Ten years ago, the Mississippi River and its northern tributaries got more rain than they could handle in mid-June, causing epic flooding conditions all along the Mississippi River Valley. In Ft. Madison, in order to keep the already-embargoed Transcon moving, BNSF raised the roadbed a few feet at the low point, between the depot-museum and the bridge over the great river. Then they ran trains directionally in batches, at roughly 5 mph, sometimes just yards apart from each other. On a clear, sunny "morning after," the depot/museum and its caboose are bathed in sunlight (although soaking in flood water) during a break in the near-constant stream of slow traffic, as BNSF changes the direction of the slow flood of trains.
