I hope someone can help me figure this out. In looking through an August 1969 Official Guide under the CB&Q as well as an April 1971 issue (last before Amtrak) I see a notation for all stations on the line crossing the very southern tier of Nebraska that indicates On the line indicated. Not shown in time-tables. There is not any symbol showing For freight only. The line enters the state at Rulo,passes through Table Rock, Pawnee, Superior, Red Cloud and Orleans before joining the Chicago-Denver mainline at Oxford. Was this possibly a mail and express train or a single coach passenger train that was run in order to protect some bygone tax agreement? Perhaps someone has an employee timetable from this period that could shed some light on the subject. Thanks for any help.
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Mystery Train On the "Q"
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I've been able to find out that this line was known as the Republican Valley Line. Last scheduled passenger service was inthe early 1950's. I'm still trying to discover why the stations on this line did not have the For Freight Only notation in the Official Guide. Possibly a scheduled mail train?
Probably not a mail train in 1969, mail was taken off the railroads a few years earlier (causing many trains to be discontinued, and creating the need for Amtrak). There were some lines in Wisconsin at that time (and later) where passengers had to be accomodated in the caboose if they showed up (which they rarely did). It might be something like that??
I used to work on that line (at least the Orleans and west part) when it was operated by NKC RailNet. This was a secondary main line that paralled the Denver Main at Alma, Nebraska, two ex CB&Q branches extended into Kansas, one going to St. Francis and the other to Oberlin.
The line in question is known as the "High Line". It runs along the crest of a divide that separates the Republican River watershed from the South Platte River watershed. It goes west from Orleans through Curtis and Mayfield, Wallace and Grant, and leaves Nebraska at Venango. It passes through Holyoke Colorado and connects with the Denver Main at Sterling, CO.
There was a joint UP-CBQ passenger station at Sterling that has been preserved. In it are passenger schedules for the High Line. This route was served by a CB&Q gas-electric before passenger service was abandoned.
The NKC is now part of Omnitrax. It is based out of Grant, NE.
Les
The line in question is known as the "High Line". It runs along the crest of a divide that separates the Republican River watershed from the South Platte River watershed. It goes west from Orleans through Curtis and Mayfield, Wallace and Grant, and leaves Nebraska at Venango. It passes through Holyoke Colorado and connects with the Denver Main at Sterling, CO.
There was a joint UP-CBQ passenger station at Sterling that has been preserved. In it are passenger schedules for the High Line. This route was served by a CB&Q gas-electric before passenger service was abandoned.
The NKC is now part of Omnitrax. It is based out of Grant, NE.
Les