I met John Green in the lobby of the Depot Inn & Suites and we found the car's windshield iced but defrosted it with the windshield cleaner then drove to McDonald's in Kirksville for a good meal of hot cakes and sausage. Our first stop afterwards was in Downing.
The Keokuk and Western (predecessor of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy) station in Downing, Missouri built in 1872. Originally chartered in Missouri as the Alexandria and Bloomfield Railroad Company, by Special Act of February 9, 1857, the act called for the building of a railroad from Alexandria, Missouri, in the direction of Bloomfield in the state of Iowa, to the northern boundary of the state of Missouri. A subsequent Act on February 19, 1866, changed the corporate name to the Alexandria and Nebraska City Railroad Company. On March 2, 1869, the Missouri legislature passed a general law authorizing any railroad company in Missouri to consolidate with a railroad company of an adjoining state. The railroad that consolidated with the Alexandria and Nebraska City Railroad was the Iowa Southern Railway, chartered in 1866 and supported by Centerville, Iowa booster Francis Marion Duke. With the combination of the Alexandria and Nebraska City Railroad Company and the Iowa Southern Railway, the Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska Railway Company was created under general laws of Iowa and Missouri.
Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska Railway Company went into receivership on July 1, 1885 and was sold at foreclosure on August 19, 1886. After the sale, the line became the Keokuk and Western Railroad. On January 1, 1901, the line was bought by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy and was combined with the Humeston and Shenandoah Railroad to corm a line stretching form Keokuk, Iowa to Shenandoah, Iowa.
Grade crossing sign and stone whistle post.
Maintenance worker's cart. From here we drove to West Medill.
BNSF 7133 East at West Medill. We then drove out to County Road MP 285.45 west of Revere.
Union Pacific 7975 West. A BNSF crew was going to close the crossing so we left before they did and went to the second bridge west of Revere.
BNSF 5053 West. We went back to Wyaconda to a new crossing at County Line Road and missed another BNSF train as we arrived just a minute too late. With a cold wind and 39 degrees, we planned to return here during warmer weather.
The view from the County Line Road grade crossing. We crossed the old bridge on Sycamore Lane then turned right on Colt Lane to the grade crossing and parked.
BNSF 5053 West. From here we moved to Hicks Road at the Gorin Crossovers.
Gorin, Missouri.
BNSF 6890 West.
Amtrak Southwest Chief was only 35 minutes late this morning.
BNSF 6850 East.
BNSF 5057 West.
The old smokestack in Gorin was built in 1906 as a facility of the Prairie Oil and Gas Company. We then drove to Powell Road but missed the turnoff then reached the crossing just missing two more BNSF freights. That was the ninth train I missed on this trip.
The rear of the second train we missed at Powell Road. We waited for forty minutes but with no trains, this officially ended the 2016 La Plata Spring Railfan Event and thanks to John Green for attending. We stopped Rutledge to wash the rental car then drove to Colton Steakhouse in Kirksville where I had a top sirloin steak for an early dinner. After returning the rental car to the Depot Inn & Suites, I did laundry, wrote the travelogue and packed while listening to the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Ottawa Senators game. Kris Letang scored his 49th and 50th assists of the season in the 5-3 win by the Penguins. I watched "NCIS" and "Agents of Shield" then called it a night for the last time in La Plata for this trip.
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