MP - Leadwood Bridge

That bridge was at the Leadwood beach and the locals called it the big trussel. Having grown up in Leadwood in the 50's and 60's I crossed that bridge many times. You sure didn't want to be on it when the train came, it was a long bridge! The tracks went on to Bonne Terre by way of one switchback. In the winter, if you stood on the Bonne Terre end of the switchback, you could see the bridge way below you. There wasn't enough distance between the bridge and Bonne Terre to make up the elevation change, hence the switchback. There was another bridge or trussel just outside of town over Eaton Creek right before it emptied into Big River that we called the little trussel, not near as impressive as the big one.

The train came through daily to pick up lead cars when I lived in Leadwood. The lead was shipped in box cars then and taken to Herculaneum to the smelter. There would be coal brought in on occasion and freight. Before my time passengers service was also available.

This bridge was at Leadwood beach I think, but if you know where it is and follow the rail line toward Bonneterre on Google earth you can find that the line used to run through a series of switch backs. This line ran from Bonneterre to Leadwood and then cross the Owl creek and made it's way back to Elvins on Front street where the chat dump used to be.

The MR&BT(Mississippi river & bonne terre, later Missouri illinios, it was part of the hoffman branch that ran to leadwood, missouri illinios was a subsidarary of mopac, Illinios southern from st. genivieve to bismarck merged with MR&BT to form Missouri Illinios, the MR&BT main ran from doe run to riverside, the Illinios southern crossed MR&BT at derby junction, in elvins on a diamond,when the M&I came along the track from derby to doe run was ripped up and the railrod built a switch becuase the track from st. gen was now M&I and so was the MR&BT Main line.

what rr was this on?