While looking over the Clinton Subdivision material, one soon sees that some of the depots are of masonry construction, while others were of wood. Does anyone know on what basis the difference was based? Also, some depots had semaphore signals while others had train order boards. Does anyone know why the difference? Inquiring minds in Tulsa would like to know.
I know of a few masonry depots on the Clinton Sub and the nearby KCC&S, at Osceola, Bolivar, and Phenix (KCC&S). For photographs see the following link. www.missouridepots.com There were large stone quarries at Phenix and Osceola, which probably influenced the choice of building material. I have little personal knowledge about the depot at Bolivar. I'm pretty sure it was constructed long after most of the other depots on the line, probably replacing an earlier frame structure. Bolivar was one of the largest and busiest towns on the Clinton Subdivision, so the railroad may have simply wanted to attract more business by supplying a more modern and substantial-looking depot.
Glenn, The importance of the community and amount of business heavily influenced depot construction at a specific local. Typically county seats had more substantial construction masonry depots. Local communities also often desired a substantial depot as a sign of the town's importance and therefore contributed money to finance depot construction. Depot train order signals varied in type. These range from simple rotating boards, typically used on branch lines, to semaphores. Frisco typically used lower quadrant train order (TO) signals, and after the mid to late 1960s some were replaced with color position light signals. Some of the Frisco's lines were overlayed with signals for traffic control. On these lines the railroad originally used upper quadrant semaphore signals. To reduce maintenance costs, moving parts, these were later replaced with searchlight or color position light signals. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
