Chicago-Quincy-Hannibal- St Louis Possible Amtrak Service

[toddinde]

The trains still layover there, they just cut revenue service and demolished the station, last service there was in 1994. The wye for turning the train is there as well. But the Quincy and West Quincy stations were both stops, they didn't skip Quincy, IL when West Quincy, MO was the terminus. So it wasn't a relocation, they just cut back service. I'm not sure what the passenger numbers to West Quincy looked like but I imagine it was pretty tiny. West Quincy is a town of like 500 or 600 and there aren't really any bigger towns very close by.

CB&Q and Amtrak didn’t stop in Quincy. When the Burlington built the West Quincy station in the late ‘40’s, early ‘50’s, that became the station. It was kind of a mid century moderne gem actually. Similar stations were built in LaCrosse, Burlington and Ottumwa, though Burlington and Ottumwa were much larger. It was later in Amtrak era that trains started stopping in downtown Quincy.

 

[como]

CB&Q and Amtrak didn’t stop in Quincy. When the Burlington built the West Quincy station in the late ‘40’s, early ‘50’s, that became the station. It was kind of a mid century moderne gem actually. Similar stations were built in LaCrosse, Burlington and Ottumwa, though Burlington and Ottumwa were much larger. It was later in Amtrak era that trains started stopping in downtown Quincy.

This YouTube video includes pictures of the station in West Quincy. Downtown Quincy, IL is no more than five minutes from the site of the old station. .

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Interesting station building - definitely late Streamline/early "MCM" to some degree. Love the old Vega and Pinto in the lot.

 

[PaulM]

When the Burlington-Rock Island, "Zephyr Rocket" started in 1941, it ran between Quincy and Hannibal in about 30 minutes....

https://streamlinermemories.info/RI/RI41ZephyrRocket.pdf

Since it's at least 140 miles from W. Quincy to St Louis, I doubted the 30 minutes. The time table in the attachment show it leaving St. Louis at 5:30PM and arriving in Quincy at 8:23PM.

 

[PaulM]

One thing I'm unsure of is when the service stopped. I found info online that said service was cut back on May 1, 1994. My memory is that service was disrupted during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1993 because the trains couldn't cross over to West Quincy and that it never restarted. But my memory could be wrong. So I'm not sure if service was cut in summer 1993 and never came back then was officially taken off the schedule in 1994, or if service resumed and then they decided to cut it back shortly thereafter.

Service was cut by the 93 flood which inundated the BNSF yard in W. Quincy (where the station was located) along with the entire flood plane on the Missouri side of the river. I don't believe the service was ever restarted once the waters finally receded..