Rolla/Newburg/Dixon

Daniel, You may wish to download the multi-section FMIG Lines issue 104 from this site. I included a lot of the "Dixon" influence for my Annapolis layout design. It only got 10% built.

Brad Slone (NMRA MMR) is your man.

Doug Hughes, Dixon High 1959, MSM BSEE 1963, initial member of the MSM Model Railroad Club. We were building a layout in the sub basement of Old Met. That area was later used by the design teams. There's a photo of us with the layout in the 1963 RollaMo.

 

I just posted the following on the Facebook "I Remember Dixon" page. I'll let you all know if we get any bites.
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Is anyone old enough to have seen the helper steam engines uncouple, fill the water tanks, back to and turn on the wye, and head back down Dixon Hill for another train? You'd have to older than me (74). Several model railroaders are interested in duplicating the action in scale. Mr. Plunkett copied all the orders in RR Morse for the engine crews. The hill rerouting in 1945 reduced the need for helpers, and diesels eliminated the need in 1951. There's a small group on frisco.org discussing this, including Dixon's Brad Slone.
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Daniel, I'm getting a few replies on the FB Dixon site from folks older than me.

If you'd like to meet, I'll be around campus Wednesday morning October 14th and in Dixon Saturday afternoon October 17th. There is a very large high school reunion the third Saturday in October in Dixon each year. A few of the old timers will be there if you would be interested in stopping by. It will be all afternoon in the Baker Barn. Go through Jerome toward Dixon. Turn right on 28. At the bottom of the hill is a bridge over Jones Creek. Take the next left after the bridge.

Dixon's track arrangement changed a lot over the years as did the RR-served industries. You will be able to pick and chose. At one time, the passing siding WB switch was on the curve going into town. That probably had constant slow orders. It was later moved west past the grade crossing on on tangent track, where it is today.

Before CTC, there were two passing sidings at both Dixon and Franks. They are shown in FMIG Line 104 in the feature about the CTC installation.

The E. S. Dellinger fiction, BALLAST SCORCHER, also featured that passing siding and Dixon. Dellinger called it "Blixon".

Your project sounds fascinating.

I'm presenting track planning for an out-and-back in HO for a 14X20' room with a room-centered blob with Dixon at the top.

Brad Slone is also track planning. MMR Jan Jester's Newburg-Dixon-Ft. Wood layout was written up in MR back before the 1983 or 84 KC NMRA Convention. Jan is now deceased. His brother was a MSM '63 classmate.

Keep us updated please.

Doug

 

Here's a photo, from the Van Beydler collection, of early Dixon with the curved sidings off the main. Brad Slone has modeled many of those structures and the stock pen.

 

Neat old photo Doug! Duly saved to the appropriate folder on my hard drive. Thanks for sharing!

 

If there is I have never seen them. There was a plate made to celebrate the centennial of the community that had an image of the roundhouse on it. But I don't know where it came from or if it was accurate.

Brad

 

Another Dixon history resource, especially Frisco, is Dr. Jerry Plunkett. He has an office in old downtown Dixon on the SW corner of the major intersection. His ties to MS&T are strong as his degrees were from MSM & MIT. His late wife was Dean Curtis Laws Wilson's daughter. His dad was Charles Plunkett, who was the Frisco agent in Dixon for many years, especially during the interesting WW II years. He's in the phone book and the MS&T alumni records. He'll talk your leg off.

Brad and Don, there is a round depression in the old Frisco park just east of where the well pump house was. It's just south of the tracks and west of the old (unused) underpass. I'd guess it was the site of a 70' turntable.

Daniel, Dixon had two water tanks. There's a lot of sulphur in the Dixon water, so one tank was to chemically treat the hard water. The other was for the treated water and the steam engines. There was a water column just south of the depot and west of the grade crossing. The tanks were east of the grade crossing. Footings may still be there.

 

OK Dixon modelers - let us know your progress. John Peluso (Geep07) has posted photos of his Dixon and Dixon Hill.

 

http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?members/dpeterson3.2902/ & all above. Great!

Please add me in on chat's about Frisco in Ozarks please
including anything on Sligo, Salem Branch and bridges/trestles,

Thank you,
Charles Petit
mountaincreekar@yahoo.com

 

Just a few tidbits to add to the discussion.

The dog food plant is Royal Canin; it is just a little west of my office (I work at Columbia College, between Bridge School Rd and I-44, on Blue's Lake Parkway).

The original Frisco Depot was on the other side of the tracks and a little south (west) of the last one. It was lost to fire, but the year escapes me. I had thought that its replacement was built more or less in the same spot and that the last depot was the first one on the east side of the tracks, but my info and my memory are both sketchy

BTW, UMR Class of '86, English/Writing

 

Great thread! When I was attending UMR (BSCivE ‘06) is where I really became interested in railroads and railroading, as well that neck of the woods. It’s neat hearing from other alumni who are Frisco fans. My last 2 years of college I lived across the street from the tracks in a converted garage apartment at the corner of 12th & Olive. I’d watch them switch the downtown siding and such. I also liked to explore down around Newburg, Bundy Jct., Arlington, Cuba and the Lead Line.