(UP+BNSF)/(SIMS+SSW) Bridge and Lock on Kaskaskia River

SIMS = St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, then Missouri Pacific, then Southern Pacific, then UP
SSW = St. Louis Southwestern Railway ("Cotton Belt"), then Southern Pacific, then UP

Evidently BNSF has trackage rights on this route because the SPV MAP shows both UP and BNSF using this route.

(I'm combining a bridge and lock&dam into one post because I've written so many posts that evidently Google's Blogspot can't handle that many because the author's keyword search has broken for me.)

Bridge: (Bridge Hunter, Satellite)
Lock and Dam: (Satellite)
The predecessor swing bridge was built in 1903 and replaced in 1975 when a derailment destroyed the swing bridge.
The Kaskaskia Lock and Dam has been renamed the Jerry F. Costello Lock and Dam.

I thought I never heard of the Kaskaskia River before. But I did because that is the river that goes over the dam, under the UP/C&EI trestle bridge and under the Aban/Big Four Bridge in Shelbyville. I traced it north to the Kaskaskia Ditch, which goes further north to drain Champaign. So the Kaskaskia River drains a good part of central Illinois.

Steven J. Brown posted
Cotton Belt 819 crossing the Kaskaskia River near Modoc, Illinois - June 13, 1990.
Ed Cooper Cotton Belt L1 #819 was built in February 1943 at the Pine Bluff Shops. It was in service until mid 1953 and then retired. It was presented to the City of Pine Bluff in 1955. On December 1, 1983 it was pulled from a Pine Bluff park for restoration. It steamed again in April 1986. It made the trip to the St. Louis area in 1990. And numerous trips around Arkansas and to Texas. It was retired a second time after a 1993 excursion to Texas. It currently is on display at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff.
Tommy Thompson So sad UP won’t let her run any more, I’d like to make the UP CEO an offer he couldn’t refuse.
My grandad fired that engine.
Ed Cooper The tender was full of diesel fuel, instead of Bunker C fuel oil.
Richard Mead They said there was water in the oil.

USACE

KRPD

This is the only lock and dam on the river, and it creates a 30 mile long 9-foot navigation channel. I see they also channelized the river from near Baldwin upstream to near Fayettville.

BusinessViewMagazine, p6

(2020 Update: the information about Kaskaskia River Port District #1 has been moved to its own notes.)

A typical tow is four barges, which is equivalent to 60 jumbo hoppers (100 tons or 3,500 bu.) or 232 trucks. The CO2 emissions of barge transport is less than a tenth of the equivalent truck traffic. [KRPD-facts]  And in this day of a tight truck-driver market, considerably fewer people are needed to move the equivalent tonnage.