ABOVE: On a sunny September day in 2011, TRRA GP38-3 2005 leads a 103 transfer from Luther Yard on NS rails at Broadway Avenue in St Louis. RIGHT: TRRA SD40-2 3006 works the “trim job” at Madison Yard as a trio of GP38-3s on the 101 job pass by light power at “CP Jct.” in Brooklyn, Ill.
Ill. Route 3 and the tracks of NS and KCS on a curved bridge before turning south for a run along the Mississippi River with view of downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. The line passes through Wiggins No. 5 yard within site of the Gateway Arch before turning southeast for a connection with the Oil Works Industrial Lead. It offers great morning views with the downtown St. Louis skyline and Gateway Arch from Front Street in East St. Louis, Ill. The problem is the light traffic density, al- though the line has heavy online indus- try. TRRA runs an afternoon industry job “Monsanto” to work customers on the southeast end near Sauget on the Oil Works Industrial Lead. Other traf- fic consists of transfers to and from Al- ton & Southern’s Gateway yard, and BNSF and UP grain trains to the large Bunge Bulk Service East rail-to-river unloader on Front Street in East St. Louis. There are less than five trains a day total, with the exception being the stretch along Front Street in East St. Louis which runs through largely in ac- cessible areas.
Merchants District: The longest
and busiest district on the TRRA be- gins at MP 0.0 at Grand Avenue three miles west of downtown St. Louis with- in sight of Interstate 1-64. Grand Av- enue is where UP, BNSF and Amtrak trains access TRRA rails. The line runs through downtown St. Louis passing the Amtrak depot and Busch Stadium (home of the St. Louis Cardinals) before
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a connection is made near MP 2.5 with the MacArthur Bridge district. The line then turns north passing beneath a se- ries of manmade tunnels carrying the rails beneath the Gateway Arch and Jefferson Memorial Expansion Park. This line then passes through his- toric Laclede’s Landing over a very pic- turesque steel trestle and then through heavily industrialized North St. Louis, Mo. At MP 5.2 a connection is made with the BNSF Hannibal sub; BNSF contributes 20 trains a day to the Mer- chants District. Near MP 6.3 Bremen Avenue the line begins its climb onto the Merchants Bridge and across the mighty Mississippi. Once across the river the line drops downhill and across Route 3 before coming into “SH Inter- locking” in Madison, Ill. At “SH” trains can go in three directions: 1) enter Madison yard; 2) connect with TRRA Illinois Transfer District to the east or 3) continue north on Merchants Dis-
trict closely following State Street in Madison, for the run to WR Tower. Another very important connection exists at MP 9.3 where it connects to Norfolk Southern’s A&E line. The TRRA is a frequent user of the A&E with daily BNSF iron ore trains and carloads of steel and scrap coming from the TRRA’s largest customer, United States Steel Granite City Works. TRRA runs an evening “Granite” job to switch the nu- merous industries between Madison Yard and WR Tower. This job has such a heavy workload the crew often goes dead on hours, having to be relieved by a third trick job. At WR Tower MP 10.2 TRRA rails end and connections are made with KCS, UP, BNSF, Amtrak, NS and Port Harbor Railroad. The ten mile long Merchants District is the car- rier’s most diverse, with heavy indus- try, steel bridges, tunnels, etc. and is probably the best TRRA line to railfan for a visiting photographer.
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