QA&P Yard & Quanah Cotton Oil Co.

Discussion in 'Quanah, Acme, & Pacific (QA&P)' started by gjslsffan, Jun 21, 2017.

  1. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Found this picture in a year book of my mom's
    It shows the old Q yard there pretty good. No idea what year this is, as the same pic is in a couple of her year books.
    I noted that this was before the the main line was installed that curved westward at the "Y" and the shanty was erected. Based on the cars on the track to the left maybe 35 cars, 40 footers. So this would be like 25-30 modern cars on each track.
    Maybe Rob Leese or someone else can tell us how these tracks were numbered or named and their capacity.
    I have some aerial images that show more of Quanah and trackage. For as small as it was there was some interesting trackage there that just begs to be modeled. Acme looks like it was quite the head scratcher for switching in its heyday.
    If I ever get a wild streak in me I might tear out this monstrosity I am building and model the Q from Quanah to Floydada, that would be a blast, and I think I could do a descent job of representing the RR on a 30'X50'
    foot print.
    Q cotton oilco.jpg
     
  2. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Tom, I don't want to be enabler, but I think would be fun to watch. I have no doubt it would be of excellent quality and would go up in a hurry.

    The cotton oil industry and yard would make for a nice Layout Design Element. Wonder if the little small building toward the left of the yard is a/the yard office?

    Best Regards,
     
    gjslsffan likes this.
  3. Robleese

    Robleese Member

    Interesting ! There is no north leg of the wye nor a stockpen pass in this view.
    The tracks we had in 1981-82 were, right to left, Main line, 1, 2, 3, and the Belt. The view above shows a 4 track we did not have. On the Belt we kept empty 3bay covered hoppers and two lengths of bulkhead flatcars to fill spotting orders for the Acme plant. I never did any switching for the oil mill, but we still switched the compresses at Quanah and Paducah.
    The following is a typical night on the Quanah switcher in 1981:
    Called for duty upon the arrival of 537. We would cut off the lead unit and use it to do our work. (when a switcher was no longer kept in town, the QA&P men had hostler rights in their agreement).
    Our first move was to dig cars out of the belt to fill the days order for Acme. At Acme, we would do a drop to send cars into the plant. Then the switcher would go in and put together the loads. Next, the switcher would come out with everything and set the loads to the Main, and shove the empties back into the plant.
    Then, back to the yard and cut off the loads on the south leg of the wye to clear the Main. Bring the engine to the Main and back it to recouple to the other engines on 537.
    Cut off the locomotives from 537 and pull ahead to reach over and couple onto the Acme loads.
    Then pull the Acmes to the Main and back onto 537.
    Ahead with everything and pull up to the FW&D wye to deliver the entire train (except caboose) to the Denver. We would fill FW&D tracks Elevator 1 and 2 for pickup by a southbound. (While working on a weekend 537, I have also delivered everything to the FW&D Pass which had a spring switch at the south end.) You had to talk to the FW&D dispatcher on the pole mounted phone to get permission to enter their Main.
    *Elevator 1 was our only access to the old depot and engine house tracks, and the compress tracks, so if we had compress switching to do, we would do that switching before we delivered to the Denver.
    After delivering we would go to breakfast, and a Denver train would shove the QA&P yard full of cars to make an outbound 3210. We would switch out any Acme-bound empties and make a 3210. Some cars would be put in station order for setout by 3210 such as: Coors beer for Altus, Barite (drilling mud) for Cyril, etc.
    During the days when the ribbon-rail train was taking up track from Floydada to Paducah, we would sometimes have to make a trip out west to deliver empty ribbon rail trainsets and pick up loaded ones. One night we also picked up a large cut of gondolas filled with trestle parts and scrap steel parked at Roaring Springs. The interlocking at Acme was gone and replaced with an electric-locked switch (facing point northward) that tied into the QA&P Main. So, to go west we had to enter the FW&D main at their wye and travel up to the new switch. All of the sidings such as Lazare and Swearingen were out of service, so there was no place to set out a hotbox. I never had to do so, but if we ever had a hotbox on one of those trips we would have to tie up and call the carman.
    It was a far cry from the way things used to be on that little giant of a railroad.
     
  4. Sirfoldalot

    Sirfoldalot Frisco.org Supporter Frisco.org Supporter

    I really enjoyed reading your account of working the yard at Quanah. I am not a "railroad" person, but I just love trains and planes (automobiles - not so much) - LOL
    Thank you for sharing with us! The Quanah is a very interesting railroad to me and I hope to visit there maybe this fall. I have Tom to thank for this -- I love his "What if's"!
     
  5. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Yea that sounds like a lot of work, a lot going on for such a small RR. If you go to https://www.historicaerials.com/ and type in Quanah Texas you can view Quanah from many different years. I have followed the RR all the way to Floydada, and it show all the tracks in place in the various periods.
    For instance not only was there the tracks that crossed (interlocking) the FW&D and went over by the depot and down to the Roundhouse and all. There was also a crossing at grade that went straight South towards Reagan school there was a small yard, with several spots down there too, with a lead that extended farther South. A lot of trackage thru the 50-60's then you see them disappear thru the years to what it was just a few years ago. In 1953 there was a lot of switching going on there and for the area considering the size of that little west Texas town.
     
    mike_newton likes this.

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