Reply To: (Old) Bridge in Rantoul, KS

[princessclyne69]

First I checked the Official Guide (I have a copy from 1966), which shows in the Index of Stations that Rantoul is served by the MP and no other railroad. Rantoul is just west of Osowatomie, which would be the Pueblo main line (now abandoned). I don’t know anything about trails.

But in the Condensed Profile charts, Rantoul shows between milepost 343 and 344. There are two bridges shown between milepost 345 and 346, one is called bridge 24, a 150′ through truss bridge over Middle Creek flowing into the Marais des Cygnes River, the next is bridge 3459 about 1.2 mile to the west, shown as a 3 panel reinforced concrete trestle.

Some explanation on bridge numbers is in order. It appears that at one time, late 19th – early 20th century, significant bridges on MP lines were numbered in order from east to west, in the direction of increasing mileposts. At some point this was changed to include every bridge, and to number the bridges in miles and tenths of miles from St. Louis, to match the mileposts. So the bridge shown as bridge 24 was probably later identified as bridge 3453 because it was around milepost 345.3. That is probably what’s painted on the bridge.

On the Condensed Profile, the only information on the bridge is that it has a clearance of 22′-0″ above the rail. The other piece of information shown on it is that the rail at that location was laid (replacement of earlier rail) in 1938. The elevation above sea level at that point is 838′, with a rise of about 1 foot from the track elevation on either side of the bridge. The track at that point is tangent (straight), with a curve to the right (north) beginning about a half-mile to the west, and a slightly sharper curve to the right, as viewed from the bridge (south) beginning about a half-mile to the east.

Hope this helps.

RG7