WWTBAM Bored

Earlier this week-you said you work in the pipeline industry.

My B-I-L's brother works(ed) for in accounting in Calgary for a company that built a NG line from Canada to near Chicago.

It went not too far from here-but anyway, I remember asking how many houses they had to move to build the line-I was told none.

That absolutely shocks me even to this day and even considering the lightly populted area they crossed-ND, MN etc.

The geometry of that is amazing. You would think-that they would have to hit a house somewhere along the way.

The simplest way I can see would be to be friends with Candian Pacific/Soo Line and run somewhere close to the legendary main line from Chicago to Moose Jaw.

The one Al Capone used when he needed the equivalent of a Dick Cheney hideout. In Moose Jaw, at least, this is taken as almost 100% proven.

Parenthetically, ie with parenthethese

(I do wonder if sometimes they might have flown the Veep to fish in Northern Quebec in secret, during times of chronic anxiety)

etaoin22 wrote:The simplest way I can see would be to be friends with Candian Pacific/Soo Line and run somewhere close to the legendary main line from Chicago to Moose Jaw.

The one Al Capone used when he needed the equivalent of a Dick Cheney hideout. In Moose Jaw, at least, this is taken as almost 100% proven.

Parenthetically, ie with parenthethese

(I do wonder if sometimes they might have flown the Veep to fish in Northern Quebec in secret, during times of chronic anxiety)

But, that is the neat part-It did not follow any previously defined corridor-Ie Soo Line. It cut diagonally through new territory.

Unlike back in the old railroad days (and the days to come if T Boone Pickens has his way) the government is not so open to condem private land for the right of way of private transportation. So if no homes were relocated it was cheaper to go around than through. They don't have to go too far around as they only need about 100 feet horizontally (or about the size of two small lots).

Railway days aint ended. Canadian Pacific has purchased DM%E (one-time granger only branch of Chicago and Northwestern), as that road is in process of upgrading to handle lots of Powder River low-sulfur coal. Will require eminent domain form some of the upgrade, and mollification of foes -- like the Mayo Clinic -- elsewhere. Here is one mollification -- the holiday train which crosses CP railway lines each December visited Rochester, Minn last week, according to Flickr.

http://flickr.com/photos/ottergoose/309 ... lovetrains