Starting during the early 1970s, the Frisco sought to decrease yard time for trains passing through Tennessee Yard, Cherokee Yard, and the West Yards in Springfield. The centerline distance between receiving and departure (R&D) tracks was increased to allow four-wheel Cushman vehicles room to operate between the tracks. This allowed the carmen to carry brake shoes, air hoses, etc. in the vehicle directly to the car. When a carman discovered a part that needed replacement, the new part was at hand, and the repair could be made quickly. Instead of building the track in place, the Frisco chose to build panel track. Once built, it was faster to lay, and therefore caused less disruption to the yard operations. In Tulsa the panel track was built near the roundhouse. In the photograph, cars of incoming ties, rail, and other track material (OTM) can be seen on the left. The panel tracks were built in the center area of the photograph, and then loaded to empty gondolas over on the right side of the image. There are a couple of shots of the obviously-posed trackmen building the panels. In the last shot my father and another gentleman review plans for the benefit of the All Aboard magazine photographer.
In the third photograph of the guys building track panels, the first guy on the left is Kenny Rose who retired from BNSF a couple of years ago. The next guy is Dana Sconyers still working in Tulsa in the track department. The third guy you can barely see behind Dana is Bob Parker who transferred to the Signal Department and just retired today, 12/19/2007 after 30 years with Frisco, BN and now BNSF. I am still looking into the next man's name and I was told the black man has passed on. I had emailed these pictures to the Tulsa track guys so they could tell me who these people were. I currently am the signal maintainer in Catoosa for BNSF and my territory runs from Claremore to Tulsa. Steve.
