I expect that the last few days have seen the last of my route creations. As I guess many have seen, Google plans to discontinue support for Google Earth in 6/2027. So I decided I had better go ahead and digitize the routes I HOPE to produce at least to the level of working but incomplete. I have around 10 routes, all prototype, in the queue. So what are these last two, maybe 3.
First is the entire loaded train route of MRS Logistica. Parts of it have been done by folks in Brazil, but most of those cover the empty train route. In 2011, the company I worked for then got a contract to provide new signal controls etc. for at least the loaded train route. From recent ground views, it appears to me that the actual signals may or may not have been included since those in use appear to be the SA searchlight type rather than some variation of an inline signal. The line is easily traced on GE and while the heights are not great at the summits, several i.e., the terrain is rugged. Much of the loaded train route, i.e. Barra Manza to the ore pits near Belo Horizonte was built new in the 1980s, so modern contructioin methods were used and one result is that in the first 55KM, there are more than 50 tunnels, and in roughly 250KM there are 70+ and one of these is the longest in S.A. at least when it was constructed. The idea was to keep grades reasonable and so there are only a few places that exceed 1%. There are more than a 100 bridges, many of which are tall and long, but most of them are made of deck girder spans on tall concrete pillars, rather than the steel towers common in the US. Most bridges do not have guard rails and they do have cat walks on both sides of the track. My friends that went to Brazil to study the situation said the track gauge was 5 feet but I suspect it is actually 1.5 meters +-. I did make one mistake in that the first partt, MRS01 should extend from the ore port through Barra do Paria to Barra Manza, and the 2nd part from there to the pits, but I erred and have done the first part all the way to Barra Manza. My friends took a lot of pictures, both for design purposes and for what they called "tourist" pictures. Well we have in this country a chain of motels called "Motel Six". However in Brazil Portuguese, this comes out Motel SEX so there were a lot of friendly jabs about that. I enjoyed the time I had with the MRS folks who came to our facility. I drafted (CAD) nearly all of the typicals and as I would enter nomenclature in English, they would translate it, and then I would enter it on another level in Brazil Portuguese. So this is one of them.
In 1946, when I was wee lad of 7, my mother & grandmother just had to visit their daughter/sister who lived on a farm outside Spencer, IA. The war was over and the Interstate abomination was a few years in the future. Airlines were for the wealthy or adverturous, rail was the primary mode for long distance travel. So reservations were made for coach from Nashville to Chicago by the L&N and C&EI. The train was the Dixie Limited as I recall. Then Chicago to Spencer was on the Milwaukee Road in a gasp, DRAWING ROOM, real luxury at bargain price in those days. Mother wanted me to see the Mississippi R. so the porter was asked to bang on our door when we stopped at Praire du Chein, WI and he did, so I to this day remember seeing the expanse of water ---- AND --- I wondered about side to side sway of the car. Years later I found that it was FLOATING bridge, really a large barge with a trestle of sorts on it. The track inside this trestle arrangement was jacked up/down to match the height of the rails on the fixed structures as the river rose & fell. I would go this way two more times, 1954 and 1959 and by 1961, the decision had been made to not replace the aging bridge and so the train, the Sioux was discontinued. By 1959 it terminated at Canton, SD but in earlier years it had run all the way to Rapid City, SD and was a favorite way for cattle men to go to Chicago to sell cattle, which would have gone ahead a day or two in stock cars. Today, the railroad, which is now CPKC terminates much further east, but still serves Spencer, IA. The line climbs out of the Mississippi Valley from Marquette, IA on a grade that does not exceed about 1.25% and after that it is essentially level except that there are slight ups/downs like what those of in the south call "hogbacks". There are long tangents, some of several miles and today the most interest feature is the Ethanol plants. At least two are owned by Valero, and there are others. Most of the old grain elevators are gone but more modern ones are still seen in several locations. Back in the days I rode the train, you could look out the rear door (easy, in '59 there was only one coach) and sometimes see 2 or more elevators lined up in a row covering 10 miles or so.
One other route that I am considering, and that I have data for, is the C&EI from Evansville to Chicago, 280 miles which I would probably break at Danville which I recall was a crew change point.
I like to use Google Earth and tend to make a lot of data points. Then I go over the digitized lines and manually record and enter things like turnout, road crossings, bridge abutments etc. In digitizing, I do not put points on the ends of bridge or directly on turnouts
Jerry Sullivan
First is the entire loaded train route of MRS Logistica. Parts of it have been done by folks in Brazil, but most of those cover the empty train route. In 2011, the company I worked for then got a contract to provide new signal controls etc. for at least the loaded train route. From recent ground views, it appears to me that the actual signals may or may not have been included since those in use appear to be the SA searchlight type rather than some variation of an inline signal. The line is easily traced on GE and while the heights are not great at the summits, several i.e., the terrain is rugged. Much of the loaded train route, i.e. Barra Manza to the ore pits near Belo Horizonte was built new in the 1980s, so modern contructioin methods were used and one result is that in the first 55KM, there are more than 50 tunnels, and in roughly 250KM there are 70+ and one of these is the longest in S.A. at least when it was constructed. The idea was to keep grades reasonable and so there are only a few places that exceed 1%. There are more than a 100 bridges, many of which are tall and long, but most of them are made of deck girder spans on tall concrete pillars, rather than the steel towers common in the US. Most bridges do not have guard rails and they do have cat walks on both sides of the track. My friends that went to Brazil to study the situation said the track gauge was 5 feet but I suspect it is actually 1.5 meters +-. I did make one mistake in that the first partt, MRS01 should extend from the ore port through Barra do Paria to Barra Manza, and the 2nd part from there to the pits, but I erred and have done the first part all the way to Barra Manza. My friends took a lot of pictures, both for design purposes and for what they called "tourist" pictures. Well we have in this country a chain of motels called "Motel Six". However in Brazil Portuguese, this comes out Motel SEX so there were a lot of friendly jabs about that. I enjoyed the time I had with the MRS folks who came to our facility. I drafted (CAD) nearly all of the typicals and as I would enter nomenclature in English, they would translate it, and then I would enter it on another level in Brazil Portuguese. So this is one of them.
In 1946, when I was wee lad of 7, my mother & grandmother just had to visit their daughter/sister who lived on a farm outside Spencer, IA. The war was over and the Interstate abomination was a few years in the future. Airlines were for the wealthy or adverturous, rail was the primary mode for long distance travel. So reservations were made for coach from Nashville to Chicago by the L&N and C&EI. The train was the Dixie Limited as I recall. Then Chicago to Spencer was on the Milwaukee Road in a gasp, DRAWING ROOM, real luxury at bargain price in those days. Mother wanted me to see the Mississippi R. so the porter was asked to bang on our door when we stopped at Praire du Chein, WI and he did, so I to this day remember seeing the expanse of water ---- AND --- I wondered about side to side sway of the car. Years later I found that it was FLOATING bridge, really a large barge with a trestle of sorts on it. The track inside this trestle arrangement was jacked up/down to match the height of the rails on the fixed structures as the river rose & fell. I would go this way two more times, 1954 and 1959 and by 1961, the decision had been made to not replace the aging bridge and so the train, the Sioux was discontinued. By 1959 it terminated at Canton, SD but in earlier years it had run all the way to Rapid City, SD and was a favorite way for cattle men to go to Chicago to sell cattle, which would have gone ahead a day or two in stock cars. Today, the railroad, which is now CPKC terminates much further east, but still serves Spencer, IA. The line climbs out of the Mississippi Valley from Marquette, IA on a grade that does not exceed about 1.25% and after that it is essentially level except that there are slight ups/downs like what those of in the south call "hogbacks". There are long tangents, some of several miles and today the most interest feature is the Ethanol plants. At least two are owned by Valero, and there are others. Most of the old grain elevators are gone but more modern ones are still seen in several locations. Back in the days I rode the train, you could look out the rear door (easy, in '59 there was only one coach) and sometimes see 2 or more elevators lined up in a row covering 10 miles or so.
One other route that I am considering, and that I have data for, is the C&EI from Evansville to Chicago, 280 miles which I would probably break at Danville which I recall was a crew change point.
I like to use Google Earth and tend to make a lot of data points. Then I go over the digitized lines and manually record and enter things like turnout, road crossings, bridge abutments etc. In digitizing, I do not put points on the ends of bridge or directly on turnouts
Jerry Sullivan
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