Keokuk City Council gets offer to buy RR bridge.

Sloan · **Posted:** Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:35 pm

http://www.dailygate.com/articles/2010/ ... 918372.txt

Yeah....and bring back the Trans-Mississippi trolley too! LOL

Sloan

tomgears · **Posted:** Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:02 pm

Is this the bridge they had some sort of trolley or doodlebug running over during the big floods a few years back?

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:01 pm

tomgears wrote:

this the bridge they had some sort of trolley or doodlebug running over during the big floods a few years back?

No. The "Keokuk" trolley from the flood of 1993 actually ran on the tracks on top of the Union Electric Company's (Now AmerenUE) Keokuk dam. It is a hydroelectric dam originally built to supply St. Louis, Mo with electricity. The rail line on top of the dam ended in the power house which was located out in the river, but close to the Keokuk side. During the floods, high water and a washout closed the highway bridge, and for about two weeks, local residents commuted "the electric way."

For years, the Union Electric Company used a cab-on-flat built by the American Car Company of St. Louis to serve the dam. It is now preserved at Mt. Pleasant.

The cars that ran during the flood were ex P&W cars owed by the Keokuk Junction Railway. I believe the railroad owned three. They were modified with bus doors and a step well cut into one corner, kind of looking like a one-man midwestern interurban. Two of them are currently at the New York Museum of Transportation.