Bad Accident NE of Little Rock

[MrFSS]

I can't find out if these are the tracks Amtrak uses northbound out of Little Rock. If so, it will upset schedules. If not, I'll move this thread to the General Rail Area. But, a bad wreck with two dead and lots of damage.

FULL STORY

 

[Agent]

It's on the tracks the Texas Eagle uses. Amtrak #21 was put on a detour yesterday.

www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3496375

 

[Grandpa D]

Highway 67 between Hoxie and Alicia is closed. That runs parallel to the Amtrak route so I'd guess it affects the TE. Looking at 'Trak-a-Train', today's 21 and 22 are taking a serious detour to the east.

 

[frequentflyer]

Whats scary, is over on Trainorders, the pax are little shaken up when some got off at Little Rock. The freight train that derailed was ahead of the Eagle. If that train was not there......................

 

[user 1215]

It's hard to map out the detour. It looks like an easy detour to get from Little Rock to Walnut Ridge by going East from Bald Knob to Wynne, then North to Jonesboro and cut across back West to Walnut Grove. Only, I don't see how a train can connect S to NW or reverse in Jonesboro. Following the track further SE, same story unless you go all the way into Memphis.

I saw on the tracker Train 21 coming in from the East into Bald Knob, so that part is right. Where do they connect back to Walnut Ridge?

 

[George Harris]

Ok, looking at the map on the Arkansas Gazette on line, the collision appears to be about 1 to 1.5 miles south of the BNSF crossing of the UP. (That would be Frisco-MoPac for many years.) Thus, the train could come up the BNSF from Jonesboro, but it would have to do a 180 degree turn in Jonesboro or be aimed the wrong way between there and Hoxie. After it got to Hoxie it would go through the wye to get back on the UP main aimed north to Walnut Ridge and points north thereof. Alternatively, it could skip both Walnut Ridge and Poplar Bluff and take the freight route up the east side of the Mississippi to St. Louis. This would be, from Little Rock: northeast on the main to Bald Knob, then east on the Memphis line to Wynne, then go north on the former Cotton Belt the rest of the way. It is very likely that if done without freight interference (that won't happen) it could make it very close to schedule time between Little Rock and St. Louis.

As another alternative, they could skip all stops all the way to Chicago by continuing east to Memphis, then following the route of the City of New Orleans for the rest of the trip. When Missouri Pacific ran passenger trains between Memphis and Little Rock the scheduled time between those points was three hours flat.

 

[lstone19]

At Chicago yesterday (8/18), the departure board had a note for passengers on 21 for Poplar Bluff and Walnut Ridge to "see agent".

 

[user 1215]

Today's 22 seems to be in St. Louis at about the right time.

Slightly diverging off the topic, I noticed that there is about 170 miles between St. Louis and Poplar Bluff. Farmington and, to a lesser degree, De Soto, seem to have decent population centers. Have they been considered for Amtrak service on the TE?