Tulsa Terminal Division - Howard Branch Abandonment - 2009

Joe,

I had posted a 1955 map of the Tulsa area that depicted the Howard Branch,

 

Karl,

What is the title of the map thread?

Joe

 

The title of the original post is Frisco Lines in Tulsa, 1955.

See Forums=>Historical=>Divisions=>Six Major Terminals=>Tulsa Terminals

 

Karl,

Great I found it.

Thank you very much for posting the map location!

Joe

 

Yesterday I went to the Howard Branch and took these photographs.

As I was getting ready to post this message I realized how long ago this was started. It is about the time I joined this website and must of missed this thread.

The first photograph shows the northwest leg of wye looking south as it goes between a tree line. The mainline is in foreground going east and west.

The second photograph is from Pine Street looking south as the track goes up a slight incline. On the east side of the track is residential housing and on the west side is Elba Terrace Mobile Home Park, where I lived for seven years, 1976 to 1983.

Edit: Added information on second photograph. I am having trouble uploading files so will continue on my next post. It is me not the website!

 

Terry,

The two switchmen you are referring to were Al Canada and hold on to your hat, Herman Bienfang.

Al was the one threw the fusee. I was the third man on that job. The old boy in the car stopped at the traffic light at 11th Street until he saw the fire racing toward him. Then he ran the stop light.

I had walked to the store to get us some pop, and the old boy had just filled his car up. It was an old car with the gas tank fill behind the rear license plate. By the time I got back to the grade crossing, Al and Herman were laughing their butts off. I could still see the flames.

Oh those were the good ole days!

 

Terry,

I am trying to find a hole lot of photographs I took back in the 1970s.

Photographs of a lot of old heads. If I find them I will drop you a line. I lost a lot of them in a house fire. Also had a photograph of my Grandpa Flowers and his crew at Bristow with their steam engine.

Also had a lot of Grandma's Frisco system rider passes.

 

Danny,

I am glad to get the rest of the story.

I am surprised that either Al or Herman threw the fusee as both were level headed most of the time. It goes to show the level of Al's frustration due to the driver's actions. It really was dangerous to flag crossings from the ground position, especially Sheridan.

I would like to see your pictures as the 1870s was my decade with the Frisco.

Terry

 

Joe,

Your photograph of the north leg of the wye at Dawson reminds me of an incident one day when our switch job had completed our air test and was waiting for authority to enter the main and head to the yard.

While sitting still, our cut went into emergency. When the switchman got to the rear, he found that someone had tried to steal the Fred on the rear end of the cut. I can only imagine their shock and surprise when the air hoses were separated and the resulting shock of the air being released in emergency.

It was two teen boys who had passed the engine a few minutes earlier. Actually, they could have been injured but must not have been as we neither saw nor heard of them afterward.

The main line shot is just east of the location of the major wreck a few years ago when a large cut of loaded auto racks rolled east back from a train stopped at Trenton. The angle cocks had been closed on both cars at the cut allowing the rear portion of the train to roll east and hit a west bound train at Dawson.

Fortunately for the crew on the train that was hit, they were still east of the approach signal at Dawson when the rolling cars ran through East Tulsa. This caused the signal to go from green to red at Dawson. The engineer placed his train into emergency, and he and the conductor bailed.

Neither was injured, thank God. As far as I know the railroad has never been able to find and charge the jack ass(es) who made the cut. They had to know something about the air on the train or they would not have known to close both angle cocks.

You asked a question about the brick plant in an earlier post, and I can only answer as to the time I switched it. We only spotted empty boxcars, mostly Missouri Pacific (MP) 50' cars, for brick loading. If materials went into the plant, it would have been at an earlier date.

Hope this helps you.

Terry

 

Thank you Terry!

This is what I have wondered about for a long time.

Please follow the upcoming photographs, they may remind you of more information.

Joe

 

This post will pick up where I left off in a series of eight photographs.

 

This post will pick up where I left off in a series of eight photographs.

 

I went to the Howard Branch and took some photos the other day. There are eight photos in all with two of the photos already seen in a previous post.

 

It is time to pick up where I left off with the next set of photographs.

The first and second photograph were shown in a previous post.

The third photograph is from Pine Street looking north. In the distance you can see a turnout that is the south leg of the wye. On the west, left, is a fairly large group of trees and on the east are residential houses.

The fourth photograph is from King Street looking north. On the west, left, is a large manufacturing company and the east are houses. Behind the manufacturing company is Elba Terrace Mobile Home Park.

When I lived at Elba Terrace I remember a lot of noise coming from the manufacturing company, welding and heavy sledge hammers. Sometimes it was hard to sleep because of the noise.

The fifth photograph is from King Street looking south. On the east, left, is more housing and the west are several manufacturing companies.

It is getting late so I will show the last three photographs in another post.

Joe

Edit: Added information to the fourth photograph.

 

Will pick up for the last set of photos starting with sixth photo.

In photograph six we see the branch from 4th Street looking south. The line is now a crude hiking trail with residential housing on both sides. To the north of 4th Street are more houses on both sides and the line is horribly overgrowth with weeds. It was just too depressing to photograph.

In the seventh photograph from 15th Street looking north is a commando shot of the brick company. The branch line is to the east, right, of the brick company with more small companies to the east of that.

On the south of 15th Street is AEP's storage yard which is the southwestern end of the branch. I plan to go back and take some more photographs at other street crossings and will post them at a later time.

The eighth and last photograph, at this time, is from 15th Street looking north which is the eastern end of the branch with several large warehouses and other companies to the west, left, and apartments all along the east side.

I plan to visit the branch line again soon to take some more photographs and edit some of my posts to include more information. Will let you know when it is complete.

Joe

Edit: Additional information has been edited into the above posts. Mostly about Elba Terrace Mobile Home Park.