Weaubleau Hill Curve

I have property in Weaubleau and there is a remnant of the track on it. (See attachment) It is a fantastic cut through rock and on a curve. I saw a reference for the Weaubleau Hill curve and I wondered where it was exactly. Can anyone help with the location of the curve that was mentioned for modelers? Thanks in advance.

 

Would love to see ground level picks...

This thread had a brief discussion about the curve... http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/horseshoes-and-big-ten.4369/#post-30103

I have attached a USGS 7-1/2 minute topo sheet that shows the location of the curve.

 

This is so neat! I do believe the back of our property is on the curve!! Look at the attachment and see if I am correct. The fellow we purchased it from found a overhanging ledge near by with old coffee cans and he believed were left from a hobo "cave". He also said when they were blasting for the curve, many people came to watch. When he was young he rode that train from Weaubleau to Flemington. I will post some more pictures as soon as I can as we are not there yet. The second attachment was in the realtor listing and is just beginning of the cut. The walls are pretty high when you are in the middle. When we do get there and get settled we would love to have anyone who is interested over for a hike to the cut.

My husband loves trains and I have caught the bug from him! We have been learning all we can the past few days about the Frisco Highline.

been

 

I have to share that Steve, my husband, loves Virtual RailFan on YouTube. More than once it sounds like a train is going through my living room! He knows the trains and schedules especially at La Plada, MO. There is a conductor that occasionally blows the whistle to "shave and a haircut." Fun to watch.

 

Rosanna,

Thanks for your ground-level photo and your generous offer to receive visitors. As Keith notes there are several in this group who are Highline and Leaky Roof fans. If you use the site’s search tool, you will discover quite a bit of information about both railroads.

Since you are new to Missouri, I will also point out that your property is adjacent to a meteorite impact crater. Aside from my Frisco Railroad passion, I love geology, and during my matriculation at SMSU (Now Missouri State), I spent time in this area mapping the geology. Way back when, the geology of the area was puzzling due to the faulting and folding of the rock strata. It wasn’t until modern satellite remote imaging came about that geologists were able to see the true nature of the area. Even though your property lies outside of impact crater and the area of intense deformation, you are not too far from some of the faults created by the meteorite's impact. I have attached a report and a couple of maps.

This is a tectonic map from Beveridge, 1951. The NW-SE trending faults and folds can be seen extending from Gerster. Beveridge’s use of “tectonic” on the map is a misnomer since the faulting and folding was caused by the impact.


This a portion of a geologic map (Beveridge 1951) of the Weaubleau 7-1/2 minute quadrangle. The Highline can be seen in context with the local geology.
Pdf Graydon Formation Micaceous brown SS and conglomerates
Pdf Dederick Formation dark gray to Black Shales
Mob Burlington Formation Crinoidal Limestone
Mkn Silstone and gray-green shale
Mks Sedalia Formation gray to buff cherty limestone
Mkc Chouteau Formation Gray finely crinoidal limestone
Ojc Cotter-Jeff City Formation light gray to brown dolomite


I have annotated the satellite image in the pdf. The inner red ring is the impact crater and the outer ring is the limit of the most intense folding and faulting.

 

I’d like to see a history of the line and when it was removed.

 

Welcome! I’ll toss in that the folks who oversee the LaPlata cam are super cool. Bob and Amy are our “ station agents” for the depot. I got to meet them in Quincy one year after hauling a special trip with 381.( had a GN painted full dome! )

Thanks for sharing this and I am glad you have caught the bug as well.

plus a special thanks for Karl and the info about meteorites.

 

It took a while but I am posting the pictures of the Weaubleau curve cut that is on our property. There are two pictures of a small rock laid platform that I've included. Don't know what this was for, any ideas?
Also a retaining wall that was hand built with rock. There is a picture of the hobo cave, too. Two pictures from Belton Train Museum of the 1632 locomotive that ran the Highline.

As far as a field trip, spring sounds good hopefully covid will be on its way out.

Karl, I am also interested in geology being a former science teacher. I usually bring home a few rocks from wherever we travel much to my husband's chagrin. I had read about the impact and we went hunting for a Weaubleau egg at Kings Prairie Access just outside the impact site where they said you would have a better chance to find them. But we didn't find any. Do you have a spot where we might have a better chance of locating one? Even though I am retired, I sub at the school and was planning on doing some classes at the library on basic rockhounding. But covid nixed that. It would be great to have one to show the kids. But as you know, the hunt is half the fun.

Enjoy

 

Opps for got the hobo cave!

 

Rosanna,

The best place to collect “Weaubleau Eggs” which are siliceous concretions that formed around fragments of the blue-green Northview Formation shale, are locations where the Burlington Formation resurge breccia is exposed. The meteorite impact did not cause the formation of these eggs as some non-geology sources imply. The growth of these concretions occurred post-impact. In the Beveridge work, the resurge breccia is called the Mississippian Conglomerate or Burlington Conglomerate. There is a very nice outcrop of the resurge breccia along MO Hwy 13. I have attached a montage that includes a satellite image, a map and cross section from Beveridge, and a photo of the outcrop. Beveridge’s map doesn’t show the new Hwy 13 alignment, but the satellite image should help you locate the outcrop. It’s best to park along old Hwy 13, and it’s a short, easy walk to the outcrop. The breccia is weathered and friable, so the eggs are easy to extract with a rock hammer and chisel. Also, numerous eggs have "weathered-out” of the outcrop and may be found on the ground. The breccia also contains lots of crinoid ossicles and calyx plates.

The Burlington Formation limestone is sometimes described as a "crinoid hash”. The limestone is nearly 90%+ calcium carbonate, and crinoid pieces make-up most of the rock matrix. Here is an image of a hand sample of the limestone, and the crinoid ossicles are clearly visible; if one looks closely a brachiopod shell is also visible.




These are several of the “eggs”, which I have collected from the site. The Northview Formation shale center or “yolk” can be seen . The engineering scale is placed for size.




Weaubleau Structure Montage:


This index image provides a broader image of the outcrop area. The red lines indicate the abandoned ROW’s of the the Highline and the Leaky Roof.