Pre 1934 Brownwood, MO Track Diagram?

For the modeler, who is replicating Frisco SEMO, branch-line operations during the early part of the 20th Century, Brownwood, Missouri is a great choice. Located at the intersection of the Hoxie Subdivision and the Hoxie Subdivision’s Bloomfield Branch, during the Summer of 1925, the community received daily passenger service and daily except Sunday freight service.
A timbering operation’s tram line terminated in town as well, and served several industries. Pending further evidence, operations of the tram line are subject to speculation. Did it only deliver cars directly to the cooperage, or did it interchange cars of raw material with the Frisco? Did the charcoal Kiln produce product for local use or did it produce enough product for “export” via the Frisco? Rule one certainly applies to the tram operation.
Thanks, to Roger’s sketch and a 1925 ETT, we can speculate a with a little more certainty about the daily railroad operations.
During the summer of 1925, trains 875 and 876 provided “through” passenger service between Cape Girardeau, MO and Hoxie, AR via Poplar Bluff. Train 875 was the first arrival of the day, and if on time, it made its station call at 7:00 AM. Nash had a water tank, but being only 7.9 miles from Cape, it’s doubtful that 875 would have watered there. It’s likely that during the station stop at Brownwood, 875 took on water while delivering mail, express, and passengers. Once watered, 875 would pull forward, assume train’s 878 schedule, and then back all the way to Zalma. After the stop in Zalma, train 878 became 879, for the return trip to the mainline at Brownwood, where it would negotiate the south leg of the wye. Once, back on the Hoxie Sub mainline, the train assumed its old number, 875, and it would then back down to the depot to exchange passengers. Once its work was done at the depot, 875 would resume its southbound journey; the side trip to Zalma consumed one hour.
Southbound passengers were fortunate, because they did not have change trains in Brownwood. Northbound passengers were less fortunate; they had two options if they wanted to head toward Cape. They could wait at Brownwood for 12 hours and 38 minutes, i.e., until 8:38 PM for 875’s northbound counterpart, 876. Unlike 875, train 876 did not make a Zalma turn; it arrived in Cape at 10:00 PM. A more timely, albeit a less direct alternative was to wait for the Bullmoose, train 895, which departed Brownwood at 11:05 AM for Bloomfield and points beyond; that option required only a 3 hour wait.
The route of Bullmoose 895 and its counterpart, 892, was circuitous. The 157.2 mile round trip made by a single, GE gas-electric covered several subdivisions, and carried several train numbers. Bullmoose 892 originated at Campbell, MO (Campbell Br, Leachville Sub) at 8:40 AM and headed to Aquilla, where it entered the Bloomfield Branch.
After crossing the Hoxie Sub mainline at Brownwood, 892 pulled passed the north switch of the north leg of the wye, and then backed onto the Hoxie Sub. Bullmoose 892 pulled forward to the station and arrived at Brownwood at 11:00 AM. After completing its work at the station, the Bullmoose pulled forward passed the south switch of the south leg of the wye, and it backed onto the Bloomfield branch for the trip south as train 895. After its stop at Bloomfield, the Bullmoose backed north to Aquilla as train 896. After turning on the wye at Aquilla, 896 continued to Vanduser on the Campbell Branch, and thence to Brooks Junction via the Leachville Sub. The 12:50 AM arrival at Brooks Junction allowed

passengers to connect with The Memphis Express, trains 801 and 802. Any northbound passengers from Zalma would arrive at Cape by 2:00 PM, which is well in advance of the arrival of 876.
The Bullmoose would turn on the Brooks Junction wye, and then head south at 1:50 PM as train 897. Bullmoose 897 would retrace the previous route through Vanduser, Aquilla, Bloomfield, and then finally to Campbell, where it arrived at 4:45 pm, and where it tied-up for the night. The travels of the Bullmoose may be a bit removed from our consideration of Brownwood, but I think that it helps put things in context. The Bullmoose made a morning connection at Campbell with passenger train 882 and an evening connection with passenger train 881. There is one last footnote about the Bullmoose on this route. During its daily travels, the Bullmoose covers the Aquilla-Bloomfield segment 4 times.
Primary freight service at Brownwood was handled by daily, except Sunday locals, 848 and 849, which provided service between Chaffee and Poplar Bluff. When on time, these trains met at Brownwood at 11:30 AM. I suspect that these trains handled most of the freight traffic to/from Brownwood.
Freight service to/from Bloomfield was handle by tri-weekly (TThS) locals 858-859. The twi-weekly local followed (more or less) the route of the Bullmoose. Train 858 left Campbell at 9:00 AM and arrived at Brownwood at 1:00 PM. Instead of turning at Brownwood like the Bullmoose, 858 continued to Zalma where it reversed its direction and headed back to Bloomfield, where it tied-up for the night. On MWF, the route was completed by trains 860-861 which worked to Brooks Junction and then back to Campbell.
Lacking any evidence, I suspect that 858 did not deliver much traffic to Brownwood nor did 859 receive much traffic either. I can envision 858 arriving with but one or two cars and a caboose. It would cut-off from its train, and head to the Hoxie Sub retrieve cars left for Richardson, Greenbrier and Zalma by trains 848 and 849. Returning from Zalma as 859, the train would leave any of the cars that it collected from Zalma, Greenbrier, and Richardson. A little switching would be required to get the locomotive spotted for water and to assemble whatever cars were headed for points south.
The round trip between Brownwood and Zalma required 90 minutes, and 859 was due out of Brownwood at 2:30 PM.
Speed limits on all of the routes were slow. On the Hoxie Sub and the Leachville Sub, the maximum speed for passenger trains was 35 mph and for freight trains was 20 mph. The Campbell Branch allowed a maximum speed of 25 mph for passenger trains and a maximum speed of 20 mph for freight trains. The Frisco restricted speeds on the Bloomfield Branch to 25 mph for passenger trains and 15 mph for freight trains.
The 1925 ETT only lists tonnage ratings for the STL-Memphis line and for the Hunter Branch. Presumably, the grades elsewhere on the River Division as well as the traffic levels were sufficiently low so that it appears the capacity of the locomotives was seldom reached. In the bridge class ratings found in the 1925 ETT, we can draw some conclusions with regard to the motive power used through Brownwood. The Hoxie Subdivision could handle locomotives, which possessed a Cooper rating of E-37.5 or less and the Bloomfield Branch could handle locomotives, which possessed a Cooper rating of E-27.5 or less.
Trains 858-859 "might" employ a locomotive from this list:
E-20: Engs; 70-90, 2201-2206, 2252, 2263, 2262, 2263, 2267, 2273
E-25: Engs; 94-162, 308-360, 428-438, 2692, 3602, 3629
E-27.5: Engs; 361, 362, 457, 2679-2691, 2698, 3632-3639

Trains 848-849 and trains 875-876 "might" employ locomotives from the list shown above or below:
E-30: Engs; 182-189, 479-484, 3664-3666
E-32.5: Engs; 438-447, 487-490, 491-500, 501-515
E-35: Engs; 190-195, 200-204, 539-557, 600-604
E-37.5: Engs; 205-229, 516-520, 521-530, 558-572, 573-594, 605-693, 700-704, 1000-1014
As one might assume, eight-wheelers, ten-wheelers, and moguls were the norm around Brownwood, and it’s a shame that commercially produced model of these locomotives is unavailable. Throw in a GE gas-electric, and you will be set.

 

Karl, Nice......VERY nice........

 

See rule 1

 

I bought my reverser circuit from Tony Train Exchange, I think it is called an AR-1, The same company makes DCC Electronic fuses.