Lyons, KS, MP 577.0

Anyone know if Frisco had a depot in Lyons, KS and if so, when it was torn down or moved? A picture or two would be great! (I can dream, can't I? lol) |-|

Also, any info/track plans of the salt mine south of Lyons would be greatly appreciated! TIA.

 

Lyons, KS, MP577.0 - Section House, Section House Closet, Section Car House, Water Tank, Pump House, Deep Well

Chris,

You were closer than you think. The Frisco used the ATSF depot in Lyons, KS. Building-wise, the Frisco presence in Lyons was limited to a water tank and its support structures, i.e., pump house and well; all built in 1906. The section gang was quartered in Lyons, so a section house, outhouse, and section-car house were also located there.

It is possible that the Frisco built a depot in Lyons. Perhaps at the same time that the section house was built, i.e., 1886. IF built, it may have burned or may have been retired by the Frisco around the turn of the century. Anyway , I can find no record of it in my Northern Div B&B records.

 

Wow, fast answers and great info. Many thanks for sharing!

 

The Frisco came into Lyons from the south and actually circled around the southwest edge of town. It crossed the Santa Fe east west line to Great Bend on the west side of town. For some reason I think there was a pssibility that the Frisco and the Santa Fe shared trackage rights over the portion of the line between Lyons and I believe Lorraine where they crossed the MP. Maybe someone else can shed more light on this.
Robert Hoover, Jr.
FriscoFriend

 

My source ("Wheat Lines & Super Freights" by Joe McMillan") says that ATSF acquired trackage rights over the Burton Sub between Lyons and Lorraine in 1972. Later, when Frisco became part of BN the Burton Sub was abandoned between Buhler and Ellsworth but because of the trackage rights agreement the orphaned section used by ATSF between Lyons and Lorraine was still in operation.

As a kid I used to walk the Frisco tracks a short distance from my Grandmother's house in Lyons till they met up with the ATSF tracks west of town so I know the crossing you are referencing. What I don't know is much about the salt mine southeast of town, seems it was serviced by MoPac but I've found an old picture in one of the Frisco employee newsletters bragging about the "worlds longest salt train" for Frisco coming out of Lyons back in the 1920's or so?

 

Admiral,

Although I can't say in what capacity they where used for, the Frisco had 14 cars the in the 3800 series that where used for salt service. They where apparently rebuilt from MDT reefers and for some reason had refrigerator painted on the side. Attached is a version I scratchbuilt a few years ago, to the left of the door is a stencil that reads "Return to Lyons Kansas when empty for salt loading only".

Brad

 

As far as the salt mine is concerned, there were to my recollection three RR's that served it, the Frisco, the MOP, and possibly the Santa Fe. The mine was located at the southeast corner of town and the Frisco main went right beside it.

The MOP had a north/south yard on the east edge of town and I believe there was still a depot there into the 80's. They would have come in from Geneso to the north. One must keep in mind that these mines, unlike grain operations that were seasonal, were a year around source of revenue.

As far as the ATSF is concerned, they would have had to either get to the mine on the MOP or they had parallel trackage to the MOP on the east side of town.

Robert Hoover, Jr.
FriscoFriend

 

O.K. This is coming from a person who actually lives here in Lyons. Well, I've looked at the public library and they have a little article that a man, who is deceased, wrote in 1990...my birth year! It had old pictures in the back and one of them was, in fact, of a Frisco RR depot.

It said that it was later (1890's) torn down and the Frisco "moved into" the ATSF depot, which, in the 1890's, would have still been the old wooden depot, which no longer exists, that we had before we got our present brick depot. I will work on getting you the pictures.

Any and all structural evidence of the Frisco RR's presence here in Lyons (minus the depot) is long gone. But, through my research and through personal treks, there is still the elevated land and even some of the ballast is still there.

At the ATSF-Frisco crossing, to the side of the tracks under some trees is the 90 degree crossing track piece. The K&O RR owns the former ATSF and MP tracks.

I am currently working on getting the depot restored. In fact, last month marked one year of work. All I need is for people to call and say that they are interested.

Anything else you need to know about Lyons? If so, you can be that there's a good chance I'll have the answer! I would like to know what all of you think or anything about what I said.

 

I forgot to mention that Lyons used to have 2 salt mines...both lying along the same track...the MP's! One on the north side of town, and the one there now on the south side. The "Old North Salt Mine" is gone.

The KDHE (Kansas Department of Health & Environment) even came in the 1990's and did a video inspection of the shaft (how they did it I do not know), which was dug in 1890. Salt wastes or something was leaking and was heading south toward the city's water wells. So they filled the shaft with rocks & debris and put a 3ft. thick concrete cap on it.

You can see the pictures by typing in "Lyons old north salt mine" into google and clicking on something that says "Plugging the Old Lyons North Salt Mine". The mine closed in 1947. The one in the South was built in 1909.

 

Wow, amazing luck for me. I have a ton of questions about Lyons. Presently I'm working on an N-gauge layout that has all three lines surrounding Lyons involved. I remember the Frisco/ATSF crossing from the late 70's, it had a cross arm with a "STOP" sign on it as I recall. I never went to the other sides of town to check out either the MOPAC/ATSF or MOPAC/Frisco crossings. For track maps I'm using a 1978 topo map available on the Microsoft Terraserver. I've tried to find other maps but none show much detail beyond this.


I've recently obtained photos of the Lyons ATSF depot which I'm trying to kitbash using some of the new Walther's Santa Fe Brick stuff as well as an older brick depot kit. Seems this Santa Fe depot is unlike any others I've run across. If you have any old photos of the depot (60's or older) that would be great! I also have one photo of the MOPAC depot.

 

Of note in this article is a reference to Pathe Movie, which was a newsreel producing company. It or some sort of successor company is still extant, and it maintains an archive of its old films. Do a google search for its web site.

In another FEM article, a “Cass County (MO) Lime Train” was described, and once again Pathe was on hand to record the event. Bradley Scott contacted Pathe in order to obtain a copy of the Lime Train film. The last I heard from Brad, he had not received anything further from Pathe.

It might be time to search the digital FM and FEM collection with the keyword Pathe, and see how often the company was on hand to film the Frisco.

 

Brad,

That's an excellent model. I too have modeled a 3800 class Frisco refrigerator car in HO. I have seen these in photos of the St. Louis freightyards in the Mill Creek area (I think it was in the St. Louis in Color book), taken in the late 1950's. In addition to supplying meat packing plants, I suspect they were used to transport salt to the various company icing docks around the system, where the salt would be used in salt brine for the refrigerator icing. Also, they could then be used to transport ice to the outlying docks as well.

Ken McElreath