Another frustrating railroad line...

Once again tried my luck around Vermont, Table Grove to Adair only to come up with nothing.  I go to Bushnell and sit there forever and a day and only seen track equipment run on the BNSF line.  They roll pass me then switch over to the siding where the Caboose is at Bushnell in front of me.  After that I go to Prairie City to the north and see more track equipment and looked like they were working on track so I left and cut my losses. and go home.  This isn't going to be a long blog or even an eventful one but still putting what I got out so it's better than nothing.  I also take a picture of the Canton Opera House which after an explosion in November 2016 may be torn down soon.  This building has  been around forever and  lived through so much including tornadoes.  
Down north west of Lewistown off Route 97 I took a picture of what i think and have been told was a Old signal box for a railroad that crossed the highway in this area back in the 1960's.  This line would have been the CB&Q which had a spur line up to United Electric Cuba Mine aka Mine No 9. That mine shut down around 1971 so I imagine the tracks were taken out around or before that time.  TP&W also served it to the north of their track so it's kind of weird to have two Railroads serve one mine.  Well I suppose not really but in my county it's the first I came across so far like that.  A mine up in Norris might have been served by both CB&Q/BN & C&NW at one time but not entrely sure if it was at the same time or different times.  Either way all of these lines are long gone and some right of ways are easier to spot than others. 

 The line i'm frustrated with because i do not know when they run or how often is the BNSF line that runs from Bushnell down to Beardstown.  I have only seen one train on it in Vermont months back and didn't get to catch the whole thing and Table Grove haven't caught anything there in years.  I wish i had a camera then.















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulton County, Illinois Ghost towns Part 1

Image
Ghost towns are abandoned villages that since disappeared or are no longer the population they were in their hey day after an economic down fall, disaster or whatever.  For me I consider a ghost town a town that no longer exists but may or may not leave traces behind of it's existence.  Fulton County has a lot of old historical towns like Canton which was founded in 1825 and Lewistown which was founded  years before Canton.  These towns are example of towns that managed to make it despite economic disasters and natural ones. Former towns which have signs marking their location like Civer between Canton and Cuba and Tuscumbia around Bernadotte are examples of towns that didn't make it and ceased to exist and into oblivion of history.  The only thing that is exists is those two signs that mark the location.  It's sad in a way but it is what it is and people who lived in these areas did what they had to for survival of the time period so if they moved to other communities can
Read more

Middle Grove- Rapatee Coal mine

Image
This subject is about the coal mine at Middle Grove and Rapatee areas. I basically just know the years and also what Railroads served them but i did get to photograph the area of this so there is a general idea of this.   The Midland Electric Coal Company has several strip mines within Fulton and Knox Counties from the years 1933-1963 ( Fulton County, strip),1963-1967 (Knox County strip), and Peabody Coal Company which  opened in 1968 and closed around that time or 1969. The mine would open once again and be the Middle Grove-Rapatee mine in 1975 or 1976 under the Midland Coal Company I think.  It ran until 1988 but the last rail shipment was in or around 1986 by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.   Another company nearby or in this vicinity would be the Midstate Coal Company  which was a strip mine and operated from 1989-1996.  Over the decades it used the area railroads before 1960 it was the M&STL would would ship their coal and after it was Chicago & Northwestern.  The
Read more

Buckheart mine of Dunfermline

Image
East of Dunfermline and southeast of Canton was a pretty good sized coal mine at one time that area old timer's either worked there or knew people  who did and this mine was known as the Buckheart  mine.  It is situated  in an area around Buckheart creek and in Buckheart township hence the name.  The United Electric Coal company ran mine #17 from 1937-1975.  In 1976 not  too far from the area Duck Creek Power plant was built. In 1975 the mine became the Freeman United Coal company.  Other than the dates and that it was pretty good size for a mine in this county I don't know alot about it.  But this area had mines in the vicinity for a good 100 years on and off.  The Saint David area was really a jackpot with many mines coming and going over the years and this area i'm talking about is no different there was mine here for a while even before United electric in 1937.  Now a days is  strip mine lakes, the power plant and i'm sure still traces o
Read more