I'm looking for information anyone may have on a small railroad known as the Salem, Winona, and Southern. For those who don't know, it was a small railroad built in the late 1800's-early 1900's, presumably to connect Salem Mo with Winona Mo, both of which were Frisco interchange points. There is a proposed map showing this connection, but I don't believe the line was ever completed. I am specifically looking for any information on how far the line was actually built, and where they might have run. I'm in school in that area right now, and absolutely love visiting that part of the Ozarks. I would like to model this area in the future, and would like to get some pictures of the area before I'm done with school and leave. I've checked old topo maps. The oldest I can find is the Eminence map from 1915 on the USGS website. It shows the railroad running up Jacks fork hollow with another track named spur3, which is probably one of the tram ways serving the huge saw mill that was at West Eminence for a time. The railroad head off in the direction of Round Spring MO, but the other maps I can find are too new to show the railroad. Thanks for the help.
I'm not much help but during the 1970s my grandpa was the superintendent of the Winona high school and I spent weekends and summers there at Winona with them. I remember the sawmill would blow its whistle every day at 12:00 noon. We canoed the Jacks Fork, Current river and 11Point river often. The scenery for your proposed layout will surely be spectacular as that area begs to be modeled. You have to model at least one water mill! Good luck with your research and model railroad journey and a big welcome to the forum.
On page 100 of Missouri Ozark Waterways by Oz Hawksley (Missouri Department of Conservation, 1981) provides this description of the of the Jacks Fork River: (mile marker) 32.3 Horse hollow on left. The old Salem, Winowa and Southern RR used to run up this hollow and continue up Sinking Branch after following the Jacks Fork from Mahan's Creek. (mile marker) 32.3 Mahan's Creek on right. Site of old RR river crossing just above mouth of creek. I hope this helps. Rich
Just going off the top of my head, but for a short time after it's "completion", the Salem Branch extended to a point known as Riverside Mines, about seven miles south of Salem. I believe this segment was abandoned prior to 1900. As you probably know, the Salem Branch was originally known as the St. Louis, Salem, and Little Rock, and was, as it's name suggests, intended to reach Little Rock Arkansas, but construction stopped in 1873, and it never went south of Riverside Mines. I've never understood why the Winona Branch and the Salem Branch weren't connected as some point during the early days of their existence. I guess the potential returns wouldn't have justified the costs. Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
Beware. You've activated my "obsessive research" neurosis. William D. Edson's "Railroad Names" lists the Salem, Winona & Southern as a class III shortline, built in 1908 and dismantled in 1929. The 1916 and 1926 Official Guides to the Railways show the SW&S to have 21.5 miles of track from Horse Hollow to Winona. Station list below. (I am arbitrarily showing the mileage from Winona, on the south end. Note that this may not reflect the existence of some logging spurs.) Winona (0 miles) Winona Junction (2.5 miles) Buckhart Springs (7.5 miles) Delaware (11.5 miles) West Eminence (15.7 miles) Alley Junction (19.7 miles -- not listed in 1916 guide) Horse Hollow (21.5 miles) The schedules shown in these two Guides suggest that trains originated and terminated at West Eminence. The following online book chapter from the National Park Service has some discussion of the SW&S and its association with the Missouri Lumber & Mining Co., which operated the sawmill at West Eminence and ran several other mills and logging railroads in the area. Note that the footnotes cite sources which might be good for further reading. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/ozar/hrs6.htm The ICC's reports on the valuation and eventual abandonment of the line could be very good sources for understanding its history and operation. The Interstate Commerce Commission Reports include a valuation report on the SW&S in vol. 114, and the abandonment hearing in vol. 138 (year 1928). Last time I checked, Missouri State University's library in Springfield had a set of the ICC Reports that covered these years, although you'll probably have to ask one of their friendly reference librarians to show you where they reside in the library's "dungeon". What appears to be a substantial snippet of the valuation report is viewable online here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipe...aluations/Salem,_Winona_and_Southern_Railroad That snippet indicates that the SW&S existed mainly to haul logs and lumber for ML&M, an impression which is reinforced by the (unfortunately unsourced) information that someone at Labelle Models has made available here: https://www.labellemodels.com/manuals/Salem, Winona and Southern.pdf These sources suggest that the SW&S also leased much of its equipment from Missouri Lumber & Mining. However, Tom Taber's index to the Baldwin Locomotive Works' company magazine includes the following entry: "Salem, Winona & Southern RR: #101, 2-8-2 1-31/67. This would appear to mean that an article or picture of an SW&S mikado is in the first magazine issue of 1931, page 67. Seems odd given the 1928/29 abandonment date, but not impossible. What would seem to be the same locomotive is shown in a webpage about South Carolina logging locomotives. Scroll down to the picture of Brooklyn Cooperage #202, which is described as ex-SW&S #101. http://www.state.sc.us/forest/scloco.htm If you feel like delving into archival materials, you might check the manuscript and photographic holdings of the State Historical Society of Missouri: http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/index.shtml . Try searching for the name of the railroad or of Missouri Lumber & Mining. There's a collection of ML&M photographs in their holdings that is quite inspiring to any modeler of rough-and-ready Ozarks logging camps of the early 1900s, although according to the collection description, they are primarily of ML&M operations in and around Grandin, several years before they moved to West Eminence. If you're *really* dedicated.... Local city or county historical societies and libraries may have holdings that are not readily accessible to the outside world. The Barriger Library, a railroad-oriented special section of the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, reports that they have a copy of a "tentative valuation" of the SW&S by the ICC. This may include some information omitted from the published valuation. The National Archives and Record Administration in Virginia has extremely detailed field notes from some of the ICC's valuation studies. This might include the SW&S... but maybe not, and although the NARA archivists are helpful and conscientious, it is inevitably difficult to do original-record research from hundreds of miles away.
Hey all, I live in Salem and have traversed the old bed from Spring Creek(South East of Salem) to Riverside Mine. I was told by an old timer that there was a turn table at the mine. Anyone know if there is any truth to that? Jamison Mine(South of Salem about 4 miles)had the smaller gauge track somewhere at the mine, maybe.....the owner has a piece of the track and there is NO trash in the mine. Is there access to smaller gauge tracks anywhere?
https://www.labellemodels.com/manua...outhern.pdf?osCsid=kdvgjoaisv76o53mg08viqcvg1. labellewoodworking has the 1917 valuation of this railroad and you can go to there . If you use books.google.com and search the railroad , you will come up with a 1914 inspection of the railroad, which gives some information. Michael Lowe
thanks. For anyone interested, I just found this link http://currentriver.net/tours/Eminence_History/page2.htm Page 2 says the line stopped at Round Spring. It also lists the endpoints of other tram lines in the area. Lots of good information on the railroad and the mill, and some on the local area.
logging tram rail row 's near Eminence MO https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/missouri/ This computer map shows many ghost railroads: http://www.mytopo.com/search.cfm The Frisco through Winona is one ghost line shown. Another topo map system: https://www.topozone.com/missouri/ but the row s are not as dark as on mytopo. On topozone, one needs to zoom all the way in. ( These computer topozone and mytopo maps are continuous and have no borders ). LOGGING TRAM RAILS; https://www.topozone.com/missouri/shannon-mo ( https://www.topozone.com/missouri/shannon-mo/park/ozark-national-scenic-riverways/ ). https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/ https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/missouri/
The below information was found on WIKI. Old pictures of the property of the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company. MLM log train, c. 1910 MLM houses in Grandin, Missouri, c. 1910 MLM mill complex in Grandin, Missouri, 1903 Unknown author. Missouri Lumber and Mining Co mill in Grandin, Missouri, from an article in American Lumberman magazine, 1903 Company town Missouri Lumber and Mining Company - Wikipedia Grandin is located at 36°49′47″N 90°49′24″W / 36.829755°N 90.823417°W .
