This blog reports the recent damage incurred by flood waters around Mammoth Springs AR. http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2025/04/bnsffrisco-flood-destroyed-bridge-over.html
I've gotta wonder how long this bridge is gonna be out. The impact on traffic along the "Memphis Route" has been noticeable to say the least.
I remember riding the 1522 trip through this area in the early 1990s. At some point between Springfield and Memphis the locomotive was almost on its knees tackling a grade. It might have been around Mammoth Springs.
BNSF routed a Z train (all Containers) through Kirkwood on Tuesday, April 8 up the Cuba (Rolla-Lebanon) Sub. With the Meramec in flood as well, these are tough times.
The 1985 BN track chart matches the Frisco's bridge record with regard to bridge C342.5, which consists of a north-approach, 3-panel open-deck, pile trestle. The approach trestle is 42 feet long, has 6-pile bents, which were driven during 1925. The main span, a 126-foot long, deck plate girder, crosses the Warm Fork of the Spring River. However, photos of the washout seem to show that the BN/BNSF replaced the structure with some sort of concrete span. 1985 BN Track Chart; my collection.
I rode behind 1522 during that trip as well, and the 1522 put on a memorable show. The location of that show was on Whetstone Hill and Sterling Hill. please see: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/whetstone-hill-and-sterling-hill.15236/#post-99389
That's.... unbelievable. That would also explain why the Ash Grove Sub started seeing activity again yesterday.
It sure did - I live in Elwood! Railroads are the experts on timely disaster repair! Let 'em roll, boys!
The bridge was washed out in the Dec. 2, 1982 flood, this was the same flood that took out the MoPac's Doniphan Branch. Everything from Mammoth Spring to Black Rock was damaged, BN parked a string of ballast cars on the Black River bridge at Black Rock, AR. to hold it down but left the many of the other bridges exposed. It took about 2 weeks to replace, BN re-routed several trains on the MoPac via Little Rock, AR. as late as Dec. 12, 1982. I was told by a very close source in the St. Paul headquarters that the damage was so severe that BN seriously considered abandoning the West Plains, MO.-Jonesboro, AR. portion. Traffic was so low that at one time only 6 crews protected the Thayer, MO.-Memphis, TN. pool. The same source also told me that if Frisco hadn't merged with BN it would have bankrupted Frisco. I'm not sure if the concrete piers were built prior to the flood, I floated underneath them many times in the 1970's on Warm Fork but I don't recall if the they were wooden or concrete. Frisco had a bridge replacement program that called for all mainline wooden bridges to be replaced by 1982 with concrete so maybe. That 1/2-mile south of the Mammoth depot has some bad ju-ju, I can think of at least 5 derailments there including the one when the QLA went all over the ground demolishing the old freight house & almost taking out the depot on June 14, 1973. I tried to upload some photos of the bridge but they are too big, the only thing small enough to upload is a list of the the re-routes. I tried 3x & I don't have all day to figure it out. Sorry... Roger R. Taylor
I am really surprised to read this part. The route from Springfield to Memphis was one of the busiest in the entire system before the merger, with 12 daily scheduled trains. Fast forward to now, and I think coal traffic to the south east is the only thing keeping the old Memphis Route open.
If your photo software will let you "export" a pic, try that. I use Picasa 3 software. Exporting a 6.2mb pic results in a 729 kb pic. All the pics I posted to the Swap Meet were Picasa exports.
After the merger a bad recession started, I had many relatives in Thayer that were laid off when traffic plummeted. I also have photos from 1984-1985 of dozens of engines stored in Springfield. From 1981-1983 when I lived in Thayer I was lucky to see 2 trains in the mornings I could go down to the tracks. It started coming back in 1985 with the Expediters, the coal trains in 1989(?) & the Santa Fe haulage trains in 1993.
I didn't understand a word you said, I'm illiterate when it comes computers. Charley wanted them scanned at highest pixels I could so 6400 pixels is what he got, that's why the are so large.
Interesting. I knew there was a recession in the early 80s, but didn't know it hit traffic levels that hard. Also, if you want to send your pictures over to me, I would be happy to assist with a shrink and upload to this thread.
Unfortunately until we get a software update done by Charlie, we will continue to have issues uploading pictures of the size we used to.
I posted them on the Arkansas Railroad History Facebook page here is a link https://www.facebook.com/groups/arkansasrailroadhistory
Another thing to keep in mind was the crew consist agreements "forced" (PEB) binding arbitrations, that took 5 man crews, down to 2 -3 man crews with the 3 being switch jobs. So, that alone resulted in many people being cut-off or furloughed. Many RR's also offered buy-outs as well. I was graduating HS in 1979, and couldnt buy a job on the RR, It was a sort of dark time for some.
