Sooo, can anyone shed a little light on the "typical" number of freight cars would be found in a train consist? Preferably during the mid-sixties, uh make that mid 1960's.
The mainline trains through Springfield (both St. Louis to OK and KC to Memphis lines) were most all 60-100 cars. That's just me sitting at grade crossings and counting, nothing "official." Power was 4, 5 or 6 EMD F3A/F3B, F7A/F7B, F9B, FP7's or Alco FA/FB's or four GE U-25-B's when they were new. Local freights, four directions out of town, were six to twenty cars, with one or two GP-7's. Tom G.
I recall sitting at the Rolla depot in May, 1964 on a Saturday morning killing time waiting for a friend so we could drive home to St. Louis, when the local came through heading west. One b/y GP7, with perhaps 15-20 cars. He stopped at the depot for a few minutes, then set out a car at one of the industries west of the depot, and was on his way down to Newburg. Took about 15-20 minutes total. Ken
If you take a look at a timetable, the lengths of passing sidings are given. This should be an estimate of the length of an average sized train on a given subdivision. Paul
Sorry guys, I posted it in the Clinton Subdivision area and it doesn't show that on a Portal view. Soooo, what about car count for Clinton Sub trains?
Motive power: RS-1's, VO-1000's, and GP-7's were typical. I have seen RS-1's run in multiple. Three-window, steel-cupola, wood cabooses and the baggage cars for chick service were de rigueur. The Chick cars operated on the north end only. In general, on the KC-Clinton side the practice was set-outs southbound and pickups northbound. The practice was just the opposite on the Clinton-Springfield end. On one trip from KC, we left 19th Street with 30-plus cars, and by the time we reached Dodson, we still had 22 cars. The RS-1 laid down on the hill to Grandview, and we had to stop to cool things for 30 minutes before we continued. This was a bit atypical, and trains of 5-15 cars were more typical. Here is a consist from 1959: Train No 59 14 loads, 2 empties (MT) GP-7 SLSF 607 UP 86767 - Sand GN 12964 - Flour WRNX 3190 - Gasoline CB&Q 87012 - Flour SLSF 82092 - Flour NKP 15745 - Flour CB&Q 35334 - Flour SLSF 92317 - Sand SLSF 92134 - Sand SLSF 91136 - Sand SLSF 92393 - Sand CB&Q 31316 - Flour MP 31994 - Flour GTW 516719 - MT SLSF 160200 - Merchandise SLSF 304 - Express MT SLSF 121 - Caboose Reference Notes in the PTT's from that era note that passengers will be carried in the caboose between Centropolis and Clinton, and would operate daily from Feb 15 to July 15 (chick season). The remainder of the year service was daily except Sunday or tri-weekly depending upon the year.
Karl, Excellent! And many thanks. Was there a "local" switcher or switchers based out of Clinton that would do setouts and/or pickups north and south along the line? Just wondering about the true use of the yard in Clinton. Doesn't seem to be used as what one now thinks as a yard. i.e breaking down/assembly of groups of cars to go north or south.
Karl, Your info is always priceless. Any idea where any of those cars were headed (sand, flour, gasoline)? So No 59 set out cars before Dodson. Do you recall if these setouts were south of Leeds? I was under the impression that traffic for the industries within the KC terminal (north of Leeds) were handled to/from 19th Street Yard by the road switcher. Ted Ferkenhoff
Can't comment about the flour or the gasoline, but the sand shipments were "regular" sand since they were in open top hoppers - perhaps to a concrete plant, etc. I f it were glass sand, quartzite, chemical silica, etc. it would have been in covered hoppers. Ken
As to the sand, as a guess, there were several sand dredging operations along the Kaw River. Perhaps, the sand was from them heading to the concrete plants in and around Springfield?
Unfortunately, my list does not include the consignees. The list depicts train No 59's consist as it arrived in Clinton. The Frisco served three bulk petroleum concerns, Skelly, City Services, & Phillips, in "South Clinton" via the former KCCS. Perhaps the tank of gasoline was destined to one of these. The sand could be consigned to Williams Rock. It's doubtful that Frisco would route sand from KC to Springfield via the Clinton Subdivision. Ted, when we rode No 59, it did not perform any work until we got to Alexander and Melville. Trains Nos 58/59 and Nos 54/55 performed all the local work on the Clinton Subdivision. There wasn't a switch engine job assigned to Clinton that made turns either north or south from Clinton. The yard at Clinton operated in the same manner as one of its larger sisters. Trains were indeed broken-up and assembled.
If I read the 1954 TT correctly, from KC to Clinton, there was a daily mixed train basically rotating between the two. No 59 leaving KC at 8:00am and No 58 leaving Clinton at 10:40 with them meeting at East Lynne at 12:30. Then No 54 leaving Springfield at 6:00 am on Mondays for Clinton (arriving at 11:45) and then returning to Springfield at 6:00 am as No 55 on Tuesdays (arriving at 11:45). So after No 55 arrived, it would be doing the yard switching to get cars ready for the next round of outbound trains? And possibly any cars destined for the Katy at Clinton.
