV. Penn Central would have been another oddity, but then that would have left Canadian National for No.1 (Huntingdon, QC) and that would have been too obvious.

5. Helena, AR: IC. Actually reached by ferry (across the Mississippi River) from Trotters Point, MS. There was never a railroad bridge.

6.. Natchez, MS: MP: Actually reached by ferry (across the Mississippi River) from Vidalia, LA. There was never a railroad bridge here, either.

7. Port Angeles, WA: CMStP&P. Milwaukee Road's isolated branch on Washington's Olympic Peninsula accessed by car ferry from Seattle at Port Townsend.

8. Wells, NV: UP. On the end of a long branch line via Jackpot from Twin Falls, Idaho. Wells is mostly known for being near (at Alazon) the start or finish of paired SP/WP track across Northern Nevada to/from Weso (near Winnemucca). During most of the time this branch existed, it allowed Wells to be the unoffical "railroad capital" of Nevada, with three railroads.

9. Oakdale, LA: ATSF. Now the Timber Rock Railroad, this was Santa Fe's only entry into Louisiana, of their equally-obscure line from Somerville to Silsbee to Kirbyville to Longview in Texas.

10. Whitetail, MT: MStP&SSM (Soo Line). They had planned to go further, but this obscure point in extreme northeast Montana northeast of Scobey is the westernmost point on the former Soo Line. The track is still in service operated by the Dakota, Missouri Valley and Western, and serves Westby, Montana, Montana's easternmost town, whose name comes from the fact that it was originally the westernmost town in North Dakota, but when the Soo Line built its depot on the Montana side, they moved the town to where the depot was.

11. Mammoth, CA: GN. On Great Northern's "Inside Gateway" route from Klamath Falls, Oregon to the interchange with WP at Bieber.

12. Ashland, WI: NP: Northern Pacific's easternmost point on a branch from Superior. This line, now abandoned, was also used by Duluth, South Shore, and Atlantic on occasion to reach Duluth/Superior.

13. New London, CT: CV. Central Vermont's southernmost point on its route from Vermont via Palmer, MA.

14. Warroad, MN: CN: Also served by a long branch line of the Great Northern, CN's main line from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay (or during the time of this quiz, Fort William/Port Arthur) went through Warroad and Baudette in Minnesota to get around the huge Lake of the Woods, which is also the location of that little tip of Minnesota that includes Angle Inlet, which until the admission of Alaska to the Union, was the northernmost point in the United States.

15. French Lick, IN: Southern. On a branch off Southern's main line from Lexington, KY to St. Louis. They interchanged with Monon here.

16. Murphy, NC: L&N; Well, since Southern was the choice for French Lick, it can't be the choice for Murphy even though they served Murphy from the east. L&N came in from Blue Ridge, GA on this, their only entrance to the Tarheel State.

[JoeKoh]

dayton-B&O
frenchlick indiana penn central?
stay safe
joe

[jeaton]

1 C&NW
2.C&EI
3.SLSF
4.L&N
5.Sou
6.GN
7.MILW
8.IC
9.CB&Q
10.B&O
11.PC
12.CRI&P

I Cheated

[miniwyo]

Well, I know number 1 on test 1, Bentonite Spur,.Wyoming is C&NW.

[nanaimo73]

I found these two tests in some old Trains magazines. Some of you may find these interesting. You have to line up each place with a railroad. They can only be sloved one way.Enjoy !

1-Bentonite Spur,.Wyoming..............Illinois Central
2-Chaffee, Missouri..........................Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
3-Pensacola, Florida........................Baltimore and Ohio
4-Norton, Virginia.............................Chicago and North Wesrtern
5-Centrailia, Illinois...........................Great Northern
6-Sioux City, Iowa............................Chicago and Eastern Illinois
7-Seymour, Indiana...........................Southern Railway
8-Madison, Wisconsin.......................Louisville and Nashville
9-Paducah, Kentucky........................Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific
10-Shawneetown, Illinois....................Penn Central
11-Cairo, Illinois................................St,Louis, San Fransisco
12-Eunice, Louisiana.........................Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific

Test 2 :

1-Huntingdon, Quebec......................Canadian National
2-Dayton, Ohio.................................Soo Line
3-Keokuk, Iowa.................................Great Northern
4-Winchester, Virginia.......................Southern Railway
5-Helena, Arkansas...........................Louisville and Nashville
6-Natchez, Mississippi.......................Atchison, Topeka and Santa fe
7-Port Angeles, Washington...............Central Vermont
8-Wells, Nevada................................Missouri Pacific
9-Oakdale, Louisiana.........................Baltimore and Ohio
10-Whitetail, Montana.........................Penn Central
11-Mammoth, California.......................Erie Lackawanna
12-Ashland, Wisconsin........................Illinois Central
13-New London, Connecticut................Norfolk and Western
14-Warroad, Minnesota...........................Chicago, Milwaukee, St.Paul and Pacific
15-French Lick, Indiana........................Union Pacific
16-Murphy, North Carolina....................Northern Pacific

Most of these places have a couple of RRs and the right answer is usually the oddball.I will post the answers on Monday but I will respond to posts as I see them.Things were a lot different when Neil Armstong walked on the moon !