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Posted by jeffhergert on Friday, April 11, 2008 7:15 PM

 CShaveRR wrote:
I'm looking for the name of a town where the Chicago & North Western crossed the Mississippi River on a vertical lift bridge.

Original CNW or on a line they acquired?  There was the ex-M&STL crossing at Keithsburg, IL.  CNW for a few years before the line was abandoned.

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Posted by J. Edgar on Friday, April 11, 2008 6:59 PM
is it Pigs Eye MN
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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, April 11, 2008 6:57 PM

Norris, I'll have to give it to you!  I was not aware that there was a lift bridge used by CNW (and UP, even!) in St. Paul--shows how often I get up that way (about as often as I peek into the Trackside Guides, apparently!).

I'd been thinking of the one at Keithsburg.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, April 11, 2008 5:39 PM

 CShaveRR wrote:
I'm looking for the name of a town where the Chicago & North Western crossed the Mississippi River on a vertical lift bridge.

St. Paul, Minnesota?

The question brought this to mind: http://cs.trains.com/forums/535712/ShowPost.aspx

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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, April 11, 2008 4:10 PM
I'm looking for the name of a town where the Chicago & North Western crossed the Mississippi River on a vertical lift bridge.

Carl

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Posted by J. Edgar on Friday, April 11, 2008 9:08 AM
well ill have to give it too ya.....was Aug 28th 1864...C&NW  Chicago to Clinton IA
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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, April 11, 2008 5:27 AM
I seem to remember C&NW having a hand...er, hook...in this.

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Thursday, April 10, 2008 9:46 PM
 J. Edgar wrote:
 al-in-chgo wrote:
 J. Edgar wrote:
 Ishmael wrote:

The railroad which is usually given credit as the first actual carrier and sorter of mail was the Hannibal and St. Joseph in 1862. They were carrying mail for the Pony Express.

I just happened to read that last night in H. Roger Grant's Follow the Flag

 

 this is true.....but im looking for the first RR to sort mail in route for the USPS in cars refitted for that purpose....the beginings of the Railway Mail Service....and the year it happened...as a hint the man who had the idea was assistant postmaster in Chicago named George Armstrong who received the ok to try his idea from Postmaster General Montgomery Blair

I pass.  I have enough trouble remembering the Presidents!! Dunce [D)]  - a. s.

 LOL....the only ones i remember are Grant and Lincoln.....money

 

In the spirit of the Grant administration and the Credit Mobilier scandal, was it 1872??  - a.s.

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Posted by J. Edgar on Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:40 PM
 al-in-chgo wrote:
 J. Edgar wrote:
 Ishmael wrote:

The railroad which is usually given credit as the first actual carrier and sorter of mail was the Hannibal and St. Joseph in 1862. They were carrying mail for the Pony Express.

I just happened to read that last night in H. Roger Grant's Follow the Flag

 

 this is true.....but im looking for the first RR to sort mail in route for the USPS in cars refitted for that purpose....the beginings of the Railway Mail Service....and the year it happened...as a hint the man who had the idea was assistant postmaster in Chicago named George Armstrong who received the ok to try his idea from Postmaster General Montgomery Blair

I pass.  I have enough trouble remembering the Presidents!! Dunce [D)]  - a. s.

 LOL....the only ones i remember are Grant and Lincoln.....money

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:39 PM
 J. Edgar wrote:
 Ishmael wrote:

The railroad which is usually given credit as the first actual carrier and sorter of mail was the Hannibal and St. Joseph in 1862. They were carrying mail for the Pony Express.

I just happened to read that last night in H. Roger Grant's Follow the Flag

 

 this is true.....but im looking for the first RR to sort mail in route for the USPS in cars refitted for that purpose....the beginings of the Railway Mail Service....and the year it happened...as a hint the man who had the idea was assistant postmaster in Chicago named George Armstrong who received the ok to try his idea from Postmaster General Montgomery Blair

I pass.  I have enough trouble remembering the Presidents!! Dunce [D)]  - a. s.

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Posted by J. Edgar on Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:51 PM
 Ishmael wrote:

The railroad which is usually given credit as the first actual carrier and sorter of mail was the Hannibal and St. Joseph in 1862. They were carrying mail for the Pony Express.

I just happened to read that last night in H. Roger Grant's Follow the Flag

 

 this is true.....but im looking for the first RR to sort mail in route for the USPS in cars refitted for that purpose....the beginings of the Railway Mail Service....and the year it happened...as a hint the man who had the idea was assistant postmaster in Chicago named George Armstrong who received the ok to try his idea from Postmaster General Montgomery Blair

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Posted by Ishmael on Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:30 PM

The railroad which is usually given credit as the first actual carrier and sorter of mail was the Hannibal and St. Joseph in 1862. They were carrying mail for the Pony Express.

I just happened to read that last night in H. Roger Grant's Follow the Flag

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Posted by J. Edgar on Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:05 AM

Lorenzo Coffin is exactly correct....as is your discription of how he started....he sold his farm to pay the expences of lobbying for almost a decade...indirectly thru his efforts the ICC was formed as well as the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1898....and ill take Jeffs offer for another Q

 

 in what year and on what Railroad did the first actual sorting of mail while enroute take place.....or when and where did the Railway Mail Service begin

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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:24 AM

I don't know if this is correct, but Lorenzo Coffin was an early advocate for the adoption of the automatic coupler and air brake.  He was an Iowan who had witnessed a coupling accident where the brakeman lost the last of his fingers on one hand.  

When he learned that it was an all too often occurrance, he looked into the safety record.  He was appalled at the numbers of injured and killed yearly when these safer devices exsisted.

Jeff

PS, if I'm right I won't be back til Friday, so someone else go ahead.   

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 11:09 PM

 J. Edgar wrote:
ok....most of us know that Westinghouse invented and perfected the air brake.....and Eli Janney invented the knuckle coupler.......who was it that spent years lobbying the Gov't and the Railroads to make them manditory....he was known as "the airbrake fanatic"

Just a WAG:  Thomas Edison? 

 

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 11:09 PM

 J. Edgar wrote:
ok....most of us know that Westinghouse invented and perfected the air brake.....and Eli Janney invented the knuckle coupler.......who was it that spent years lobbying the Gov't and the Railroads to make them manditory....he was known as "the airbrake fanatic"

Just a WAG:  Thomas Edison? 

 

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Posted by J. Edgar on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 10:46 PM
ok....most of us know that Westinghouse invented and perfected the air brake.....and Eli Janney invented the knuckle coupler.......who was it that spent years lobbying the Gov't and the Railroads to make them manditory....he was known as "the airbrake fanatic"
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Posted by al-in-chgo on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 9:36 PM

 

Aw, c'mon, someone post another question!! 

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 9:02 PM
 J. Edgar wrote:
  to "look" more stucturally sound to the public.....
  Right on!  That's what I get for thinking I have a stumper question.Tongue [:P]

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Posted by J. Edgar on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:30 PM
  to "look" more stucturally sound to the public.....
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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:27 PM

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=129  <<<With luck, that will be a photo of Hellgate bridge in New York City.

     During construction, the designer was asked to extend the top arches an additional six feet on each end.  They now stop about six inches short of the masonry piers on each end.

     Why was the designer asked to extend the arches?

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Posted by J. Edgar on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:23 PM
good job Murphy.....ya lost me at "interurban"....lol
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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:20 PM
      Murphy Siding:  railfan and history buff.Approve [^]

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:15 PM

Murphy you got it!  At least close enough.  Drop the Shortline part. 

The Waterloo Railroad, reporting marks are WLO, originally was the interurban Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern.  It was bought by the Illinois Central and Rock Island, the IC later buying out the RI's half.  The line between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids is mostly a bike trail, the Cedar Valley nature trail.  Some terminal trackage still exsists. 

When the ICG sold off the old Iowa Division to the CC&P, they moved the WLO on paper to a branch line, IIRC in Mississippi.

I saw a WLO car a couple of days ago.  I see them fairly often and I've been waiting to pose this question.  I was afraid it might be too obscure for those outside of the Iowa sphere of influence, so I put in the Napoleon Bonaparte hint.

All yours Murph.

Jeff   

 

 

 

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:04 PM
     Pure guess:  Waterloo Shortline Railoroad?  Part of IC?

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 6:59 PM

Sorry, try again.  You are correct about the Pickens having nothing to do with Mr. Bonaparte. 

Jeff

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Posted by Ishmael on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 6:51 PM
That sounds like the Pickens Railroad of South Carolina, but I don't see what it has to do with Mr. Bonaparte.
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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 6:36 PM

If I got it, it must have been too easy.Smile [:)]

Let's play name that short line.

It is owned by a class one, but still exsists, at least on paper.  The class 1 owner itself is under a different name.

It originally was an interurban under a different name, although the new/current name was part of the original.  It stopped being an interurban in the 1950s when two class 1s bought it jointly, then one bought out the other.

The current trackage assigned to it by the class 1 is not in the state of the original route, not even close.  The original line is almost completely abandoned, but you can still ride over most of it by a different mode of transportation.

According to Trains some years ago, if all the cars wearing this line's reporting marks showed up, there would not be enough room for them all on the trackage assigned to it.

If that's not enough, the late Mr. Bonaparte might find the name distasteful.

Name that short line.

Jeff

PS  I'll be watching for the next couple of hours.  If we don't have a winner by then, I probably won't be back home until Friday afternoon/evening.  In the meantime, if someone wants to pose something, please go ahead to keep things going. 

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Posted by J. Edgar on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 6:04 PM

we have a winner

 

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 5:43 PM

The Pacific Zip.

Jeff

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