OK Frisco folk, I need some help. I took a picture of an elevated switch tower in the Kansas City West bottoms many years ago. I do not know its location and about all I remember of it was that it was located very near the location that the Smokey Hills RR group stored their Turbine. Can anyone help me with its location and possibly provide plans and or more pictures of it? thanks in advance, you guys are the best. Bob Wintle MMR Parsons Kansas.
Bob, Thank you very much for posting this really neat photograph. This elevated watchman tower was located on the west side of Santa Fe Street, just south of the Missouri Pacific Railroad crossing, just north of Saint Louis Avenue. The shot looks southwest, parallel to the MoP. The tall building in the background is the Kansas City Terminal Warehouse (not associated with the railway). It sits on the southeast corner of St. Louis Avenue and Mulberry St. The tower was manned by the MoP. The operator controlled the many street crossing flashers along Santa Fe Street. The primary operator in later years had been injured in service and was awarded this position as part of his injury settlement. As trains transversed Santa Fe Street moving on the Frisco tracks he would activate and later stop the street crossing flashers along Santa Fe Street. Frisco trains used these tracks to switch local industries. Other railroads use the tracks between the Kansas City Terminal (KCT) Railway to the south and the Chicago Great Westen Railroad's (later CNW) Ohio Street Yard to the north. The tracks ran down the middle of the street and crossed the MoP's four tracks at grade. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Really neat photo, Bob; I don't think I've ever seen an actual photo of one of these in Frisco territory. Can you or anyone else make out the sign at the bottom of the stairs? Best Regards,
I can't make it out very well, but I think it is a hand painted sing that says RR Employees Only. Thanks Mark for the interesting story. I am hoping to get some more photos or floor plans so that I can model it.
The Frisco Museum All Aboard magazine 1997 Vol 11, No. 2, has a drawing for the elevated gate tower at Tower Grove, MO. Drawing on page 15, photo on 16. Might give you some dimensions to go on if you can't find anything better. A scanned version in .pdf format is available online, but think you will need to find the original to be able to read the dimensions. http://thelibrary.org/lochist/frisco/allaboard/Optimized/1997_v11_2_14.pdf
I posted a scan from an original drawing at - http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?6666-Gate-Tower-1906 But it is of a different version. If needed, I could e-mail you what I scanned in as it enlarges to read the dimensions.
