Sherman Hill Oddity - Trains Magazine

PennyBommer (5-3):

Thanks!  Your thoughts show strong intelligence and railroad understanding! 

Forum participant “timz” is absolutely right:  In the 1947 area of time, because of a spectacular and disastrous collision wreck, Union Pacific quickly put in towards the west end of the Tie Siding a fly-under!  Previously, westbound and eastbound trains had to wait for the angled diamond to be trainless!  

When we think of Sherman Hill (Laramie-Cheyenne, Wyo.), most focus just on that segment!  I prefer to see the whole Chicago, Ill.-Ogden, UT stretch.   Chicago to Omaha is left running, Omaha-Cheyenne is right running, Sherman Hill is for all practical purpose now left running, Laramie to a tunnel flyover arrangement east of Echo Canyon is right running, and finally left running again to Ogden, UT.  When looked at it from that whole stretch perspective the very simple solution is to build a flyover somewhere west of Laramie, Wyo.  It would also help to two-track the single-track old C&NW stretch between Fremont, Neb. and Mission Valley, Iowa.

Such may have been put on hold with Precision Scheduled Railroading.  But the angry ‘will of the people’ may put an end to blocked grade crossing account of long, long, long, long trains!  That may inspire relooking at Sherman Hill once and for all time, with such a revamping as outlined above.

Flyovers are expensive and may be the reason BNSF has never put in a counter-Truxton flyover in the Clovis, New Mexico area.  As is, BNSF solved one problem while causing another.  Kind of illogical, really.  Grade crossing regulation (read train length) may inspire another BNSF flyover in New Mexico, unless the master plan is to make Truxton-Chicago all left running.

Getting back to UP, a reported dislike for flyovers only goes so far, with a point in time when not having a flyer strangles operations.  Not having been to the Sherman Hill area in years it is difficult to make assessments of the situation there.  But the continued use of old signals tells me UP may be caught between a rock and a hard place and doesn’t know what to do.