Charlie, this one's a good one. I am especially intrigued by the map of TOFC locations, especially on the River Division. Why Sikeston, as opposed to Cape Girardeau? Any of you Scissorbill Country folk have any insight? Best Regards,
Chris, my guess regarding Sikeston was that it was on I-55, US-60, and very near I-67. Cape only met one of the three criteria for better highway access. Additionally, there were some plants in Sikeston that made goods that still had a broad appeal, i.e. Hasbro Toys.
Ken, I don't know enough about industries close to Crystal City, but the logic would be centered around businesses that did not have rail connections but would have tractor trailer traffic headed out. There would have to be enough businesses of that type to attract the attention of Frisco management.
Kinda neat info, although I was a little confused looking at where the map shows Lamar, MO. I didn't think Lamar was on the Highline. Musta run out of room on the map for proper placement.
I think they did draw Lamar on the Fort Scott line, but they did pretty much use some "artisitic license." TG
Lamar was on the Ash Grove sub. BNSF now considers the whole line between KC-Springfield the Ft. Scott sub, but the Frisco divided it at Ft. Scott. I didn't know Lamar had a TOFC ramp, never seen it mentioned before. Wonder were it was located. Ethan
Would it have anything to do with the PPG plant? Thanks for the insight, Keith. I never realized Sikeston had a Hasbro plant. And, the junction of highways does, indeed, make sense. Best Regards,
Information on the attachment can be added to information in the thread: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?5612-Frisco-Standard-Plan-TOFC-Ramps to give a TOFC facility timeline if the 11/71 date at the bottom of "ScanImage001.jpg" is correct. For instance, posting #5 in that thread of November 1961 locations by Karl includes neither Crystal City, Lamar nor Sikeston. While these three were active in 1971, posting #6 by pbender of TOFC facilities shown on the 1974 station list indicates Sikeston had apparently been dropped, though Crystal City and Lamar were still active. George
I have a hunch about Lamar. It was probably for either thorco or osulivans. Lawn boy left in the late 50's thanks to the workers going union. Then osulivans came in sometime in the 60's. Then there's thorco which was in the old mill building from I think 1932 to I'm not sure when. Either would provide a good source for trailers out and in. Like i said earlier I have no idea were this ramp would have been. At the moment I can think of one place. I'll do some digging. What length of cars would be used at these small ramp locations? 50'? 89'? Ethan
Brings back memories of riding my bike to the Valley View Road crossing in Farmers Branch, Tex. in 1961! St. Louis-Texas was a prime freight corridor. Item: The Santa Fe Dallas-Paris line was intended to connect with the Frisco for freight competition between the Mopac and Cotton Belt but was never carried out. Perhaps some members know more on this subject? Had it come to pass it would be interesting to compare the time the freights would have required. No doubt the ATSF's Paris branch would have been upgraded to mainline status of course. A good read on the St.Louis-Texas "Speed War" for freight can be found in Fred Frailey's Kalmbach published book on the Cotton Belt Blue Streak Merchandise freights. It remains a mystery to me why the Frisco and Santa Fe didn't team up to take bizz away from the MP and SSW. The freight destined for Ft. Worth would have had a SLSF-ATSF-SLSF routing via Dallas. ATSF's E. Dallas Yard (now DART's "Carbarn") served as a joint agency for both the Frisco and L&A (KCS) so a run-through would have been a natural. Joe Toth
