California Zephyr discussion 2023 Q4 - 2024

[zephyr17]

Maybe it wasn't a bridge, but the BNSF Omaha Sub? That's hard by the river in some places and might be impacted by levee work. We all know how journalists can misinterpret railroad related issues.

 

[Golden grrl]

The “rare mileage” for this detour was from Ashland to Plattsmouth. I believe this route is about 19 miles shorter than looping through Omaha…


What bridge does BNSF have at Omaha?
They used to use the UP bridge there to get to Council Bluffs, and then run down their line on the Iowa side to rejoin their mainline at Pacific Junction. Other roads also had trackage rights on the UP bridge. The only other rail bridge across the Missouri River at Omaha, is the long out of service, Illinois Central bridge.
UP thru freights cross the Missouri a few miles north over their former C&NW bridge at Blair…

I mentioned the bridge as example of what flood waters were coming to Omaha, but as I said originally, it was a BNSF one at Sioux City, not at Omaha. Sorry my post was confusing. I saw a photo of the downed bridge in water-see railwayage.com article “BNSF Suffers South Dakota Bridge Collapse” for a drone picture and maps.

According to another article I found (after our conductor announced the train would not go to Omaha), Omaha and NRD told BNSF to close track in Omaha so a new flood wall could be deployed “to prevent the flanking of the levee system via the railroad tracks .” see nebraskaexaminer.com, “Worst yet to come” dated 24 June. So no bridge out in Omaha, just temporary shutdown of tracks.

Train detour went just as zephyr17 described. Not so much “rare mileage” (a grrl can wish, can’t she?) but still a great end to my first rail adventure in half a decade. Had great photo ops rolling down from WIP to Den with the 15 mph speed restrictions from the 95+ local temperatures, then further mechanical delay out of DEN - so we got a DAYlight ride for a change in parts of eastern Nebraska we once called home…what could be better!
oh, and not sure if we got a BNSF guide or not at the same time, but the train had to stop, back up, and wait for a manual switching to keep us from going up the Omaha sub and instead go along on the Creston Sub. I was last seat in last car, so could hear some of the conductor messages, but could not see if anyone climbed on engine-there was a BNSF truck there with two guys to start with, but only one in truck when it drove away. But I could only observe from one side of train.
Thanks again to all who responded; I sure do benefit from your knowledge.

 

[Willbridge]

This also explains why Train 5 came through Omaha. It was just there soon enough to get through before the closure.

 

[railiner]

Based on what sales it is allowing and what it isn't it looks like it will stay on the BNSF Creston Sub straight over to Plattsmouth instead of going up the BNSF Omaha Sub to Omaha. It crosses the Missouri at Plattsmouth on the Creston Sub anyway.

That routing makes sense to skip Omaha while still serving Lincoln and Creston. Plus it's really the BNSF main where the Omaha Sub is more secondary.

#6(23) has skipped Omaha having going straight from Lincoln to Plattsmouth. Looks to have made up an hour as well.

Thinking more about it...it is a lucky thing, I suppose, that Omaha has not suffered a similar fate like Phoenix, or like Boise did, with the host railroad deciding to truncate part of their line as a thru route....if they did, Plattsmouth could have become another "Maricopa"...

 

[jacket94]

Sitting in Denver on #5 and very surprised to see them cleaning all of the windows. I thought that was a thing of the past!