With shipping so quiet on the Great Lakes (thanks, Covid-19, for all the lost jobs on the lakes..), I've been looking for something else to watch. Trains is a normal thing for me, though that, too, has been quiet in most parts of the country.
Then this brand new camera showed up via Virtual Railfan on YouTube. This group runs dozens of rail cameras around the world. But this one in Fort Madison, Iowa, only just started (sponsored by the Kingsley Inn, where the camera is mounted) and has quickly become my very favorite place to watch trains.
(If this link breaks, it means they either restarted it - giving it a new URL - or it's no longer a featured (free) camera. Go back to Virtual Railfan to see what's currently available as live feeds on YouTube. You can also go to their network and buy a subscription and get access to all their cameras.)
Boats Get Priority
So, this camera is in Fort Madison, Iowa, along the Mississippi River with plenty of rail traffic and boat traffic. There are tugs pushing barges up and down the river all day long. (Each one causes the swing bridge to open, delaying both rail and motor vehicle traffic - the boats get priority.) Read more about the bridge.
This bridge is considered to be the longest double-decker, swing span bridge in the world. (Cars on the upper deck, trains on the lower.)
Here is a great informative video about this bridge. Warning, the siren (played when the gates across the road are lowered or raised) is horrible! (They sound more like tornado sirens - and this is tornado country!)
Here is a captain's view of the swing bridge. I really appreciate hearing some of the chatter going on between the captain and the bridgemaster as well as the considerations made as the tug approaches the bridge.
The barges seem to haul primarily wheat in chains of barges. When we looked it up, it's a lot cheaper to ship goods by ship than any other method. (Train was second.)
Unfortunately, Marine Traffic doesn't do a very good job of keeping one informed on Mississppi traffic, so I can't learn much about the individual tugs right now. I'm still looking for that information. Ship Traffic combines Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder, but for some reason this section of the Mississippi doesn't track well.
Then Trains...
Amtrak runs trains through here (a few times a day) between Chicago and Los Angeles. These trains can be tracked on their website.
The vast majority of trains that run through here are freight as it's a major branch between Chicago and the West Coast (Seattle and Portland in this case.) These trains are run by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) with bright orange engines. I've seen a couple older Santa Fe locomotives as well as a stray CSX locomotive, but most are the BNSF ones. So far, I haven't found a map/tracker for freight trains.
These freight trains are often over 100 cars in length and pass every 10-20 minutes, sometimes more frequently. Most of them are "intermodal" meaning they carry containers from ships to trucks or directly to customers. There's also a lot of commodities that come through whether oil or wheat or something else. Even wind turbine parts come through here.
The Town of Fort Madison, Iowa
Until this camera, I'd never heard of the place. (Cue, tourism!)
On the camera, you can see a very nice replica of (guess?) Fort Madison.
(Source)
This town of 11,000 is at the very SE corner of Iowa. It sprung up around the fort ruins (burned and abandoned after the second of two sieges) which was the first military fort on the Upper Mississippi. Read more from the town website.
Here's an interesting, educational video about the fort itself from The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - on YouTube.
Another video, this time a general informative about the town of Fort Madison.
Plenty more to read about this town from Wikipedia and another town website.
Finish with this hour-long video of drone footage.
If we ever travel across Iowa, I plan to stop in Fort Madison, but with those bridge sirens, I wouldn't consider living there!
I hope you've enjoyed today's tour. All videos remain the property of the YouTubers who posted them. Shared for educational purposes.
(Crossposted on Uptrennd.)
This blog topic arose from my personal love of finding interesting places virtually. I learn so much about other parts of the world through Google Street View, webcams and many other ways from my computer. Learning about the world is always a good thing!
Previous Issues
Watching the Ships in Duluth, Minnesota
Watching Ships at Port Huron, Michigan
Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
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