Clinton Sub Property List 1950

[trainsignguy]

I have attached a copy of the valuation list for all the railroad structures on the Clinton Sub including Osceola, Lowry City, Deepwater, Brownington, Clinton, North Clinton, Blairstown, Quick City, Latour, East Lynne, Harrisonville, Peculiar, Belton, Grandview, Holmes and Dodson. Sorry I don't have anything south of Osceola.

I will submit a copy of the same list from 1933. Interesting to see how things changed for this line in 17 years.

[trainsignguy]

I found the other page of this valuation list for all the railroad structures on the south end of the Clinton Sub including Willard, Pearl, Harold, Walnut Grove, Wishart, Morrisville, Bolivar, Cliquot, Flemington, Weaubleau, Gerster, Vista, Osceola.

[yardmaster]

Great information, Dale. I especially enjoyed seeing where section houses and bunk houses were located.

Stock pens were conspicuously absent. Can we presume by 1950 that B&B were already removing these as a past relic?

[trainsignguy]

That is a very good question Chris. My grandpa leased trackside stock pens, I assumed from the Frisco, in Blairstown and fed out a couple of calves there. That would have been around 1970. I remember the pens very well. I used to go with my grandpa to feed and water the calves. Maybe the pens were sold to a private individual at some point and my grandpa leased from them, but it sure seems like he told me he had an agreement with the railroad to use the pens.

There was also a 2-bay toolhouse in Blairstown that is not shown on the list. My grandpa was an ex-Frisco assistant section foreman out of Clinton and Blairstown. He retired in 1965. His house overlooked the tracks, depot, water tower and toolhouse in Blairstown. He still had a key to the lock on the toolhouse and on Sundays, when there were no scheduled trains, would take us grandkids on speeder rides up and down the tracks for a couple of miles. Time frame would have been late 1960's. I remember playing in the toolhouse in the early 1970's when I was 11 or 12 years old. By then there was no lock and no speeder just a decrepit toolhouse with some stray track hardware, spikes, bolts, joint bars, etc.

I wonder if the railroad had retired some of the structures, left them stand, but was no longer obligated to report them as assets. This still does not explain the missing toolhouse that was still in use into the 1960's.

Dale Rush
Blair Line
Carthage, MO

[yardmaster]

Dale, many thanks for the well-thought reply and for the memories. Thinking back to when I was that age, a bunch of stray track hardware, spikes, bolts, joint bars sound like a grand time to me.

Best Regards,