[RITSlist] Belleville, KS to Lincoln, NE Line

[Norm Metcalf]

The last time I was there the ex-RI from Fairbury to a point near Hallam 
had been purchased by the Nebraska Public Power District and operated 
under contract by the UP.   At Hallam the trackmobile had been replaced 
by NPPX 1, which is supposed to be a GP38 nee GMO 705:2.  Norm Metcalf, 
Boulder Colorado

jpslhedgpeth at aol.com wrote:
> ERic et al
>  
> The RI between BElleville and Lincoln is NOT totally abandoned.  The 
> portion between Fairbury and Hallam is still very much alive.  I'm not 
> sure whether it's still owned by the Kansas Port Authority or has been 
> purchased by the UP, but anyhow the UP has upgraded the line from 
> Fairbury to the coal fired powered plant east of Hallam and they 
> operate coal trains to and from the power plant and unit grain trains 
> from the elevatator at Plymouth.
>
> I'm not sure when the line between Belleville (maybe it was actually 
> Scandia) and Fairbury was pulled up, but it was quite awhile after the 
> 1980 shutdown.
>
> There is really no reason for a railroad between Lincoln and Hallam or 
> between Fairbury and Belleville so that's why its gone.
>
> The Kyle locomotive you saw in SW Lincoln, was probably shortly after 
> the shutdown when Kyle was operating the line, although I don't think 
> that there was ever a train run by anybody after the shutdown between 
> Omaha and Hallam.
>
> There is a short piece of the RI still in place from about Vine Street 
> in Lincoln out to 33rd St.  It's operated by the Omaha Lincoln and 
> Beatrice and used primarily for making up and staging grain trains and 
> giving the OL&B access to some of their industries and enginehouse/shop.
>
> Pete in Lincoln, NE
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Miller <emillerz at yahoo.com>
> To: ritslist at simpson.edu
> Sent: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:20 pm
> Subject: [RITSlist] Belleville, KS to Lincoln, NE Line
>
> A friend recently posed a question to me: why has the
> former Rock Island line been abandoned between
> Belleville, KS and Lincoln, NE?  I hadn't really
> thought about this one, and I think it is a good
> question indeed.  I would assume that the connection
> between northern Kansas and the Lincoln/Omaha centers
> would be a viable one to keep, also important as a
> secondary line east of Denver.
>
> I know that when Kyle first started, they ran all the
> way east to Hallam, NE, where they connected with the
> BNSF to Lincoln.  When I was in college in Lincoln
> about 5 years ago, I remember seeing an occasional
> Kyle locomotive in the southwest Lincoln.  So what
> happened?
>
> If anyone has any insight into this, I would be most
> appreciative.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric Miller
>
>
>       ____________________________________________________________________________________



-- 
BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS
------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: This message was trained as non-spam.  If this is wrong,
please correct the training as soon as possible.

Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 20881899) is spam:
Spam:        https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=20881899&m=5a0d457f699a&c=s
Not spam:    https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=20881899&m=5a0d457f699a&c=n
Forget vote: https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=20881899&m=5a0d457f699a&c=f
------------------------------------------------------
END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS