RI Missouri Right of Way

My company(Ameren) wound up with the C&RI line from St.Louis County to Pleasant hill or even further west if it continues on from there; with the disaster at our pumped hydro plant at Taum Sauk they were to lease the RoW from Windsor to Pleasant Hill to the Dept of Natural Resources as a extension to the KATY Trail. So far as I have found the ripping up of track has not occurred and the RoW is still intact if not fully overgrown. There is speculation there may be talks in the works to relay this line, repair the structures that have been long neglected and put the rest of it from Owensville west back to work, the company is thinking it will be easier for them to get their coal to their plants on that line as the UP continues to feed eastern power stations on their main.

 

Great news! I know they have been trying to get this line back up and running.As to the bridge I have never heard anything about it, but it wouldnt surprise me any.

 

The City of Raytown, MO removed a bridge assuming the line would never be used again.They will have to replace it if necessary. I hope it's necessary!

 

When Missouri Central tried to make a go of it I heard stories of not only towns but the State actually paving over crossings and then saying " Not our problem"

I am hoping as well they have to fix that bridge!

 

Sorry to say I work for Ameren and they are no longer in talks to reopen or relay the line, the rail contractors and the UP would not agree to any fixed costs to retrack/tie and bring the line back into service so it will sit and rot; so much for possibilities.

 

There is light in this tunnel, Ameren could not reopen the line into KC without UP's approval as they did sign a agreement not to with them, there is now a lawsuit filed to allow Ameren to use it's own trackage to deliver it's own coal or to have other than UP deliver that coal to the Ameren Missouri fleet of plants.

It will enter court this spring to allow Ameren to use these tracks(after upgrades) to haul Illinois coal to Labadie, in that same light the plants in KC for KCP&L want to use the line to bring the high sulfur stuff their way as well as UP does not want to carry it.

 

Ameren lost their appeal, no coal to ride the old Rock. Still amazes me to see this state spend so much money to build up and keep the trails functional, had they spent that kind of money on the old rail lines they would still be running in many instances.

 

Sorry, I'm late to this party. I can't speak as to the condition from Windsor to KC, but I can tell you, that the line is broken up east of Windsor. Two bridges, one over US 65 and one over Mo 52 east of Cole Camp have been removed. There are several other places where nearby landowners have removed the rail and cut through embankments to get level acces roads to their property.

 

Since the last post, all the track was removed by early 2016 or not much later. The line was still in place at places like Leeton, Post Oak, Chilhowee, and Windsor as late as 2012. By October 2014, all of it was gone west of Windsor, but some was still in place in Bahner, Versailles, and Eldon itself. The last time I saw track east of Beaufort?Leslie area (north and east of Owensville, west of Union) was around Christmas 2015. By a week or two later, the line was up and de-tracked through Gerald and I don't remember how far west. The scrappers didn't waste much time and the Owensville paper even had a feature article showing how fast the crew could unbolt and remove rail, leaving the ties for later. There's a grade crossing at US 50 west of Union that is or was pretty much the end-of-track and I'll try to get some photos or links shortly.