Cassville and Exeter RR

Discussion in 'Ft. Smith Subdivision' started by Ozarktraveler, Jan 26, 2008.

  1. Ozarktraveler

    Ozarktraveler Member

    I love all the activity on the site these days. Here's a little more trivia for Frisco connections. I hope I have done this properly, I hope to only "link" to this picture found on the fallenflags site. As with all my posts, if I have done this improperly, moderators feel free to correct it. I do not wish to violate copyright.

    http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-c/caer2001ajs.jpg

    The Cassville and Exeter was a "short" line indeed. It joined the Frisco in Exeter MO near the school and ran East to Cassville MO. The road bed can be seen crossing Hwy 37 in the dip just North of the Wal Mart Super Center if you look carefully on both sides of the road (it's close to the creek).

    P.S.

    Seeing "Green Bay, WI" on the photo, makes me wonder if this was taken at the excellent railroad museum there.

    P.S.S.

    Frisco1522, thanks for sharing about the wreck train whistle in a previous post.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  2. Torsoman

    Torsoman Member

    All I had to do when I was visiting my grandma in Cassville was cross the creek in her back yard (avoiding snakes, when possible) and I found myself in the former shop area of the C&E. Pretty much the only things left were rails buried in yellow dirt and gravel.

    Thanks for the post. I always imagined little engines puffing back and forth with carloads of peaches.

    Jeff H.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  3. frisco4301

    frisco4301 Member

    I have been meaning to post these and just hadn't gotten around to it. Here is a shot of the 3-way stub switch in Cassville, September 14, 1955 and the C & E depot in Cassville, August 31, 1953. Jeff Cooney, Lindsay, TX
     

    Attached Files:

    Ozarktraveler likes this.
  4. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    For a while they used an ex Frisco 2-6-0 No. 345. I've always thought this shot was a dandy. It was taken by M.C.Poor back in the late '30s I think and I bought the negative on ebay. It's a 5x7 negative, so I guess you could make a mural out of it.
    At one time, they also used an ex-MP 4-6-0, the 2644 I think. I think they also had an ex Frisco gas electric (doodlebug) at one time, but don't have any photos of it.
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  5. Karl

    Karl 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter

    Love that lap stub-switch.

     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  6. tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018)

    tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018) Passed Away February 11, 2018

    The doodlebug was actually an electric battery storage car made by Beach Electric in 1912 for the Kansas City & Memphis Railway of Rogers ,Arkansas. The electric car later went to the C & E where it went uphill to meet Frisco passenger trains at Exeter,MO. The car then coasted back to Cassville. The car body later was used as an antique shop located near US 71 near Neosho, Mo.
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  7. pensive

    pensive Member Frisco.org Supporter

    According to the table on page 254 of Joe Collias's Frisco Power, mail-baggage motorcar 2124 was retired in May, 1952 and sold to the Cassville & Exeter Railroad. The doodlebug was built by the Electro Motive Corporation in 1928 with the body supplied by the St. Louis Car Company.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  8. tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018)

    tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018) Passed Away February 11, 2018

    The electric battery storage car most definitely operated on the Cassville & Exeter until at least 1930 and possibly later. I have a picture of the car and it still has the Kansas City & Memphis Railway Fruit Belt logo on the side of the car. It was also pictured in the June 1948 issue of Hi-Voltage magazine published by the local electric company.
    The Western Historical Manuscript Collection at Rolla, MO has a collection of newspaper clippings on the C & E. There was no reference to a doodlebug . I think the reference by Collias may be in error as by 1952 the C & E was in its final years. It had not picked up passengers from the Frisco in many years and a doodlebug would seem like a hat rack on a moose for a tiny shortline.Perhaps the doodlebug was used as a shop or storage building.
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  9. frisco4301

    frisco4301 Member

    According to the "Short-Line Railroader" dated January, 1957, the C. & E. did indeed purchase gas-electric 2124 from the Frisco. Quote, "To save money the revitalized C&E eventually turned to internal-combustion power. Its last steam engine, the 2644 (ex MoPac), was scrapped in 1952, and the road obtained a large gas-electric car, No. 2124, from the Frisco." The article goes on to say that the weight of the car was hard on the light rail but before anything was done to look for a replacement, the Missouri Public Service Commission shut the road down in May, 1953 for lack of insurance. Operations were resumed in November, 1953 and in either late 1953 or early 1954, ex Joplin and Pittsburg RR 2001 (photo below at the stub switch) was obtained thus allowing retirement of the the ex SLSF 2124. The last trip on the C&E took place in 1956 on either Wednesday, September 12 (Aurora Advertiser), Friday, September 14 (Short-Line Railroader-Jan. 1957), or Tuesday, September 11 (pamplet entitled "The Connecting Link-The story of the World's Shortest Standard Gauge Railroad) when an empty boxcar was returned to the Frisco at Exeter. Permission to abandon was granted on November 6, 1956. Jeff Cooney, Lindsay, TX
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 3, 2009
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  10. mvtelegrapher

    mvtelegrapher Member

    The Edison battery car was sold and moved to a site just south of the I-44 Business 71 (Rangeline Road) interchange in Joplin, Missouri many years ago after the C&E quit running. It is still there though in horrible shape. It was covered with a tarp many years ago and the tarp fell off half of the car. The part without the tarp has now completely rotted away and collapsed. The half still under the tarp is barely standing. The property this sits on and the items still there were wrapped up in some kind of legal problem due to an estate question. I'm not sure what the current standing is. The property is on the east side of Range Line Road at the top of the hill as you go south from I-44. The car is behind the house on the south side. It is visible behind a chain link fence. I was under the impression that the former J&P car that the C&E got was eventually scrapped. Could it still be in existence? If so, that would mean that two out of the three J&P internal combustion locomotives survive. One is at the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.

    John Chambers
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  11. gbmott

    gbmott Member

    I'm fascinated by the photo of the depot -- not because of the depot, even though it is a very interesting structure, but because of the locomotive that is partially shown. The C&E never, to my knowledge, had anything remotely similar to that. As discussed earler in this thread, after the end of steam the C&E first used a SLSF gas-electric motorcar and at the end was using the former Joplin-Pittsburg Ingersall gas-electric. I have photos (somewhere) that I took while they were tearing up the line in what must have been 1956 or '57 and they were using the J-P locomotive then. Do you have any further identification of the loco in the photo? The lack of any kind of striping eliminates any chance of it being SLSF 60 or 61 which were up in that area at the time. I'm baffled.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  12. frisco4301

    frisco4301 Member

    The information I have, "Short-Line Railroader", January, 1957, states the following, "General Manager Ashley obtained a rare 50-ton Plymouth gas-electric locomotive, built in 1931 for the neighboring Joplin-Pittsburg RR, when that line was abandoned late in 1953. He also secured a 56-ton, 300 HP Alco-GE Diesel of 1935 vintage from the Navy. For reasons unexplained the Diesel, No. 3, never saw much use, and No. 2001, the Plymouth gas-electric, became and remained the principle motive power."---could the locomotive in the below photo be this 56 ton ex-Navy Alco? As to John Chambers queston regarding the whereabouts of the 2001, the notes I have show the ex-J-P was sold to the KCPS Freight Division and then to the Green Bay RR museum. Jeff Cooney, Lindsay, TX
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  13. gbmott

    gbmott Member

    Jeff -- Certainly the cab of the loco in the photos could be that of an ALCO switcher, but I would question the accuracy of the article that claimed it was only 300hp. Regardless, it is a locomotive of which I was unaware and which must have had a brief and unremarked life on the C&E as, to the best of my knowledge, it was no longer on the property at the end.

    Gordon
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  14. frisco4301

    frisco4301 Member

    Any chance of you finding and posting the photographs you took of salvage operations?
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  15. tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018)

    tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018) Passed Away February 11, 2018

    I have a Clifton Hull photo that shows the battery storage car body in use as an antique shop. The car was used by the Kansas City & Memphis Railway in its Rogers to Siloam Springs passenger service between early 1913 and July 1914. It had a tendency to run out of power returning to Rogers as it had to surmount a hill with a 2% grade. It never met its performance guarantees. The car was the subject of litigation between the railroad and the Railway Storage Battery Car Company. The car was sold to the Cassville Milling & Power Company on January 21, 1919 for $2,500 according to Fort Smith District Court records.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  16. gbmott

    gbmott Member

    I'll look, but it is unlikely that I have them here and it is possible they don't even still exist. It was a dark and rainy day a whole bunch of years ago.

    Gordon
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  17. frisco4301

    frisco4301 Member

    Here is a C & E pass for years 1949-50. The road had been shut down until July, 1949 when it had been purchased by A. P. Wheelock and five businessmen from Cassville. This pass has been countersigned by Mr. Wheelock. It would be interesting to know why a courtesy pass was issued at this date when passenger service had been curtailed in the 1930's. Jeff Cooney, Lindsay, TX
     

    Attached Files:

    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  18. FRISCO4503

    FRISCO4503 FRISCO4503 Frisco.org Supporter

    WOW, bein an ex railroad man, that switch woulda give me nightmares if I ever had to cross it. I started my railroad career building track and it was scary enough running trains at 70 mph on any piece of track built by the hands of man, let alone a switch like that. I bet it seen many a derailment at that switch.
     
    Ozarktraveler and Sirfoldalot like this.
  19. Brian waller

    Brian waller Member

    Hello to who is interest,

    To anyones who is interest in the history of The Cassville & Exeter Railroad, please let me know.

    Thanks,
    Brian Waller
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  20. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    I may have posted this before, but I think it's one of the neatest pictures of a short line engine I've seen.
    It was taken by Mac Poor in about 1939 or maybe 1940 in Cassville. Probably on a Sunday as it looks like it's dozing. I won the 5x7 negative on ebay a couple years ago and really cherish it.
     

    Attached Files:

    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.

Share This Page