By the summer of 1965 the handwriting was on the wall, and on September 18, the Kansas City-Florida Special and the Sunnyland would fade into history. The MKT ran its last passenger train over the KC Sub during June of 1965. The MP’s Colorado Eagle no longer used the Frisco’s KC sub as a “short-cut” to Paola. In an act of dubious economy, the Frisco management decided to retire the East Mainline between Cross-over “D” (C-26+20 poles to C-26+28 poles) and Cross-over “E”. (C-37+13 poles and C-37+21 poles). The West Mainline received new 132 lbs CWR during April 1965 to replace its circa late 1940’s head-free 112/115 lbs jointed rail, but the East Main between these points would be sacrificed. Management thought that the resulting 11 mile stretch of single track would not effect the dwindling traffic, and they saw the hope for lower costs in terms of taxes and maintenance. Management had one other motive in its action; the Frisco needed the rail. At this time, the Frisco had plans to tap the recently discovered lead ore of the “New Lead Belt”. By using the head-free 112/115 lbs jointed rail from the KC sub, the Frisco could realize substantial savings over new CWR for its new branch line. It should be noted, that even though the Frisco decided to use concrete ties on the Lead Belt, the railroad skimped on the quantity, and caused itself all sorts of maintenance problems, but that’s another story. By June 1965, the rail and OTM had been removed, but the ties remained. In these shots taken at Spring Hill, KS, a Burro crane and a Speedswing work to remove the last remnants of the East Main. A brief stretch of the East Track remains through town, and serves as a storage track for the gons-full of ties. Note all the gons on the Spring Hill Grain track, which is in the background of one of the photos. After the track had been removed it was common to see trains waiting at “old Cross-over D and E” for opposing trains. I’d wager that the dispatchers and train crews failed to see the wisdom in management’s move. Even today, rumors exist that the BNSF wants to put it back.
My apologies, Karl. I've been meaning to reply to your post for a long time and just haven't had the time to do it. Anyway, my Dad was a furloughed telegrapher at the time and Frisco offered him a job on the steel gang that took it up. He told me it was in April 1966 that the rails where lifted and we all know how the memories fade with time, especially 40 years, so I'm sure your dates are correct (I just won't tell him that!). They took the track up from what is now Bonita to North Hillsdale and South Hillsdale to Paola. The roadbed is still there, elevated from about MP 31.5 to 35.0 like the St.Louis-Pacific line. The old Frisco guys that are still around told me it was known as the "Fast Track" or "Passenger Main", but today they call it Bonita Hill. I'm not sure which of the two lines is the original line built in 1869, the culverts under the abandoned one are dated 1922 so I am assuming it is the "new" line. On a brighter note everything in your photos is still there except for the depot. I'm not sure what the grade is on the abandoned line but on the remaining line it is basically uphill northbound out of North Hillsdale to Ocheltree topping out at about 1% around MP 32. There are a couple of sags in it, one under HWY 69 and the other between Ocheltree & Bonita so you can "get a run at the hill". It's not the worst grade between KC & Ft.Scott, southbound from Rosedale to Lenexa & both sides of Pleasanton are heavier grades. The max speed on the line is 60MPH. As an engineer running over line, the fastest I've ever been able to do is 52 MPH coming out of the sag at under HWY 69 to MP 33 on a empty coal train with 3 AC4400's on line. Rumors are that they will put the old line back in service eventually. Back in the Frisco days the Katy only ran a couple of trains over the line between KC & Paola, now the UP is running just as much (or more) trains than BNSF over the line. That coupled with the switch arrangement at South Hillsdale, the missing block signal at MP 33 and new Scherer coal trains Bonita Hill has more congestion than any part of the old Frisco. UP trains get priority since they have to run all the way to Coffeyville, KS. BNSF canceled the inter divisional pool between KC & Springfield in May 2004 leaving just the 97-mile KC-Fort Scott pool giving trains more time to get over the road. Still, with all traffic trains go dead on their hours. It is not uncommon to sit at Olathe or North Hillsdale for hours waiting their turn on the single track. I was told last spring on a business car train from KC to Springfield with BNSF CEO Matt Rose on board that the engineer went thru Olathe at the 60 MPH speed limit and the ride was so rough that he took out his checkbook right there and then. I was also told that BNSF wants the UP to pay for half of the cost of putting the 2nd main back in, even offering to sell them the abandoned right-of-way. But, railroaders are famous for spreading rumors. Will they rebuild the 2nd main line? I would get my photos of the abandoned line now.
Roger, I am relatively confident about the dates, since the dates are written on the slide frames, and the other slides stored in this magazine are of that time period. Errors are possible, so I'll check further, and ask my father to see what his recollections are. During the mid to late sixties, the steel gang was quite active on the KC Sub. Between Old Crossover D and Paola, I have the following: MP C-26.58 Cross over "D" 132 CWR Laid Apr 1965 MP C-30.30 132 Conv Laid Oct 1953 MP C-35.28 132 CWR Laid Apr 1965 MP C-37.24 West Main Only 132 CWR Apr 1965 MP C-43.60 132 CWR Feb 1966 These are up-to-date values circa 1975-76 The steel gang returned to the KC Sub during the fall of 1967 and laid 132 CWR from Bonita to Rosedale on the West Main. I have some slides taken at Moss during that time that shows this activity. It's just a matter of getting to my wife's office to get them scanned. I have included a 1930's era track chart of the area, and I believe that the East Main is the newer of the two tracks. Between MP 32 and 35 the east main holds a consistant 0.5%, while the West Main has a brief stretch of 0.86% before it drops to a 0.68%.
Karl, I don't know if it was the same crane and gondola as in your pictures, but about 4-5 years ago there was a Frisco crane and gondola down here at Newburg picking up ties and loading them into cars just like shown in your picture! I don't remember if I got a photo or not, I'll have to check the photo albums, but if I do have one I'll post it for you. By the way, it still had the Frisco coonskin on the crane and SLSF on the gondola! Have a Merry Christmas, George
