The Cimarron River has been conquered!

After previous bridges over the river have been washed out on this portion of the Golden State Route, Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific, trackgangs have completed trackwork and bridgework on the "Samson of the Cimarron" bridge over the Cimarron River. Trains have now been running over the line for a few hours. We have some pics of the first train over the bridge, a ZKCLA intermodel and here they are.The first pic is of the train beginning it's crossing of the 1269 foot long bridge.
The next pic is of the train midway across the bridge. You can see the guys in KC are supporting their country in having put the UP unit with flag in the lead.

The third picture is of the rearend of the train near the end of the bridge. The autoracks at the end of the train are destined for Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

And the last pic is of the tailend coming out of the Cimarron River valley. It's one heck of a climb out of there.
Trackgangs are now working west and have the town of Liberal all layed out now. The next update for this route will come in a week, once life springs up in Liberal. I'm sorry to anyone who is offended by the UP unit running on this old Rock, SSW trackage, but when I discovered this route and started railfanning it, the UP was 3 years into owning the route. (That's what I get with only railfanning the SF/BNSF in my life.)BTW, if you would like to see pics of the real bridge, go to http://ksphototour.8m.com/samson.htmThanks for your time today!Austin S.
austin_seely@yahoo.com
BNSF in Kansas
(Route Progress Continued)
KanCo RailCorp
(Pittsburg, KS to Pueblo, CO.)
Milwaukee Road
(Harlowton to Miles City)

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RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, cn_bayview, Aug-04-02, 01:29 AM, (1) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, IcyFire, Aug-04-02, 01:48 AM, (2) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, BN_9402, Aug-04-02, 12:15 PM, (3) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, MKT1972, Aug-05-02, 00:03 AM, (4) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, BN_9402, Aug-05-02, 01:19 PM, (5) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, MKT1972, Aug-05-02, 04:39 PM, (6) RE: The Cimarron River has been conquered!, BN_9402, Aug-05-02, 09:51 PM, (7) New Bridge Pics, BN_9402, Aug-06-02, 03:47 PM, (8)

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The bridge looks great!
Can't wait to see more screenshots of it and the route!
Keep up the great work!
Thanks
Rob

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that's a sweet looking bridge you have there, but it must be a dry season eh? I see no water to cross

Shawn "IcyFire" Kenselaar
"...But in a way the Big Boy never left, It still offers the high tractive effort, In a articulated wheel configuration!"

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Yeah, all of Kansas is in a drought watch, but the southwestern part of the state is really in need of rain, badly! There usually is a small stream running through the area, but that dried up a few months ago. It's starting to look like the Mojave Desert instead of western Kansas.Thanks for the nice comments. I've been starting to put some vegetation around the bridge so it doesn't look like a big flat desert.Austin S.
austin_seely@yahoo.com
BNSF in Kansas
(Route Progress Continued)
KanCo RailCorp
(Pittsburg, KS to Pueblo, CO.)
Milwaukee Road
(Harlowton, Mt to Miles City, Mt.)
The Golden State Route
(Kismet, KS, to Dalhart, Tx)

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-05-02 AT 00:10 AM (EDT)

Kiss my ass...Dude, if you need pics or anything give me a holler I just live about 7 miles from that bridge in Liberal, KS right where that line rolls through...Awesome. Any help you need just let me know, to the west of that bridge is also the largest helium plant in the world last time I checked.Edit: That should read Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific in there also 1972

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>Kiss my ass...Dude, if you need pics or anything give me a
>holler I just live about 7 miles from that bridge in
>Liberal, KS right where that line rolls through...Awesome.
>Any help you need just let me know, to the west of that
>bridge is also the largest helium plant in the world last
>time I checked.
>
>Edit: That should read Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific in
>there also Whatever pics you got, I'd love to see them. I never get out in that part of the state too often, so I just go off of terraserve pics and pictures I have in a bunch of SP and Rock Island books. I have a better looking bridge in there now instead of that default bridge I had. I've gotten some of the industry tracks in at Liberal along with the yard. I remember the road to the helium plant, it goes under the bridge on the northeast side of the bridge. I haven't seen the helium plant in person, but I hear it is huge. BTW, I would put the Rock name in the route, but I don't wanna have too many derailments due to their crappy trackwork I'll get some newer pics of the bridge and of the area around Liberal. I'm building the route from Kismet to Dalhart, Texas, so it will be mainly a flat route with a few grades, especially coming out of the Cimarron River valley.Thanks in advance!Austin S.
austin_seely@yahoo.com
MSTS Route Designer

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Will make it a point to do some foaming this weekend then, BTW Liberal just restored the old RI depot here and it looks really nice. Will try to get you some pics of things of interest from Kismet to Dalhart. And yes the grade coming out of the Valley is rather severe, especially for cars and trucks. Highway 54 pretty much follows that route all the way to Dalhart, so getting pics will be easy I would think. 1972

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Oh yeah, I've foamed the route all the way from Pratt to Tucumacari on several different occasions. I haven't had enough time to actually explore the route as we were always in a hurry to get to Albuquerque. Make sure you don't get yourself in trouble with the UP gestapo agents with all the trackwork and whatnot they've been doing down there. I've seen some pics of the restored depot on the fallen flag site. I'll try to do a reasonable replica of the depot in TSM when I get a chance.Again, thanks in advance for all your help!Austin S.
austin_seely@yahoo.com
MSTS Route Designer

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Here are some new pics of the updated bridge over the Cimarron. I'm gonna hold off on the scenery until I get better photos of the area.
Austin S.
austin_seely@yahoo.com
MSTS Route Designer

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