# Texas Eagle Trip report



## Steve4031 (Sep 20, 2010)

On Saturday, September 18th, I rode the Texas Eagle from Chicago to St. Louis over the UP detour. I was especially interested in this routing because my grandfather, who provided my first technical knowledge of railroads, worked was part of a crew that cleaned up derailments on the C&EI. His stories of working on the railroad included place names such as Woodland Junction, Milford, Goodwine, and less frequently, Villa Grove. As a child, he took me to a RR bridge that crossed a creek a few miles east of Rankin, IL to watch trains, and throw rocks in the river. Though I forgot the name of this line, it was crossed by the C&EI on a bridge about a half-mile east of where we would hang out. Often I would see freights pass by, and as an n 8 year old, I would say, do passenger trains travel on this route? Not anymore, and probably never again. This was in the early 1970’s, In the back of my mind though, I always wanted to ride on the C&EI.

In the mid 1990’s, I missed a chance with a UP excursion behind a steam engine. A few years ago, Amtrak announced a detour on this routing, and I booked. A few days before the trip, I was called with notice of a bus substantiation. With the announcement of fall track work of the Chicago St. Louis line for HSP, I plotted my attack, and booked a trip on 21 from Chicago to St. Louis in a sleeper. This was before the exact dates, but I was hopeful. Then the announcement was made officially, and I saw I would be riding the detour.

On Saturday, I picked up my girlfriend, and we made are way to Union station. We would also use this trip as an opportunity to visit friends in St. Louis. The Metropolitan lounge was packed with passengers for 3,5, 7, and 21. There was one set available for her, and I settled in on the floor. I enjoyed Brats from gold coast dogs, and she snacked on supplies bought at Whole Foods on the way to the station. We used a red cap to get to the train. We were in room 8 of the 2120 car. We settled in. She got out a project to work on, and I set up the scanner, the GPS app on my Iphone, and the correct page of a UP employee timetable. At. 1:45, we got the highball, and 21 departed Chicago.

At 21st street we continued south on the Cardinal routing to Thornton Junction where we continued straight south. There was a brief stop at Yard Center to pick up the pilot crew. Amtrak made clear announcements throughout, and arrived St. Louis earlier than the predicted 8:30 at 8:15 p.m. Top speed was 60 mph. We had a brief stop in Villa Grove to change engineers. Here is the time keeping log that I kept:

0.0	Chicago dp 1:45 ot

16.7 Dolton Jct 2:32 pm

18.0 Yard Center 2:48

20.1 Thornton Jct 2:56?

49.9 Momence 3:26

77.5 Watseka

82.4 Woodland Jct (EDT) 4:00

132.9 Sidney 4:58

144.6 Villa Grove ar 5:12 dp 5:18

153.8 Tuscola 5:28

176.1 Sullivan 5:50

183.1 Findlay 6:03

205.7 Pana 6:24

231.4 Hillsboro 6:51

273.7 Vierling Jct (BDT)

275.6 Lenox

290 +/- St. Louis ar 8:15

The tracks were pretty smooth, with some bumps. But not bad. It was fun riding over the bridge by my spot shared with my grandfather. I pointed out the landmarks to my girlfriend, and she remarked that his was grandparent’s day. That was the final information to make this trip complete.

We took the 5 p.m. seating in the diner. Sharon, the LSA, was accommodating and ensured me a window seat in the CCC after I explained the purpose of my ride. The food and service was excellent, and we left the diner shortly after Findley. Overall, an enjoyable trip.

On Sunday, we returned from St. Louis, departing at 4:30 on a bus to Springfield. We departed Springfield on time, and arrived early into Chicago. The bus train combination worked fine. It was not that inconvenient. However, a bus is never as nice as BC.


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## MrFSS (Sep 20, 2010)

Thanks for the report. Any pictures?


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 20, 2010)

:hi: Nice report, thanks! Since this is my "home train" and Ive riden it dozens of times (our motto, you can't get anywhere without going to Chicago! :lol: )it's nice to get the different mileage and to have the memories of your granfather, something I did with my grandfather, a 40 year railroader with the SP! I felt the same way I first got to ride the Sunset Ltd. back when it was "THE" crack train on the SP!


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## had8ley (Sep 20, 2010)

Hey...great report. Brings back memories of trips on the Phoebe Snow from Hoboken to Buffalo on the Lackawanna with my grand father. I don't know if the tracks on some of that route are even there anymore.Sometimes it's nice to get old...


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## Bill Haithcoat (Sep 20, 2010)

Well guess what, Steve? You and I share a common love for the C&EI.

Some of my hometown Chattanooga trains originated on the C&EI out of Chicago. At Evansville to points south on other lines. Such trains as the Georgian, the Dixie Flagler, the Dixieland,the Dixie Flyer, the Dixie Limited etc.To such places as Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, JAX and MIA.

And the Humming Bird to Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and NOL.

The Meadowlark from Chicago to southern Illinois coal country. The terminals changed around through the years, but at least one such terminal was Cypress. During the last few years of its life the Meadowlark was an RDC Though sometimes on weekends they had to add coaches due to a lot of schools on the line. I have no clue how much power an RDC has, just going by what I have read.

There was a train from Chicago to Evansville called the Whippoorwill, but the Humming Bird rendered it redundant.

C&EI service from CHI to STL stopped back in the 40's I think.

Some of the stops you mention seem to have been served by most of the trains but Vllla Grove, just by the line to Cypress. There are some duplicate miles I am having trouble seeing.

I could not find Rankin in the Official Guide.

I urge you to google C&EI, you will find some good stuff.

The laat C&EI train was called the Danville Flyer, from Chicago to Danville. It was a remnant of the once proud Georgian and Humming Bird.


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## AlanB (Sep 22, 2010)

had8ley said:


> Hey...great report. Brings back memories of trips on the Phoebe Snow from Hoboken to Buffalo on the Lackawanna with my grand father. I don't know if the tracks on some of that route are even there anymore.Sometimes it's nice to get old...


At least through Scranton, PA the ROW is still intact. I'm not sure about west of Scranton.

Currently there are no tracks between Mt. Olive, NJ and PA. However, the entire ROW is under the control of NJT and PA and work has started on restoring the first 5 miles or so of missing track. Agreements with PA and additonal funding still needs to be worked out to restore the rest of the Lackawanna cutoff and actually restore passenger service to Scranton.


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## rtabern (Sep 26, 2010)

I'm planning to do the detour on Saturday, October 16th... and will try and take some pictures and do a trip report. I am going down to STL on the normal routing on Friday, October 15th... will be overnighting in STL and then doing the detour the next morning/afternoon on Saturday, October 16th on #422.

Should be fun!


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## AlanB (Sep 26, 2010)

But that's the wrong weekend! 

We'll all be gone by then. You're supposed to go 1 week earlier, when many of us are doing the detour.

:lol:


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## jis (Sep 26, 2010)

AlanB said:


> had8ley said:
> 
> 
> > Hey...great report. Brings back memories of trips on the Phoebe Snow from Hoboken to Buffalo on the Lackawanna with my grand father. I don't know if the tracks on some of that route are even there anymore.Sometimes it's nice to get old...
> ...


Mt. Olive does not come into the picture for the Lackawanna Cutoff in NJ. It takes off from Port Morris just east of the Port Morris Yard, which is a couple of miles north of Lake Hopatcong station. Mt. Olive is on the Washington Secondary which eventually connects into Phillipsburg.

Steamtown operates occasional excursions to Stroudsburg from Scranton. It operate more frequent excursions to Moscow and Tobyhanna (sp?). Freight service is run on the Scranton Stroudsburg segment by Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad, a short line, which interconnects with NS at Portland near Slateford Jct where the Jersey Lackawanna Cutoff joins this line. Steamtown has plans to run a dinner train on that line in the near future too. So at present it is an active railroad, but will require signal and track upgrade to run a regular commuter service.

At Scranton this line passes by Steamtown and the little Steamtown station, and Bridge 60 interlocking. The original Scranton station headhouse is now a Radisson hotel.

North of Scranton the ROW is in very good shape and is ever more actively used. CP owns Scranton to Binghamton and thence on to Schenectady. It provides bridge service between Montreal and the Mid Atlantic for itself, NS and CN on the route Rouses Point, Schenectady, Oneonta, Binghamton, Halstead, Scranton, Harrisburg route. More and more sidings are being put back in on the so called Halstead cutoff between Clark's Summit just north of Scranton and Halstead, just south of Binghamton. This is the route that runs over the spectacular Tunkhannock Viaduct at Nicholson PA, which currently is single-tracked, but may eventually get its other track back if traffic justifies. CP has done some significant restoration work on this beautiful bridge of late,and track speeds are back upto 60mph. The Amtrak special to Steamtown traveled over this route recently.

The portion between Binghamton and Buffalo is also in reasonable shape but not as heavily used as the Scranton - Binghamton portion.


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## had8ley (Sep 26, 2010)

jis said:


> AlanB said:
> 
> 
> > had8ley said:
> ...


Great news...maybe I'll ask Phoebe Snow for a date when they resume pax service


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## jis (Sep 26, 2010)

had8ley said:


> Great news...maybe I'll ask Phoebe Snow for a date when they resume pax service


There is an active proposal under consideration for instituting service between Scranton and Binghamton as part of through New York to Binghamton service, after the New Jersey Lackawanna Cutoff is restored to service of course. There is nothing on the cards for Binghamton to Buffalo though.

Two possibilities were considered for the new York Binghamton service, one along the old Erie route and the other along the old Lackawanna route. It was determined that the Eire route cannot ever be made competitive in time with auto travel on Route 17. OTOH, the alignment of the Lackawanna route is such that with some significant investment it could be made competitive and better perhaps than the driving alternative on Route 17. Hence the Lackawanna alternative was chosen. Of course the Erie route has current traffic but is very twisty, while the Lackawanna route has tracks missing on the New Jersey cutoff, thanks to the brilliant shortsightedness of Conrail. It also has the faster alignment between Port Morris and Paterson completely gone between Mountain Lakes and Paterson, replaced by I-80 for part of it, thanks to the brilliant short sightedness of NJ DOT.


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