Crossing Mo Ks State Line

I had read the name of the very small community where the Frisco/KCCS crossed the Mo/Ks state line between Belton & Olathe. Does anyone have the name of that town?

 

Do you mean Mastin? ...now known as Kenneth. Last time I looked the Blue River bridge abutments were still extant. The entire Olathe-Belton segment has been subject to urbanization, and most traces of the Leaky Roof are gone.

http://www.frisco.org/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=1464&d=1129903583

 

I think that was it. I live very close to there. Sometimes I rail fan along the current UP line from a set of 4 older ball diamonds just to the north. I thought I might check the area a little closer to see what I could find. Was it right at 151st street? Did the Frisco ever use the route from Belton to Olathe or was it strictly KCCS?

 

A couple of scheduled SLSF run-through freights between Belton and Olathe show up on a 1910 KCC&S employee timetable. One, No. 53/54, was daily-except-Saturday. The other, No. 48/49, operated on a triweekly MWF/TThS schedule. I haven't seen any Belton-Olathe SLSF trains on other KCC&S timetables from the 1904-1924 period.

The SLSF formally leased and took over operations of the KCC&S in December 1924, and applied for abandonment of the Belton-Stanley trackage in November 1927. The ICC issued its "certificate of public convenience and necessity" for abandonment in August 1928. (Finance Docket No. 6598, available at Mike Good's "Railroads of Henry County" webpage.) During this relatively short period of time, operations between Belton and Olathe would have been conducted under the SLSF nameplate. The ICC decision states that following the abandonment of the line between Stanley and Belton, the Frisco was going to provide mixed train service between Olathe and Stanley. I don't know how long that actually lasted.

 

Thanks for the info. So sounds like if I find anything it safe to say it hasn't been used since 1930.

 

Dricketts,

You will note on the valuation plat of Mastin which is linked in this thread, an AFE number (Authorization For Expenditure) and a date are listed. The track was no doubt abandoned not long after the 10/1/1928, AFE date. When the Leaky was was severed between Belton and Stanley, Grandview became the northern terminal of the KCCS. A KCS service track at Grandview was leased for the purpose of fueling locomotives and performing very light maintenance on them.

The water tank at Mastin was the first water stop south (rr) of Olathe, and the locomotives would water in preparation for the steep climb from the Blue River Valley. A locomotive could handle only about 1/3 of the tonnage up the hill to Belton that it could from Olathe to Mastin A spur called Blue was located at the top, and it was used when trains "doubled the hill".

Service between Olathe and Stanley was rendered by "extras", which in reality were the KC-Ft Scott locals, which would venture onto the Leaky Roof as business required. Utimately, business became so poor, that LCL traffic was handled by section gang motor cars.

During the early 80's, my brother and I conducted an field investigation of the KCCS dump between Olathe and Belton. Once past the urban development of Olathe the ROW was very easy to pick, and we believe that we located the depot and section house in Stanley. In the vincinity of Kenneth (Mastin), the bridge abutments and water tank footings were still extant. Today I conducted a quick look on Google Earth, and the north (rr) abutment is still visible. It appears that the only portion of this segment that is still discernable lies between Kenneth(Mastin) and the KCS Bridge which crossed the KCCS. I also noticed that west (compass) of Kenneth there are several subdivisions, strip shopping centers, and golf course which have the name...Hills of Iron Horse, Reserve at Iron Horse, Village at Iron Horse, Iron Horse Centre Shopping, & Villas of Iron Horse. It make me wonder if the developer knew the history of the area.

The east-west street is 151st and the UP, nee MP, can be seen on the left side of the image. The Kansas- Missouri State line is in light blue on the right. In the zoomed view, the concrete bridge abutment is easy to see.

 

Very interesting. I've played golf at Iron Horse before and never made the connection. I'm definitely going to do some add investigation after it quits raining and the weather warms up some. I noticed a handful of older small houses on the southeast corner of Kenneth Rd and 151st last week. I wonder if these date back to the old KCCS days.

 

In high school, and I'm somewhat at a loss as how to say this...uh.... er...ummm....well, we "parked" at Kenneth. On the N side of the MP tracks. This would have been in the early 60's. Some of those houses were old enough to date back to the twenties , but the area was pretty rural and certainly NOTHING like the urban sprawl of subdivisions, shopping centers and golf courses I see on Google Earth today. All I know is nobody was out bothering anyone there! LOL

In the early '70's Bill White, myself and the late Fred Jesburg (some on this forum may know these guys) wandered out to where Metcalf crossed the Leaky Roof and dug around for awhile. I uncovered a spike for what must have been very small (65#) rail and still have it in my "collection" to this date. Bill and I eventually did a pilgrimage down the KCC&S as far as Clinton. I see from today's aerial photos, that it would take more than Sherlock Holmes to find the traces of the road, but then, we had to look hard, but you could still find it.

Buck Dean aka Rancho Bob
Jacksonville, FL

 

You're in luck because I'm a contractor and and engineer. There's not a doubt that this is a base plate foundation poured from "vintage" concrete. Modern concrete has much different aggregate than the river run pea gravel you see here in this sort of concrete, which is mostly found in concrete structures poured before the Depression. The "facial" spalling - or the surface flaking of the liquid concrete envelope is normal for this era of structures because the aggregate tends to settle inward at placement leaving a "skin" of cement and sand that, over time, becomes saturated with water to a depth, freezes, expands, cracks off, and so on. None of this proves this was a KCC&S structure.....it could have been a light pole base from some other use that existed here once, but it's a curiosity.


Buck Dean
Jacksonville, FL

 

Roger thanks for the pics...next trip to KC I will check the Indian Creek crossing site.

There is an interesting wrinkle with regard to your signal pedestal. KCCS ETT Number 27, June 12, 1910 lists Frisco freights 49 & 48 (triweekly) and Frisco freights 53 & 54 (daily except Sat) between Olathe and Belton. At time the KCCS was operating freights 37 & 38 (twiweekly) and freights 35 & 36 (daily except Sunday) plus four daily KCCS passenger trains. At this time the MP-KCCS was protected by a gate, whose normal position was against the Leaky Roof.

Because of the steep grade between Mastin and Blue Siding, the ETT prescribes strict times (read speeds) between Belton and Mastin. The "special instruction" also make reference to a "Manual Block system" between Belton and Mastin:

"North Bound trains, Belton to Mastin will be handled with postive block between 7:00 AM and 6:00 PM. Operator at Mastin will report immediately to operator at Belton arrival of each northbound train, upon receipt of which operator at Belton will clear next northbound train. Operator at Mastin is authorized to use signal (9) {telegraphic report? -keb-} for this report."

I don't know if this system used the train order boards as "home" signals or if there was some other kind of signal system in place. Since some manual block systems used a Distant signal in advance of the home signal, were there distant signals in place at Mastin and at Belton? Perhaps your foundation was a Distant Signal for the manual block set-up.

KCCS ETT Number 7, Sept 23, 1923 shows the interlocker in place, and the agency at Mastin was no longer open.