Mississippi River Railway

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Lafrey01
Railroadfan...fan
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Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:41 pm

Mississippi River Railway

Unread post by Lafrey01 »

This railroad is comprised of over 1000 miles of track along the Mississippi River in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Louisiana. The line starting at La Crescent, MN is owned by Canadian Pacific through the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad. It runs from here (Interchange with Canadian Pacific) to Dubuque, IA through Marquette, IA (line west owned by CP (DME) as well) interchanging with Canadian National at Dubuque. The line then continues across the river to connect with more of their system which I'll get to further down. The line continues south from Dubuque passing through Sabula and interchanging with Canadian Pacific yet again, this time through Iowa, Chicago and Eastern. There is switching in East Clinton and Clinton and the line continues south to Davenport now with BNSF trackage rights. In Davenport, a line branches out to Eldridge and numerous lines move into Illinois one serving the Rock Island Arsenal with the US Army. The line continues down to Muscatine, IA where there are numerous branches to industries around the Muscatine area. The line terminates in Fruitland where is stretches to reach a power plant. At Fruitland, there is an interchange with Canadian Pacific. The next MISS line starts from an interchange with BNSF (Norfolk Southern) at Burlington. It runs south along BNSF tracks with Norfolk Southern trackage rights to Fort Madison where it interchanges with BNSF. The line curves away from the river at Viele to turn south and head towards Keokuk. In Keokuk, MISS interchanges with the Keokuk Junction Railway. The line crosses into Missouri and continues south. At West Quincy, IA, MISS interchanges with BNSF and Norfolk Southern. A yard is located here. Another interchange is made in Hannibal with Norfolk Southern and with Kansas City Southern at Louisiana, MO. The line continues into the St Louis Area with lots of switching lines interchanging with Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, FTRL Railway, Terminal Railway Association, and some private companies. The Mississippi River Railway owns and operates a corporate short line south of St Louis called the Festus and Crystal City Railroad, which operates a few lines in those towns. Other interchanges are made with Union Pacific at the local yard. The line continues further south passing through St Genevieve interchanging with Union Pacific yet again. The line finally terminates in Cape Girardeau interchanging with the Semo Port Railroad and BNSF. There is trackage rights on the Semo Port Railroad. Then the next line picks up from an interchange with Union Pacific at Scott City, MO and goes over the river into Illinois. At Gorham, MISS interchanges with Union Pacific again and continues on Union Pacific tracks in Illinois. Another interchange is made with CN near Chester, IL and the line continues up Sauget, IL area interchanging with UP again along the way near Ellis Grove and with Alton Southern, Terminal Railroad Association, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific in the Sauget area along with some switching lines there. Another interchange is made with TRRA at Brooklyn near the TRRA's main yard. There are trackage rights through East St Louis into Granite City where another line picks up from a connection with Norfolk Southern near the Port Harbor Railroad. There are numerous spurs located in the Granite City area going to a port. The main runs along Missouri Avenue there. The line continues into Wood River where there are 2 main interchanges that are made with Union Pacific before the Norfolk Southern line curves towards Alton. The line continues through Alton terminating on the West side including numerous switching lines in East Alton. This is where this set of lines ends. Up the river in Milan, IL, the line picks back up serving that area as well as Rock Island. The line continues through Moline and into Silvis, where it interchanges with Iowa Interstate. IAIS has numerous trackage rights in the Quad Cities Area. A branch line runs to south of Albany, IL while the main runs through Barstow interchanging with BNSF and out to Lyndon Junction where it takes a 90 degree turn NW towards Savanna. BNSF breaks off SE of Savanna while the line continues into Savanna interchanging with CP. Further up the line, MISS finds a major car storage RR interchange called the Riverport Railroad. MISS tried to file documents to take over RVPR, but failed to do so. CN interchanges at Galena Junction where the line runs E all the way to Chicago. Then, MISS makes it's way into Wisconsin through East Dubuque. Once in Wisconsin, the line runs into Prairie du Chien where 2 interchanges are made. One is with the former WSOR line to Madison, now owned by another paper railroad, the Madison Western, part of Madison Central Lines, who also owns Madison Northern. Prairie Terminal runs along the beaches of Prairie du Chien and switches local industries in Prairie du Chien. After these interchanges the line continues up into La Crosse where one more interchange is made before the end of the line interchange. The La Crosse Terminal Transfer operates a line through Downtown La Crosse. After this, MISS finally interchanges with Canadian Pacific at it's northern terminus. This is just MISS's northern division. They also operate a Southern Division as well :!: . MISS operates a branch from Lilbourn interchanging with BNSF to a port near Marston. This line doesn't currently fall into a division so it is just a separate branch line. The Southern Division starts near Anchorage, LA interchanging with Kansas City Southern. They operate a switching track at Anchorage interchanging with Union Pacific. They run on UP lines south through Port Allen, operating the port there as well. Another interchange is made with Union Pacific at Addis, LA. There the line runs into Morrisonville, where there is a monster Plastics and Chemicals operation that is switched by them. There are numerous ports along this line, not all will be mentioned. The line continues into McCall where there is an interchange with an out of service line owned by the Acadiana Railway. In Luling a ways down the line, there is a major industrial operation where an interchange is made with BNSF and Union Pacific at Boutte. The line continues into the Waggaman and Westwego area interchanging with the New Orleans Public Belt Railway and New Orleans and Gulf Coast Railway. This is the end of this line. The next line starts in New Orleans and runs Eastward into Arabi, interchanging with Norfolk Southern and New Orleans Public Belt Railway at the beginning. It continues through Chalmette and down around into Poydras and Caernarvon. A line branches out to St Bernard, but is heavily out of service. The final line owned by MISS starts at Almedia and runs along the North Side/East Side of the river. This line is leased from Canadian National and runs via Norco (Interchange with KCS) and past numerous Industrial interchanges with KCS to the Baton Rouge area interchanging with Canadian National.
Attachments
Here is their logo
Here is their logo
MISS LOGO.gif (2.85 KiB) Viewed 6131 times
This is an ex Union Pacific paint scheme
This is an ex Union Pacific paint scheme
This is one of MISS's locomotive paint schemes
This is one of MISS's locomotive paint schemes

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