La Crosse, Wi area railroads shut down??

[Soo 6604]

I heard that there is train stoppage around the La Crosse, Wi area due to washouts(?), bridge/s out (?), and water over the rails in spots.

Just wondering what the area is like and if there's going to be any detours.

Paul

[CNW 6000]

Supposedly some spots got almost a foot of rain.

[nanaimo73]

This was posted one the ICErail Yahoo group-

I just got a report from Tom J, a short ICE bridge on the south
edge of LaCrescent is GONE, washed out. The CP west of LaCrescent has
taken a major pounding, at least one bridge out near Winona,Mn. If the
ICE wants to get to St. Paul, they might detour over the BNSF, Savanna
to St.Croix (Near St. Paul). BNSF has their own mess as a Z Train
derailed last night, railroad east of LaCrosse (Near Stoddard,Wi). BNSF
also has major washouts east of LaCrosse. 6 To 12 inches of rain hit
the area since Saturday morning.

[Noah Hofrichter]

Sounds like it's quite the chaos from what I've heard. Railfan rumor says the CN main line through Wisconsin is being looked at by both the CP and BNSF as a possible detour route, along with the UP Wisconsin main (the Adams line).

Noah

[nanaimo73]

  Railfan rumor says the CN main line through Wisconsin is being looked at by both the CP and BNSF as a possible detour route, along with the UP Wisconsin main (the Adams line).

Atmo will have to stay out of Eau Claire if a bunch of nose-light CP and BNSF trains are going to run through there.

More from ICErail-

I hear there is a bridge out at MP 148, and also that the DME may be
OOS 2-3 weeks.

Heavy rain in northern Iowa here late this afternoon, flood warnings
in some of the northern tier of counties, Mason City is one of those
areas.

[Lord Atmo]

aww i love you too.....

any train is welcome. noselights are fine on CPs. i only hate them on ACEs and anything BN.  CP paint and loselights work fine and i HIGHLY doubt i will see any of those ***-ugly draper taper units.

this is only good news for me as i currently am not getting jack crap for daytime traffic (thanks a LOT, BN...) and i need a cool C44-9W to finally come through altoona. BNSF's happen to rank #3 in crash 9s i like. so this will be enjoyable

bring 'em on, CP/BNSF!

and i do hope i get SOO SD60s too. finally daytime trains and even ones that arent CNW zombies 

[nanaimo73]

 any train is welcome. noselights are fine on CPs. CP paint and loselights work fine

bring 'em on, CP/BNSF!

and i do hope i get SOO SD60s too. 

Good to hear. Happy hunting !

[Lord Atmo]

thanks. i'll need it. i just hope they WILL be diverted here. and not the CN

[WCfan]

Well I'll be heading out to Winona Tommrow. So does this mean there won't be any CP heading through there?

[Noah Hofrichter]

It would seem highly unlikely. One CP engineer was told two miles of the River sub and a bridge are supposed to be underwater. And the BNSF had a derailment and flooding problems as well, so things are pretty stopped up there too.

Noah

[Lord Atmo]

i just hope we learn what line gets the detours soon. i'll be in altoona all day tomorrow if they come here.

man if all the BNSF trains come this way, talk about major jams. a single track mainline on 60-70 trains that use a double main. yikes! and we had crew shortages when the MPRDM/MDMPR rerouted through here 2 weeks ago 

[Soo 6604]

i just hope we learn what line gets the detours soon. i'll be in altoona all day tomorrow if they come here.

man if all the BNSF trains come this way, talk about major jams. a single track mainline on 60-70 trains that use a double main. yikes! and we had crew shortages when the MPRDM/MDMPR rerouted through here 2 weeks ago 

Dont get too excited Atmo, that line is short on crews along with the CN

I heard that CN will allow 4 CP trains a day on their line. I would assume that they would go the route that CP usually does when the Mississippi floods. Up thru Wisconsin Rapids to Junction City and on to the Twin Cities. The last time they had detours thru my neck of the woods was in 2001 and BNSF hot Z-Trains traversed the WC all the way from Chicago to the Twin Cities along with a few CP trains. UP had a switch tender stationed at Junction City to line the switches all day.

I am tempted to call in sick tomorrow and go roadtripping

Paul

[solzrules]

Wow!

What a mess.  I was in the Twin Cities this weekend and they only got about 3/4".  I didn't realize we had our own personal midwest cloudburst going on not 2 hours south. 

Concerning the redirection of traffic - the UP line is pretty rough, isn't it?  I mean in my neck of the woods those UP trains are rocking back and forth pretty good at 40 mph.  Can that line handle more traffic? 

Seems to me CN would be able to handle more, maybe not.

[jclass]

Here are a couple photos: four and six

http://lacrossetribune.com/shared-content/story_tools/slideshow/?type=slideshow&id=29

[Lord Atmo]

well if all of the BNSF needs to be rerouted, that means 60-70 trains. not good for crew-short lines. especially if both the CN and the UP are short of crews

[snagletooth]

They'll only reroute priority stuff. Well, except ICE with the bridge out.  Can Adams handle it? Doubt it. It'll most likey be CP. ICE can still reroute everything up the line through Austin. Slow, but it'll work. BN is stuck, except for traffic now out of Chicago, which has always gone CP. or maybe even CN/WC, which is more likely and less flooded. Think people, think! CN/WC

[Noah Hofrichter]

I'm still getting information in, but so far it sounds like the BNSF north of La Crosse is still fully intact, along with the CP east of La Crosse. BNSF work trains have been on the move North of La Crosse, and CP trains have been reported on the move south on the BNSF to La Crosse as well. People are speculating that the detour moves will be over each other's railroads (BNSF will be running on the CP from Chicago to La Crosse, CP will be running on BNSF from La Crosse to Prescott). I would think there is still a chance a few trains could go over the CN/WC too, and I suppose a chance the Adams line could see a couple of trains. But last I knew, the Adams line was already hurting for crews really bad, and they could hardly handle two or three UP detour trains a couple of weeks ago during that UP derailment down in Illinois. So I'm guessing they're a less likely scenario.

Sounds like the CP has at least one, possibly two bridges out, and ICE has a bridge out in La Crescent along with lots of flooded and washed out areas on their line south. The BNSF had that derailment, as well as a couple of sections of washout, but it sounds like they might have faired slightly better (I haven't heard about any bridges out for them yet).

Noah

[Los Angeles Rams Guy]

Quite a mess indeed.  Wow - if that's the bridge I'm thinking about just south of La Crescent - that got washed out; that must have been a helluva lot of water to take that thing out.  Also, I think I saw on the news this A.M. that there was a pretty bad mudslide at Brownsville which is between La Crescent and New Albin, Iowa; wouldn't surprise if there's more trouble spots.  Also, I heard my employer's mainline (CPRS) got washed out at Minnesota City and I also saw a few pix of the DME bridge at Stockton (just west of Winona) that got washed out.

Wonder how long it's going to take to get this all fixed up again?  That's really gonna hurt with the BNSF mainline getting racked up, too by all this.  I suppose the ICE can detour some stuff perhaps over the UP's "Spine Line" main if they have to; I would guess the CP could use either that or the WC; ditto for BNSF.       

 

[Los Angeles Rams Guy]

Now I hear that the UP has suffered at least one washout; possibly more in southern Minnesota but I don't know if that's on the "Spine Line" mainline or the "Omaha Route" mainline.  Anybody out there have any updates?   

[Anonymous]

A BNSF Z train derailed? Ohhh.... That's not good!

[t.winx]

I know that BNSF wanted to run 8 trains on CN from CHI to MIN but that probably isn't going to work out. The line from CHI to Owen, WI could probably handle that many trains, but from west of Owen the line is not CTC (I think ABS) and with an extra 4 CP's that are already running, this line will be tight. I'll find out tonight for sure, and I'll be listening to the scanner all day just in case one gets run.

[WCL]

See if you can hear trains 7 and 8 the Amtrak Empire Builder....I wonder if they will run that up here???

 Here is something I got from a friend from the CN

"The switches at Junction City are all powered now so noone will have to manually line movements unless of a power outage, also the CP will probably be using their OWN crews to run their trains from the Cities to New Lisbon as there are a few qualified crews to run that route.... BNSF trains would probably take the same route as back in 01' being from the Cities to Chicago unless changes occur."

[Lord Atmo]

no no NO! not the CN!

ARRRRGH! i get screwed over on EVERYTHING! i can NOT wait till i move out of this hellhole! why did i have to get stuck living in Eau Claire?!?!

[nanaimo73]

no no NO! not the CN!

ARRRRGH! i get screwed over on EVERYTHING! i can NOT wait till i move out of this hellhole! why did i have to get stuck living in Eau Claire?!?!

You are too funny.

Go west, young man ! If you don't mind the weather, you could make good money in Wyoming servicing the gas fields. Try Halliburton.

[Anonymous]

I know that BNSF wanted to run 8 trains on CN from CHI to MIN but that probably isn't going to work out. The line from CHI to Owen, WI could probably handle that many trains, but from west of Owen the line is not CTC (I think ABS) and with an extra 4 CP's that are already running, this line will be tight. I'll find out tonight for sure, and I'll be listening to the scanner all day just in case one gets run.

 

The Minneapolis sub is TWC, no ABS

[Lord Atmo]

no no NO! not the CN!

ARRRRGH! i get screwed over on EVERYTHING! i can NOT wait till i move out of this hellhole! why did i have to get stuck living in Eau Claire?!?!

You are too funny.

Go west, young man ! If you don't mind the weather, you could make good money in Wyoming servicing the gas fields. Try Halliburton.

feh. so are you.

you assume i can afford a plane ticket when i cant even afford gas money

[Noah Hofrichter]

Ever thought about actually trying to do some work and make money for gas? Even just mowing lawns should get you a few bucks, and might get you out of town every couple or three weekends if you really wanted to try. That, or make a buddy who'll let you tag along railfanning. I know there are a couple of other railfans around Altoona and Eau Claire, that do quite a bit of railfanning.

And just be happy you've got a mainline through town at all. I have to drive 20 miles to see mainline railroading. The local line in my town only sees three trains a week, and they usually come after dark too. You really don't have it as terrible as you try to make it seem...

Anyway, back on topic, it sounds like the CP is rerouting some of their trains over the CN from Minneapolis to New Lisbon. I've heard one train go up the Valley line at New Lisbon already, and there are reports of one coming down the Valley from Wisconsin Rapids pretty soon (might be here already actually).

Noah

[WCL]

Yeah I just talked to 2 CP engineers and they will be running about 4 trains a day and they are going on the route from Minnesota to Jct City and south thr Rapids and onto New Lisbon back to there rails....Now I dont know if trains 7 and 8 the Empire Builder will be running on that line or not but will find out shortly here.....They will be running on this line for just this week...

[WCfan]

Well I'm in Winona right now, I haven't done any rail fanning so I don't now the traffic. But I would think it would be very little. I did see a CP train on the CN line so I think they have already rerouted traffic over CN.

[WCL]

Yeah it started today and will go for about a week....