From Capedeau Junction (MP 122.7), where the Cape Girardeau Industrial Lead trails in from the west-northwest, a Cotton Belt line to the ferry at Grays Point once continued east-northeast, with a Frisco line departing just to its south side, and the main line turns east-southeast, still Two Main Tracks, CTC, speed limit 40 mph, and then turns east to cross the Mississippi River on the multi-span through truss Thebes Bridge to Thebes, where there was once a wye on the southeast side with a C&EI line to Cairo, and the line turns north-northeast, past detectors at MP 119.8 to the crossovers at Simbco (MP 119.7, where the speed limit increases to 50 mph. The line across the bridge, between Illmo and Simbco, is (or was) owned by the Southern Illinois & Missouri bridge Company (SIMBCO).
An Illinois Central line once left on the west side at Simbco, and the line north of here was once joint trackage of the MP and Cotton Belt, and is now UP with BNSF trackage rights. Still 2MT, CTC, speed limit 50 mph, the line curves north-northwest, northeast, and then heads north-northeast past detectors at MP 117.0, crossovers at Nile (MP 115.7), where the speed limit has risen to 60 mph again, a gradual curve more to the northeast (but nowhere near an actual northeasterly heading), a spur at McClure (MP 113.0), Reynoldsville, where a curve back to the north begins, ending at the crossovers at Potts (MP 108.1).
The line continues north past Vineyard, detectors at MP 104.7, a spur at Ware (MP 104.0), where the line turns north-northwest, a spur at Wolf Lake (MP 99.7), where it turns north again, past a spur at Powder Plant (MP 98.6), Halsey Junction (MP 95.0), where a short stretch of single track, CTC, begins, a detector at MP 92.7, Howardton Junction (MP 90.5), where 2MT, CTC, begin again, and a curve to the northwest at the former location of a flat crossing with that same erstwhile IC line just before the crossover and junction at Chap (MP 84.8), where the Chicago subdivision heads away northeast at a wye on the east side of the line, and the yard at Gorham (MP 84.6) at the north end of the wye.