The Transcon in Northeast Missouri

If you want to see the greatest show in freight railroading in this country, head to the BNSF main line between Chicago and Los Angeles known as the Transcon. In northeast Missouri around Ethyl, the former Santa Fe, Chicago to Kansas City portion of the Transcon, known in past years as the Airline and Speedway, encounters rough terrain that necessitated many cuts and fills. As trains surmount the hogbacks between the river valleys there, they encounter grades up to eight tenths of a percent and curvature that limits trains to between forty-five and fifty-five miles an hour for many miles and even slower speeds on the grades. Several wooden bridges giving overhead views of trains have brought railfans to this scenic part of northeast Missouri for decades. This program shows over twenty-four hours of awesome action on BNSF’s Marceline Subdivision, part of the BNSF Transcon, in northeast Missouri in April of 2012. And Union Pacific trains between Los Angeles and Chicago use this line also, a condition of the Burlington Northern – Santa Fe merger. “The Transcon in Northeast Missouri” is a two disk set and is 2 hours and 20 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.