Kansas City Track Map and Industries - 1930s?

I have attached track maps and industry lists for Kansas City, date unknown, estimated 1930s.

Sorry, not the best copies, but better than nothing. Maybe someone will come up with some clear copies.

Page 1 - Track diagram West Bottoms north of 12th Street.
Page 2 - Track diagram West Bottoms south of 12th Street.
Page 3 - Track diagram along Southwest Boulevard to north end of Rosedale Yard.
Page 4 - Industry list, sorry I cut off industry numbers on the left column and a few industry names at the top of the page.
Page 5 - Industry list, sorry I cut off industry names at top of page.

Dale Rush
Carthage, MO

 

Excellent set of uploads!!!

Thanks a BUNCH Dale!

Andre Ming

 

Hi Dale Rush and Andre Ming:

I also am modeling the West bottoms in mid-1960s, with the modeled industries to be switched by SLSF and with the other 12 railroads in KC also making an occasional appearance on the layout with transfer runs.

Dale, your uploads are great, giving track configurations and industry locations. Thank you for the resource.

I live in Denver, so I am at a bit of a loss as to how I will learn what the industries looked like in mid-1960s so I can construct representative models of them.

Andre, I have seen some of your posts on photo flats and I am intrigued. Are those real West Bottoms structures in your photographs?

From what period?

Where did you get them?

Can you recommend resources to comb looking for details on the industries to allow me to build representative models of them?

Thank you

 

Dale,

Is there any way to obtain the list of industries with numbers for cross-reference to the West Bottoms maps you posted?

There are some industry spots referenced as a number that do not appear on the corresponding industry list you also posted.

For example, the long spur that extends into the bottoms has industries numbered 64, 62, 60, 58, 56, 54, 52, 44, 50, 48, 46, 42, 40, and 38. This seems like it would be a fascinating spur to model with the industries all along one or two tracks. But unfortunately, these numbers do not appear on the list of industries.

I see you added some numbers in red for some that were omitted from the list. Can any other numbers be added in red by you?

I feel like I am somewhat looking a gift horse in the mouth asking for even more information, but you were able to add some missing numbers in red, so I am hoping there are more where those came from.

Thank you again

 

Maybe a little help to date these maps.

Dale originally estimated these maps to be from the 1930s. The Chicago and Alton (C&A) was still on the first map, and that line was purchased by the Gulf Mobile and Ohio (GM&O) in 1947.

So the maps could be at least that old or that "new".

Tom

 

I have a 1969 Frisco Zone 5 Map.

The industries do not line up exactly to Dales map, but here is what is on the Zone 5 Map moving east to west.

Short spur.

Davis Co.
Universal Supply

Long spur

Open
O.R. Craig
Schooler Gorman Shipping
United Materials
Lazy Boy Lawn Mowers
U&I Sugar
Graham Ship by Truck
Vent Control of Kansas City
American Machine and Manufacturing

More interesting is what did these companies do and what did they ship and or receive. I have a short spur on my West Bottoms and I will model three industries. One is Universal Supply. The building still stands with all kinds of graphics for Tappan stoves and Sylvania TV's. I am attempting to photo shop the details of this building and merge into a brick structure built with a program called Model Builder, see my earlier post.

I also have Davis and Schooler Gorman. There is a building in the West Bottoms with a logo over the entrance "Schooler Gorman Chemical" which is somewhat of a clue. I have no idea what Davis Company did. Most of the buildings on this spur are gone especially on the first block of the long spur.

Go to Google street view and walk down the street.

John

 

Keith,

This link did not work for me.

What are the search words you suggest?

I have already searched "bottoms", "Kansas City", "19th".

Thanks a bunch!

 

Sorry, I cut off the industry numbers when I copied the originals.

I was in a hurry as I had about 200 pages to copy in about an hour. I had so many copies to make in such a limited time that I could not take the time to proof each copy. The original was bound, fragile and difficult to copy.

Unfortunately I no longer have access to the originals. This is one I wish I could get ahold of again and make better copies. Copies were made pre-digital age or I could have photographed the pages with a digital camera, onsite and got better quality copies.

The industry numbers in red that I added are for industries that I am certain of the locations. The industries were listed in numerical order but some numbers were not used.

I would assume the industries numbered 38-68 that you are interested are listed in sequence between industry number 34 and industry number 100 but I could not locate each industry on the maps.

I will take a look at some Sanborn maps to see if they cover this area, are in this time period and if I can get some industry names and locations.

Whew...I hope that made sense?

Dale Rush
Carthage, MO

 

I forgot that I posted an aerial photograph of this area back in June 2009.

Industry list on my photograph is from 1969, compliments of Rick or Mark?

Link is at West Bottoms RR Map? scroll down, photograph is about halfway down the page

Hope this helps answer some of your questions.

Dale Rush
Carthage, MO