Nomad of Mid-America
Treetop Running
One of the more obscure routes on UP's vast system is the Mosher Branch of the Ste. Genevieve Industrial Lead, 28 miles of excepted track connecting Ste. Genevieve and Bismark, MO, through remote Missouri wilderness. Once the route of the Missouri-Illinois Railroad (a Missouri Pacific subsidiary), this branch is normally out of service and survives solely to serve Mississippi Lime's quarry in Ste. Genevieve during flood events. Carloads of lime are typically shipped a more direct route northward from the quarry via BNSF's River Subdivision. However, when the Mississippi River rises and flooding closes the River Sub, the carloads are routed via the Mosher Branch to the connection with UP's De Soto Subdivision at Bismark. With ongoing flooding hampering operations on BNSF's River Sub, the Mosher Branch has been seeing service 7-days a week in recent months. Between 0900 and 1000 each morning, local LSH15 departs Ste. Genevieve and trundles west at 10 mph with approximately two dozen loads, making the slow trip to Bismark in around three hours before returning to Ste. Genevieve with empties in the afternoon.
The branch typically follows the forest floor between Ste. Genevieve and Bismark and crosses very few bridges. One notable exception is the high steel trestle west of Weingarten, on which LSH15 07 is shown en route to Bismark behind an SP-painted GP60. Shamefully, the bridge's remote location makes it difficult to see, and photography is difficult without the assistance from an aerial vehicle.
Treetop Running
One of the more obscure routes on UP's vast system is the Mosher Branch of the Ste. Genevieve Industrial Lead, 28 miles of excepted track connecting Ste. Genevieve and Bismark, MO, through remote Missouri wilderness. Once the route of the Missouri-Illinois Railroad (a Missouri Pacific subsidiary), this branch is normally out of service and survives solely to serve Mississippi Lime's quarry in Ste. Genevieve during flood events. Carloads of lime are typically shipped a more direct route northward from the quarry via BNSF's River Subdivision. However, when the Mississippi River rises and flooding closes the River Sub, the carloads are routed via the Mosher Branch to the connection with UP's De Soto Subdivision at Bismark. With ongoing flooding hampering operations on BNSF's River Sub, the Mosher Branch has been seeing service 7-days a week in recent months. Between 0900 and 1000 each morning, local LSH15 departs Ste. Genevieve and trundles west at 10 mph with approximately two dozen loads, making the slow trip to Bismark in around three hours before returning to Ste. Genevieve with empties in the afternoon.
The branch typically follows the forest floor between Ste. Genevieve and Bismark and crosses very few bridges. One notable exception is the high steel trestle west of Weingarten, on which LSH15 07 is shown en route to Bismark behind an SP-painted GP60. Shamefully, the bridge's remote location makes it difficult to see, and photography is difficult without the assistance from an aerial vehicle.