The great post of the trip on the Current River Branch inspired me to post some information and photos of the Hoxie branch. The first shot that i'll add is a great find by a good friend and Poplar Bluff Police officer J.R. Keirsey. He found one of the only remaining milepost signs anywhere on the line. MP 189.20. The post itself is amazing that it is still standing, in fact there is a date nail in the pole. It looks to be 35. I will be posting more shots.189.20 on the timetable shows to be between Poplar Bluff and rombauer near a station called sawyer that was at MP 188.8. The ROW is just behind and to the left.
Here are some shots of where the Hoxie sub crossed some of the sloughs and rivers near Poplar Bluff. The Tresle is over palmers slough which would have been about mp 193. The Pratt Through truss bridge is over black river.Part of the river bridge was dismantled to for safety reasons.
More shots of the Hoxie sub in and near Poplar Bluff Mo. shot # 35 is old Highway 60 just east of town. The highway crossing was just a few feet past where the old pavement ends. The new Business 60 is in the background. Some old mainline and sidings still remain and the 1913 rail is the old siding that went into Barnes grocery company. #31 is the old main looking north at about MP 194.3. The 1925 rail is in the old main. #28 is an old switch stand.
Photo #27 is rails still in the roadway north of Poplar Bluff. #32 is the old mainline lookin north at the siding into barnes Grocery. Missouri Pacific used this to spot cars at Barnes up until the late 80's. #23 is looking southbound, just on the other side of the trees is the Palmers slough tresle. The Depot has been restored to perfect condition and is the Moark railroad museum with beautiful displays of all the area railroads inside. Even the trainboard has been restored.
Shot #20 is a sign at the depot with it's history. The caboose is at the depot although it is not an original Frisco, it's still nice to have. Shot #17 is looking south near the approach to the tunnel. The depot is just out of sight and to the right in the background. The main ran close to some of the downtown buildings.
The Hoxie sub has a tunnel that most people didn't know about. It ran under Main street and also under Broadway near downtown Poplar Bluff. In the closeup shot you can see a milepost of 194.6. Note the old rail sections that are used as props. All of the tunnel views are looking northbound.
I have posted some very detailed pictures of the Poplar Bluff depot on the following thread: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/poplar-bluff-mo.257/
Amazing. Two trips I have taken recently to the Bluff found me looking for the old route thru downtown. On the second trip I had the right route and finally realized I was driving on the old roadbed and if the public works building hadn't been in the way I could have seen the steel bridge behind it. I had a good idea of how the track curved to the right to continue east toward the bridge but thought I saw only a cut where the tracks ran. No wonder it was so secluded. Had no idea it was a tunnel. Thanks for posting.
