Cape Girardeau To Poplar Bluff

Hello, Matt. I live in Cape Girardeau and my grandparents lived 10 miles west of Advance so I have made thousands of trips along hwy 25 and the old Frisco roadbed can still be seen beside the road from Blomeyer, through Delta and into Advance. The landscape towards the southside of the tracks in this area is generally flat cornfields with occaisional single hills in the distance. Pretty close to the north side of the tracks you can see tall rock bluffs and rolling tree covered hills and deep hollows(hollers) with corn planted right up to the bluffs and hills. It's a very beautiful area to see and model. My Zalma branch is to the north of the mainline. Starting at Brownwood, it snakes through the hollers 8 miles to end at Zalma. Check out my photos in the layout section to see my rendition of the local scenery. I'm always glad to hear that someone else is interested in modeling this part of the Frisco. Good luck to you. By the way, you can still see the old rails and grey ties at Delta. Jim

 

Matt -
Karl and Jim are spot-on. Depending on the exact area you want to model, there's a lot to offer.

What Jim described between Delta and Advance...I've always thought it would be nice to model (e.g. bluffs behind the track, and flat land on the other sie).

Puxico onward does get more into the rolling hill country.

I don't know as much as I'd like about Poplar Bluff, but the depot's a real gem. What fun it would be to see the mixed trains 875 and 876 meeting at Poplar Bluff behind ex AT&N RS-1 diesels. The Missouri Pacific there is a good interchange if you are more into the operations side of things.

There is a frisco.org member by the name of David Silverberg; he lives in Poplar Bluff and works with their railroad museum. You might want to send him a private message and see what info their organization has.

Karl, your map of Delta is very helpful. I've always been spotty on how the wyes were arranged. Somewhere I have a photo of the old MoPac/Cotton Belt crossing gate, looking north toward where the Frisco Hoxie Sub would have crossed the MoPac line.

What a rambling note. I think it's time for mid-morning coffee.

 

I toured the line quite a bit in the early 1990's all the way from Nash to Hoxie. I also made visits to Poplar Bluff, Naylor, Pocahontas & Hoxie in the early 80's which were a couple hours drive from Thayer. This is one of the best abandoned Frisco branches to explore because of the access and nature has not reclaimed it as quickly some branches even though the line was officially abandoned on 12/1/1965. The roadbed is still visible along side the road from Blomeyer to Advance, Kinder to Puxico & Rombauer to the HWY 60 xing north of Poplar Bluff. You can even drive on top of it from Mingo to Rombauer, after abandonment the State of Missouri converted it into gravel road. The line skirts for a short time right next to Crowley's Ridge just south of the HWY 25 xing south of Delta and cuts thru a low section of the Ridge just north of Mingo. Sections of the line in Delta & Poplar Bluff were turned over to the MoPac for operation when Frisco pulled out and survived in operation at least until the late 80's. Depots still exist at Puxico and Poplar Bluff which have been converted into museums/hobby shop/visitors center, the Poplar Bluff depot was even used as police station for a while.

The line also had many branches, the Brownwood to Zalma (aban.3/1934), Brownwood to Aquilla (aban.1930), Mingo to Hunter (aban.1938,1939,1940) & Poplar Jct. to Piggott (aband.1951). Wyes were located at Nash, Brownwood, Mingo & Poplar Bluff.

You could probably spend a whole day checking out the Poplar Bluff area. The track in Poplar Bluff was (as of 1993) still there from the HWY 60 xing to Poplar Jct. & the ex-Frisco yard south of the depot was still being used by UP, but the rest of the line was gone. One interesting thing was a sort of tunnel under the main streets just north of the depot, I was able to walk into it in 1983 but I don't think you can today. The bridge over the Black River was still there, in 1983 it was being used as a pedestrian bridge but when I returned in 1993 the ends abutments were removed to prevent access. One more thing, don't confuse Poplar Jct. with the MoPac xing, this was known as Linstead. The line to Piggott/Kennett began at a wye just east of the Black River Bridge, this was known as Poplar Jct.

I use a combination of Terraserver & MapQuest to follow these lines. On a lot of these maps the railroad and long lost towns are still shown. If you want to explore the branch I suggest you get a good map, like the Missouri Gazetteer, with gas at $4 bucks you don't want to make to many wrong turns. The Frisco Museum published a 5(or 4?) part article section on the branches in the area back in the 90's which was very informative. At our library there is a big book about Brownwood and it also covers the surrounding area and the railroad especially the abandonment of this branch and the Brownwood to Aquilla line. Also check http://www.bridgehunter.com/ It has photos of a lot the bridges on the line. Good luck! Roger

 

Roger, your note evoked a nice childhood memory.

When we'd trek to campouts at Mingo and Duck Creek or would visit kin in Advance and Zalma, I recall an old, very weathered wooden crossbuck just east of Advance along Hwy. 25 near the John Deere implement dealer.

I figured it's either long rotted away or was harvested by a railroadana collector. I'm frankly surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Karl - if you're still online, here's hoping you and yours remain safe from the perils that Hurricane Ike seems to be bringing to your neck of the woods.

 

Here's my interpretation by personal observation on topography from Cape Girardeau to Poplar Bluff.