My name is Chris and I grew up in Niangua Missouri. As a kid my brother and I would ride our bikes down to the tracks to watch the Burlington Northern trains roll by, and now, after a stint in the United States Marine Corps I currently work for Burlington Northern Santa Fe as a conductor. I hired out of Oklahoma City, and am currently working in Gillette, Wyoming. My wife and kids reside in Albuquerque New Mexico as my wife is active duty military. I am actively seeking any pictures or documents that relate to the Niangua Missouri area. My plan is to eventually rebuild the old Frisco depot in Niangua, hopefully as a diner/living museum. I have some photos of the old depot there, and the building floor plans, and hope to start this project in the next couple of years once we move back to Niangua. I have a few model trains in HO scale, but nothing spectacular, as I am just starting to learn about DCC. Basically my mom saved all my models from when I was a kid, and brought them down to me when I had my son a year ago. I started pulling the stuff out and trying to get a small layout setup, maybe something I can incorporate in my future plans of rebuilding the depot there in town.
Chris, by all means, Welcome Aboard! and thanks to you and your wife for your service to our great country. BTW, how long have you been in Gillette? Do you happen to meet Dan Munson while he was still up there? He is now in KC and a RR modeler friend of mine.
I met him the first time I came up here. I come up every 2 years to keep my familiarization going on this route.
Chris, does your wife work at Kirkland AFB? I was born in Albuquerque in 1956 and lived there for four years. I still have a lot of relatives that live in Albuquerque on my dad's side of the family and I have one Uncle that worked at Kirkland as the head of the Drafting Department for several years before he passed away. My Uncle is the guy that introduced me to model railroading in 1967 with a HO AEC 44 ton switcher, boxcar, flatcar with a rocket and a bobber caboose. My mom's side of the family lives in Aurora, Missouri, not too far from Niangua. Joe
Yes we actually live on base at Kirtland. We just got out there in March. I have been through Aurora several times when I was running out of Cherokee Yard there in Tulsa, up to Springfield. I really love that run, beautiful country. Always a good trip.
Welcome to the website Chris. Nice to see a fellow BNSF guy on the site, not to mention a brother Marine (1979-83 for me). I am an engineer for BNSF and run the trackage right trains out of Grand Junction (GRAJUP) to Denver or Provo. Just hang in there, the first years of service can be challenging as you know. And one day you will be able to mark up where you want, then blink your eyes and you have 15 years of service under your belt. Best of luck to you. Dont be reluctant to contact me via a Private Message (PM). Tom
Hey Tom thanks for the kind words. I am up in Gillette to keep my familiarization going, but I've actually looked at getting down towards Pueblo or Trinidad to be closer to home. Hope business continues to pick up, I sure do enjoy it out here. I am not going anywhere though. This will certainly be my last career. I was able to finish my associates degree and started on my bachelors while I was furloughed. My wife retires in a few more years, she has one enlistment to go, then we hope to move back to Missouri and hope my seniority is good enough to hold Springfield, Missouri. Likewise if you need anything or just want to chat about work feel free to message me. Semper Fi! Chris
