bus bridge, 21/22

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fillyjonk

OBS Chief
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Looks like the Mississippi (and other river) flooding is going to lead to a bus bridge.

I got the email that my trip on 21 scheduled for 1/5 has a "service disruption." A phone call reveals it will be a STL to LRK bus bridge.

Which is not fun (and for the sake of everyone in MO/AR I wish there were no flooding) but is better than what I was fearing - a bus ride from STL to MIN. Hopefully they get motorcoaches rather than city buses,, which is what I got to ride on the last time (around 2008? I think) this happened. (And hopefully the driver doesn't play loud, shoot-em-up movies the whole trip, which the driver did last time - and yes, I complained.)
 
I was about to ask how does the Mississippi River affect 21 south of St. Louis? But then I noticed from google maps that 21's route follows the Mississippi closely for about 30 miles before heading southwest.

The Ozarks do have a lot of smaller rivers with low level bridges, more like concrete slabs, that drivers love to test how deep the water can get without drowning when trying to cross. But they shouldn't affect a main line railroad.
 
For my 1/1/16 #421 trip to LA, I was notified by email of a service disruption. A call to AGR confirmed that it's a bus bridge from St. Louis to Little Rock as of 3:00pm. Tuesday

I also see that the 12/29 #22 made it through the flood zone, so I guess it's still a crap-shoot.
 
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I was about to ask how does the Mississippi River affect 21 south of St. Louis? But then I noticed from google maps that 21's route follows the Mississippi closely for about 30 miles before heading southwest.

The Ozarks do have a lot of smaller rivers with low level bridges, more like concrete slabs, that drivers love to test how deep the water can get without drowning when trying to cross. But they shouldn't affect a main line railroad.
Paul, absolutely right. There is a stretch where it runs RIGHT NEXT to the river, and I was worrying given the flood stages listed if the water would get over the tracks (does anyone remember if that happened in '93, with the higher (49 foot) crest? Was the TE even running that route then?)

Also, there are a lot of areas near the river where the train crosses other tributaries and I bet a lot of those are going to be high.

The "concrete slab" bridges are called low-water crossing where I live (in Oklahoma) and I HATE them, having grown up in a wetter climate where streams and creeks were pretty much always at normal elevation, so they feel unnatural to me. I have a very hard time bringing myself to drive across them even when the water is barely a trickle. And from time to time during the rainy season there are rescues off of those areas - in my town, the main low-water crossing is blocked off with barricades if the water is above a certain level.

I suspect there are also some low lying areas where the soil has gotten very boggy and saturated and could shift if something as heavy as a train crosses it.
 
The "concrete slab" bridges are called low-water crossing where I live (in Oklahoma) and I HATE them, having grown up in a wetter climate where streams and creeks were pretty much always at normal elevation, so they feel unnatural to me. I have a very hard time bringing myself to drive across them even when the water is barely a trickle. And from time to time during the rainy season there are rescues off of those areas - in my town, the main low-water crossing is blocked off with barricades if the water is above a certain level.
And if all you see are the heads of Livestock standing near one of these crossings, that is usually a good sign to turn around and go back :)
 
Don't know a thing about trains and water, but I was on the edge of my seat watching this:

 
They won't close the tracks until the water is above the sleepers -- though it's pretty unusual to run the trains once the sleepers are covered. I was on one very interesting train ride with nothing but water visibile on both sides of the track.
 
What caught my eye in the previous video was that in addition to the water being above the level of the sleepers/ties, the water was clearly flowing from one side of the roadbed to the other. It wasn't merely standing water. This one shot in (I think) Argentina is quite spectacular!


Looks like a good way to wash your train - as long as there's no sewage backed up. ^_^
 
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All that water in the train videos brings to mind brings to mind the three most common types of sport angling up here. The first two don't require a boat and are known as still fishing and bait casting. The third does require a boat because the bait is pulled along through the water behind it - but I can never remember what it's called. I think it starts with letter t. Dang memory goes to pot when ya hit 75. :p
 
I've always wondered why these kind of water crossings are called "Low Water Crossings" when the water is High when it Floods the road??!!!
Simple....for the same reason we drive on the parkways, and park on the driveways.... :p
 
"Sleepers" is the international term for what we Americans call "ties". But if the floodwaters are above my sleeper on the CONO, I think I would prefer to fly rather than largemouth bass in the Mississippi River at "eye level".
 
All that water in the train videos brings to mind brings to mind the three most common types of sport angling up here. The first two don't require a boat and are known as still fishing and bait casting. The third does require a boat because the bait is pulled along through the water behind it - but I can never remember what it's called. I think it starts with letter t. Dang memory goes to pot when ya hit 75. :p
:p
 
They won't close the tracks until the water is above the sleepers -- though it's pretty unusual to run the trains once the sleepers are covered. I was on one very interesting train ride with nothing but water visibile on both sides of the track.
About 15-20 years back, I watched the CP crew closing the track in flood-time at Hastings Junction, near the confluence of Mississipi and St Croix.

The water didn't cover the "sleepers" yet, but the last freight through there for a couple weeks (Amtrak route MSP-CHI) that train -- ran at about 1 mph with 2 or 3 supervisors walking (wading) along side.

And the walking crew behind that last freight spiked the switch, sorry - no service.

Amtrak service was disrupted for a few weeks.

There's been floods always. American Railways, many, are "Water Level Route" = cheap to build, but follow the river curves, and the floods

There's no way for non-locals (or locals even) to tell how the floods will affect the rails.

Looks good so far.
 
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Crew on 22 was reporting that bus bridge will last until 1/5/16.
Wow, I really hope that's correct; I travel on the 5th. I'm going to call today to see if anyone can tell me - if I have to run to a bus in STL and then back to a train in LTR, like originally planned, I am going to mail most of my clothing back to me so I don't have a suitcase to drag. (I get off at an unmanned station)
 
I called this morning and was told it would still be a bus for 1/5, bus from STL to Little Rock.

Here's hoping it's more organized than last time I had to be bused, back in '08 or thereabouts - that was a real cluster. Part of the problem was that the passengers were very pushy and shove-y, and loud and rude once they were on the buses.
 
On 22 this past June, we were on time to the far suburbs of STL, the rain was so hard it was a waterfall off the train and everything around us. Our sleeper was on the rear, at one point, with the train inching forward, the water was rising fast and all you could see were the rails, occasionally the tops of the ties. The Conductor told us that it was safer to slowly move forward than to stop not knowing how high the water would rise. He also said the ground elevation ahead was rising, so we were heading up and not staying level. He and/or another Conductor continually watched out the rear door, giving occasional updates as well as receiving them from the engineer. We arrived STL about 4-5 hours late.
 
On 1/1/16, I was on the #21 and let's just say theThe St. Louis - Little Rock flood ride was an 8-hour bus bridge from hell! I will never do that one again!
 
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Totally agree!! Doing a long, cramped, over night bus ride through NE Arkansas and SE Missouri is pure torture. Those paying for a sleeper it is even worse. I suggest get your money back and Fly and I hate to fly.
 
Well, I did the bus bridge. It wasn't fun but it wasn't terrible, by the time I traveled (1/5 into 1/6) most of the roads had re-opened. They put all the sleeper pax on one bus, and the coach pax on another. I later found out from the couple I ate breakfast with that on their bus there were people screaming and cursing at each other, and the driver did nothing, so I feel lucky - my bus was quiet.

Not comfortable, but quiet.

It did take only about 5-6 hours once we were underway.

The seats were pretty cramped and wow, I thought Oklahoma took bad care of its road but at one point the road we were running over in Arkansas was apparently so beat-up that the bus was jouncing on a regular 0.5 second interval (I counted it out). In Little Rock, they were kind of disorganized and we had to wait a little bit for our beds to be made up because the train had run out of sheets (!) and was waiting on sheets from St. Louis, brought on the bus (!!)

I will say Reggie, my car attendant there, did his very best and he got the beds (or at least mine) made up as fast as possible, and I appreciate that. I don't so much appreciate that the person sent to meet the bus was screaming at us and acting like we were children who knew nothing, and also told us "all" the carry on bags had been taken off and placed on the sidewalk - mine was not and if I had trusted them, I don't know what would have become of my bag - I walked over to the bus and there it was sitting.

Word is it will be another week or so before the train is back in service, apparently some of the roadbeds need to be inspected after the flooding. Someone said, "They found more problems after the water receded" but that was not official word.

At any rate, I'm glad to be done with the trip and home.
 
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