Here is another Rail question for you guys.I have found rails going thru my grandmothers property and can't find any history of a railroad company near by (30 miles).Property bordered the Moss Tie Lumber co. property of the 1960's.It lies what is now The Sunkland area near Akers Ferry at Akers Mo.Rails are about 4 miles from Current River as a crow flies.I thought it might be the Current River Railroad but that was on the southern side of the Moss Tie area witch is now owned by the U.S. I have found no info on any railroad in this area at all.Any help with info is appeicated.
It very well could be from a logging railroad. Looking at map from http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ozar/images/map6.jpg there was a line off the Salem, Winona & Southern RR at West Eminence that headed up that way. I assuming that the location you are inquiring about is south of Akers although there were a few branches off the Missouri Southern RR around Bunker that ran in that direction but never crossed the river. Looking at the ariel photos, http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=15&X=785&Y=5171&W=3&qs=%7cakers%7cmo%7c I would almost bet that the road that looks hook (or a J) in the bottom half of the photo is the old roadbed with a branch heading due east to the river taking off SW of the horseshoe curve. That would pretty much match up with with what the map shows. A lot of the old logging railroads were converted to roads after they were abandoned because of gentle grades and easy curves. If you had a metal detector I'm sure you would find a lot more stuff. A fella told me in the mid-1980's when they were digging a new pond south of Raymore and were using the old KCC&S roadbed for an embankment that they dug up a lot of spikes and even a few pieces of rail. I got the same story from a gal in Coleman, MO. who built a house on top of the old roadbed, she said they dug up a whole bunch of stuff. Hope this answers your questions and how about some photos? I'd love to see them.Roger R. TaylorRaytown, MO.
Well, the first link is bad and for some reason it won't let me post an attachment so hopefully I will be able to post the map in a couple of days.RRT
Roger :Thanks for help.Here is the location (Yahoo map) http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/index.ph...vt=s&trf=0&lon=-91.617705&lat=37.309594&mag=2 of farm where i am finding rail spikes .My grandfather (since passed away) told me of the railroad that ran thru pature.Area is about 60 miles away and will head there next week to look for more pictures and residents can help.Thanks again everybody for info and help.Steve--
Looks like it is going to let me upload, here is that map I promised a couple of weeks ago of Shannon County, Roger
Hi, Steve! I've been interested in abandoned logging trams and branch lines for years and have amassed quite a stock of information about where they've been, but I've never heard of one go so far as Akers Ferry! Sadly, the yahoo map link no longer works, so I couldn't see exactly where the old remnants are being found. Could you update the link so we can find out which line this could have been? -Brian
I have a couple of photos of the Missouri Southern at Bunker. One is of a really antique looking steam locomotive and the other is of a couple of passenger trains parked in front of the Bunker depot (it's the same photo that's on Jack Forbes's Missouri Depots website). I drove through there about a month ago and the right of way was very visible along Hwy 32. The line was abandoned in 1941. Just read Roger's post about people occasionally digging up pieces of rail along abandoned right of ways. I can vaguely remember my Grandpa talking about track gangs burying rails along the ROW. Any ideas why they would do this? Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
Pat, the reason they buried items, is each year a physical inventory was done on each Roadmasted's district. You would then start each year with a predetermined stock of items. The store house would then come out and pickup unused items. If you needed something they picked up, then your budget was hit twice. You paid for it the first time. Items deemed by the Roadmaster as needed, was hid or buried. Every Roadmaster I new, including me hide items. No telling how many thousands of dollars is buried and hid by employees then maybe found later. That process went away in the late 80's because of loose lips and some might get sold as scrap and the proceeds was pocketed. Lots of otherwise good folks were tempted by this. The pick-up of the Clinton line was the biggest of my memory. Whole carloads and tractor trailer loads disappeared in the night. Believe it or not, one Roadmaster in Colorado that adjoined my territory had his men retire old track and actioned the ties and rail at auction. He got caught selling his men a day off, for half their pay for the day. The railroad had a good share of bad eggs. I did not hear them all, but a lot. Bill Jackson
Bill, thanks for the explanation. I can recall him saying something about rails getting picked up if they weren't buried, which didn't make any sense to me until now. I couldn't understand why they would hide rails by burying them along the ROW, and trying to remember exactly what he had said, had incorrectly guessed that they did to keep them from being stolen by scrap metal thieves (there was about a hundred feet of dormant rail stolen west of Union a few years ago by scrappers). Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
Actually, it's funny when you think about it, the railroad store house as we called it, use to show a end of year profit. Scrap and OTM was sold and credited to the store. You ordered material in March and April installed or hid what you could. Then they picked up items in October and November, sold it back to you the next year. The big boys really liked that, what a good business. Another member off line reminded me, curve grease was used on rail and items that was buried. They use to send out cars of material with 4 and even 5 different stops. Well if your stop was the 5th, then there was no reason to look in the car. It was MTY. In early years steel was also picked up for the war effort, course the railroad also needed to run to support the war. Hiding material was survival or a way of life. As Joe says "that's railroading" It today's time scrap dealers have contracts for certain amounts of steel. Only a few get rail contracts. The store doesn't make money any more. Bill Jackson
