Marceline Subdivision

The Marceline Subdivision or "Marceline Sub" is a railway line running about 210 miles (340 km) from Fort Madison, Iowa to the Congo station (near Kansas City) in the United States of America. It is operated by BNSF Railway[1] as part of their Southern Transcon route from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Marceline Sub is a high volume link connecting the Chillicothe Subdivision in the east and the Kansas City Terminal in the west.

Marceline Subdivision
to Kansas City Terminal Area 444.4 Congo 442.6 Sugar Creek 440.7 Cement City 442.6 Courtney 436.5 Eton UP River Subdivision 434.0 Atherton 426.3 West Sibley Sibley Railroad Bridge over the Missouri River 421.7 Floyd NS Kansas City District 417.9 CA Junction 411.3 Henrietta 405.6 Hardin 396.6 Norborne 388.8 WB Junction NS Kansas City District 386.4 Carrollton 374.3 Bosworth 360.7 Mendon 354.6 Rothville 349.3 West Marceline 346.9 East Marceline Brookfield Subdivision 341.5 Bucklin 330.9 West Ethel 329.3 East Ethel 322.9 Elmer 313.2 La Plata 306.4 Gibbs 300.3 Hurdland 292.0 W Baring 282.4 Rutledge 276.8 Gorin 272.3 Wyaconda 264.8 West Medill 263.0 East Medill Des Moines River Missouri Iowa 256.0 Revere 246.2 Argyle Hannibal Subdivision 237.2 Ortho 236.2 West Fort Madison 234.3 Fort Madison to Chillicothe Subdivision
Amtrak Southwest Chief

This subdivision is mostly double track with only one segment of single track, over the Sibley Railroad Bridge crossing the Missouri River at West Sibley. A third mainline is provided west of Eton, MO and from Hardin, MO to CA Junction by joint operation with Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern respectively. Norfolk Southern and BNSF jointly operate double track from WB Junction to Hardin.

This line has hosted passenger traffic throughout its history; currently Amtrak's Southwest Chief makes stops along the Marceline Subdivision in Ft. Madison, IA and La Plata, MO. Both Fort Madison and La Plata are served by 2 Amtrak Trains three days a week. The first train is the morning/early afternoon #4 from Los Angeles to Chicago while #3 from Chicago to Los Angeles runs in the evening. As of 2020, the station at La Plata hosts three Virtual Railfan webcams which can be used to monitor traffic on the line. The East Cam & West Cam are mounted on the station itself, while the 360 "PTZ" cam, which was recently installed in April 2019, was installed at a nearby observation cabin.[2]

The Marceline Sub also features connections to two other BNSF subdivisions. The Hannibal Subdivision to St. Louis crosses just west of Ft. Madison (there are connections to this subdivision from the Chillicothe Subdivision) and the Brookfield Subdivision crosses west of Bucklin. Mileposts are counted from Chicago.