Salem Winona & Southern RR

Hello friends,

I'm looking for photos of typical buildings & structures that would have stood in the early 1900's in southeast Missouri, supporting lumber, milling & copper mining industries.

I've been researching and planning a railroad layout based on lumber & mining operations in Shannon County Missouri, circa 1910-1919. I've visited the area dozens of times over the last 40 years for float trips on the Current River & Jacks Fork. My heart is in those hills and valleys and with some knowledge of a trestle the once crossed the Jacks Fork, I fantasized about how I could integrate a mill into my first layout, an HO-scale 4x6 table layout that once sat in my coal cellar. Now 20 years later, with my eyesight not as sharp as it once was, I've caught the On30 1:48-scale bug. The little boys I built the first layout with are nearly out of the house. I want to pickup where I left off, but better equipped with more discretionary funding, and provide an interesting and educational layout for my grandkids to enjoy. Grandpa's version of a video game, I'll call it.

So, imagine my delight when I found a historic Missouri RR map with spurs of the Frisco lines extending into the hilly ozark regions towards float-trip country! They never did connect but much of the route was completed, in particular north of Winona through Eminence, across the Jacks Fork on trestle footings that dump many a floater to this day, and just shy of Alley Spring (the most beautiful mill site in the Midwest) turning up Horse Hollow toward Round Spring. A prototype would be linear, but I want the option of continuous running. I've just built an 11ft x 11ft "tech-room" in my workshop for my architectural design work, model railroading, 3d printing & kit work. The layout will include Winona Junction (exchange track & loco maintenance yard), Mahan's Creek (connecting valley), West Eminence (sawmill & town), Jacks Fork (trestle crossing), Angeline (lumber camp), and Coppermine Hollow. Only the latter scene was not found along the tracks, but many small mines were opened across the region. The SW&S was after all operated by the Missouri Lumber & Mining Company, which ran the Grandin mill till it moved to West Eminence.

As I said in my intro, I'm looking for photos or drawings of turn-of-the century structures. Suggestions welcome. And in case any of you are already experts on these ops... after I bought 3 locomotives I found out the SW&S was standard gauge, but oh-well... my hypocrisy must start somewhere!

I'll attach a view of my Sketchup/Anyrail model, and my 1915 quad map.

Mike

 

Welcome aboard and enjoy. Not the biggest group but lots of correct info here and troll free!

 

I like the term “ grandpas video game” and hope it isn’t copy written , as I am going to use it.
Can’t wait to see the progress on it. Welcome aboard.

 

I know this forum hasn't had a post in awhile, but I've been researching the Salem, Winona, & Southern. This picture of the train running alongside Jacks Fork is awesome. It was taken in 1910.

 

Salem, Winona, & Southern Railroad where it crosses Hwy D north of Eminence, Mo.

 

Here’s a cool one for you folks. The passenger train on the Salem, Winona, & Southern Railroad running alongside the Jacks Fork River. Picture given to me by my friends at the Shannon County Museum.

 

LOVE that picture!

I never dreamed such ruggedness could be found in the Missouri part of the Ozarks.

 

FWIW:

Went to Eminence/West Eminence using the online topo service I use. I could find nothing of the roadbed therein. Typically, there are dashed lines labled "Abandoned Railroad", but I can't find nothing of the SW&S on the map.

Here's a link:

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=37.1524,-91.36233&z=15&b=t&o=f16a,r&n=1,0.25

 

Maps are difficult for this line. The Shannon County Museum has a good one on their wall, it’s the best I’ve seen thus far. It does show up on some various older Rand McNally maps and such. I’ve mapped this one, and several others in extensive detail here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6ikCnPsJSNuU2EEL8?g_st=ic

 

Here is a Rand McNally map that actually shows the Salem, Winona, & Southern, though it doesn’t show it all the way to Round Spring, or Spur #3 which terminated at Ink. Those two lines split and head further north at Angeline, which this map shows as the terminus point.

 

So, the SW&S was never was in Salem? (i.e. The map doesn't show it getting past Horse Hollow/Angeline PO.

 

Correct! I always say they got the naming scheme backwards. The end goal was Salem, but the furthest construction ever made it was to the Current River at Round Spring. When talks began about abandonment, locals pleaded with Frisco to purchase the line and finally connect it to Salem, as they owned the railroad at both ends, but Frisco wasn’t interested. It was always just a dead-end logging railroad, unfortunately.

 

The old railbed is likely run north through Horse Hollow.