Karl, from the map it looks like the heaviest traffic was between Springfield and Tulsa, also Memphis and Birmingham. Am I reading this right with the bottom map? Joe
Looks like the KC to Ft. Scott leg was heavily trafficked, too. Look at those stats in '45! Many wartime loads of oil moving east, I'll bet.
The KC Sub has often been over looked in terms of traffic volumes, but there was a reason for the double track between 29th Street and Paola, i.e., MKT psgr and frt trackage rights and MP's Scenic Limited/Colorado Eagle trackage rights. I have some gross tonnage maps that show the MKT tonnage volumes, too. By the Summer of '43 the Big Inch and Little Inch (pipelines)had been completed, and the U-Boot threat against the US coastal waters had all but disappeared, so the rail transportation of crude had lessened. See http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/crude-oil-trains-in-ww-ii.6767/#post-52545 Will have to dig up the Annual Report to look at the WWII petroleum volumes.
Karl, I am actually pretty familiar with the U-Boat situation, but I have understood that there remained a great deal of excess capacity after the pipelines were completed. I would be very interested to see actual figures about the volumes in '44 and '45.
Karl, I searched 155 of your posts and have not found a 1932 tonnage map. So I will post it here. If a duplicate I will delete it.
