My goal this winter is to get out and walk as many miles of the Salem Branch and its various spurs as possible. Today was all about the Sligo & Eastern. I have noticed in research that several people have different routes in their KMZ files on how the railroad entered Sligo. The discrepancy begins just west of Highway 19. Today, I wanted to get to the bottom of it, so we went exploring. Turns out, there are most certainly 2 different routes, with a switch west of Highway 19 where the discrepancies begin. I have been under the impression that the red route was the only way into the Sligo valley. This route is very apparent at Highway 19, where the western side is now a driveway with a nice deep cut into the hill, and you can see the bed descend the hill on the east side of the highway. In today’s adventure we discovered the blue route. The blue route is huge; up to 60+ feet tall in some spots along the county road. There are still several intact culverts built into the bed along the route as well. They both converge near Highway TT in Sligo. I am assuming these 2 separate routes would be used as “a way in/a way out”, but I have no evidence to back that up. Has anyone seen any record of there being 2 separate ways into Sligo? This is fascinating to me.
Keep nailing it! The more we learn, leads to more questions. I knew about the blue route. Approximately 1/4 mile south is the old Siglo and Eastern (S&E) caboose. I think there were two others. Do you now of a Cody in Salem? Likely about your age. Swimming in the Meramec River he would find things, parts of a railcar. Likely there was a train wreck. I will be talking with Pat from Wesco. I have some things to email you.
Charles, I have read Cody’s posts, we went to high school together, but I do not know him well. I know that there was a wreck at the Meramec Bridge at Goltra, and cars ended up in the river. My dad has a picture of it somewhere, we will try to locate. I am assuming that is where he was swimming when they found the old train car. How can I get you my email? I tried to respond to your message and could not find a way to do it. Still learning this site!
Jacob, In your research recommend you access the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Quadrangles for the area. They are available on line, in color, at no cost from several sources including https://www.landmarkhunter.com. With this site you can navigate and zoom in as needed. Adjoining quadrangles on the 8 major compass points (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) are easily accessed. This site is a great tool for researchers to add. The USGS Quadrangles for the immediate area in Missouri of Dent County are Cook Station and Cherryville. Please see https://landmarkhunter.com/mo/dent/quads/. They indicate the "old railroad grade" as the blue line you indicated in the map above. The railroad grade is shown as north of Robert's Cemetery, along the north side of the Taff Branch. The driveway northwest of Missouri TT Highway shows on the map. However, with the +40' difference and steep grade (20' grade contours shown), it does not appear the brown line segment between the blue line endpoints would have been chosen as a railroad route. The Quadrangles do show a spur to the northwest from a junction southeast of Sligo, south of Missouri TT Highway, arching north of the community . The spur crosses Missouri TT Highway and turns west, stopping near the horseshoe of Dent County Road 401. It appears to stop east of the road near the hillside. Speculate the "C" shaped horseshoe curve in the road wrapped around the former smelter facility's stub end spur. This is just northwest of the 4-way junction of Missouri Highway TT and Dent County Roads 401 and 448. We are enjoying your posts, appreciate the field work and hope you and others continue to contribute additional information to this most interesting region research. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
If remembering correctly, I think Cody on his 4 wheeler got everywhere. One swimming location was near Lost Mountain north of Wesco.
Mark, Thank you for helping this research and Jacob. I will add you to our team of Jacob, Pat Moreland, all the other repliers and myself. We will include the St. Louis, Salem and Little Rock (SLS&LR) Railroad, Sligo Furnace, Sligo and Eastern (S&E) Railroad, all the branches off of the Salem Branch, area mines histories and so much more in that area. Your always have been a great supporter of members research. Again tank you! Charles
This article is referring to the wooden trestle at Lost Lake. The remains of that trestle are visible where the earthen dam collapsed. Apparently, the wooden trestle was covered by dirt in 1910. This unintentionally dammed the James Branch, and created Lost Lake. The lake was truly lost in 2017, when the earthen dam broke, and the remains of the trestle were made visible. Crawford Mirror, July 7th, 1910
Hi Jacob, The topographic map shows the rise of tracks from Sligo village, on the Sligo Branch that starts at Goltra Jct.. Like when away from the plains around Salem, down in the hilly countryside the grade of a railway is very important. Don Worth may give a better explanation. Think in terms a steam locomotive in three dimensions instead of two dimensions. If the engineer give the locomotive to much power, when starting from at rest, and in particularly if uphill, the drive wheels might slip trying to get started. Once started if the grade is still rising, the drive wheels could slip losing traction again.* The engineer can easily let-up on the throttle to control for the situations. More important is when traveling down hill. If to steep downward, the weight of the train could be too much for the locomotive's brakes to be effective. If that happens, the engineer can not easily regain some control, if any at all. Such may become a runaway train situation. * See video of wheels slipping. https://www.google.com/search?q=pic...#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:aae84a49,vid:T1DlForsPP4 https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/missouri/pclmaps-topo-mo-steelville-1933.jpg
Trying to control a train's speed downhill with the the independent brakes alone is fraught with disaster.
It would not take long before the independent brakes became ineffective. Especially on a steam locomotive you may even get the wheels hot enough to loosen the tires. Dynamic type brakes would really be the only locomotive brakes effective at all, and you do not find any on a steam locomotive. I suppose you could use the water brakes.
Jacob, All topographic maps show only the blue route. On all topographic maps at Highway 19 there is a passageway. It may have been there way back in the days of mule teams pulling wagon, but that does not matter. The first half of the route is dropping in elevation westward. The second half, it is starting to parallel the creek, hugging the steep hill as well on the other side of the passageway. Near the bottom it turns towards a building in a short and wider hollow. That is approximately 25-30 feet above the creek. There is no bridge crossing the creek. This is at the flooding side of the valley. The higher north side of the valley is the railway which is high enough not to flood. On the Crooked Creek side of Highway 19, the passageway gets steeper. Both sides of the Highway 19 passageway should have culvert pipes to keep from having washouts. But more so, the culvert pipes keep the surface of the passageway flat; no potholes, no grooves across it. Even in the days of mule teams pulling wagons, culverts were needed for the same reasons. Mules wagons could break an axle or a wheels' spoke. Or worse tipping over the wagon. The team driver could be thrown overboard. In later days the 4-wheel drive vehicles could lose exhaust systems, dent bumpers and/or vehicle sides, crack a leaf spring or other components. Same on the front end of the vehicle. A tractor may been used on that passageway. Tractors have killed many people. I knew one, a coworker who did show up to work on a Monday morning. Culvert pipes are used to keep the passageway flat even with very steep conditions.
Karl replied to "three deck" wooden bridge Karl said "That is an odd term". As with modern reporters, reporters back in the day did not know much either. I am apt to believe that the reference is to a 3-span, wood, Howe truss, Tuesday at 6:34 PM.
We former reporters may be dumb, and underpaid, but when you are working on deadline and covering the school board one day, the cops the next, and the railroad on the third, sometimes it is hard to keep up with the jargon being slung around by the experts.
Click on the 1937 topo map "once", using both slide bars, to locate where the Sligo Branch Railway is from Goltra Jct. to Sligo village. In order to show the contours and details better, hold down the ctrl & shift keys together similarly and keeping tapping on the + key to keep zooming in more so. Bring map up. Map will look like this. 1678875603447blob.jpg https://www.frisco.org/shipit/index...6/&temp_hash=ccc9615b3dbd1b84fed5487488ab18ab
Hi Jacob, Likely at Lost Lake trestle. There was another trestle 1.8 miles to the west northwest of Lost Lake. It was at the upper end of Chandler Hollow where there are two small prongs and it is just east of the Summit. Chandler Hollow is very long. The railroad used the entire side of Chandler Hollow to keep grade of rises of the tracks low enough for a steam locomotive. The mouth of Chandler Hollow is north of from Lost Lake. The upper end of Chandler Hollow is more so at the halfway location between Sligo and Dillard. Attached Files: a" style="margin: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; background: url("styles/default/xenforo/gradients/category-23px-light.png") center top repeat-x rgb(240, 247, 252); border-radius: 5px;"> _ags_map15d5f4da740445de8cd6920b1b6ebda3.png File size: 491.2 KB .
