Osage River Bridges - KCOS (High Line) Clinton Sub And KCCS (Leaky Roof) Osceola Sub - Osceola, MO

Postcard view of Osage River Bridges at Osceola, MO.

Nearest bridge is the Pine Street road or wagon bridge.

Middle bridge is SLSF - Kansas City, Osceola and Southern (KCOS), the High Line or Blair Line.

Bridge in distance is Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield (KCCS), "Leaky Roof" crossing of the Osage.

Photo was taken looking downstream, northeast, before the dam was built.



Edit 1/28/2024: The Clinton Subdivision Osage River crossing on bridge 114.7 consisted of three 135'-0" through pin connected truss (TPCT) and one 35'-0" deck plate girder (DPG) spans.

Added bridge narrative, number, subdivisions and mile posts.
MKD

 

I am not certain, but I believe that the dam was built in 1929.

Therefore, this picture had to have been taken in the early to mid twenties. That first bridge was always referred to as the wagon bridge. Then later they reinforced the deck to handle automobiles. Every once in a while someone's wheels would usually break through the deck of the bridge, and scare some poor ole driver to death.

I am totally amazed as to how much information there is here about the Frisco lines and the towns that it served, especially the southwest area of Missouri around Osceola and Vista. After reading all there is here on the forum, one would think that the Frisco was still operating down those same tracks.

I am sad to see both the Frisco all ripped up and gone as well as other trains and track. I will never understand why over in Europe they treasure their trains systems and are always working to improve them, but over here in the US, we just rip out and throw away. And we need these trains going to all the towns now more than ever with oil getting so scarce.

If these trains were here today, I for one am certain that more people would use them for their transportation, especially to the big cities and back home. Instead of they fight all the traffic and road repairs, not to mention all the road rage out there. I for one would be glad to ride the trains anywhere. I am sure that I am not alone on this.

I think that letting these trains and their rights of way die, that this is one of our government's biggest blunders in history, especially since this great country was built with the train. After all if the train system is good enough for our European counterparts, then they are good enough for us. Just my 2 cents.

 

The dam you are referencing with the 1929 date is Bagnell Dam forming Lake of the Ozarks.

Construction began August 1929 and the dam was completed April, 1931, an amazing feat to build the dam in just 1 year and 8 months. The upper reaches of Lake of the Ozarks reach Warsaw.

The dam flooding the Osceola area is Truman Dam forming Truman Reservoir. Construction began on Truman dam August 1964 and the dam was finally completed October 1979.

Jeff Cooney
Lindsay, TX

 

There was a small dam at Osceola.

It was removed as a part of the Kaysinger Bluff, later Truman, dam project.

 

Here's a 1939 USGS 7.5 minute topo sheet that shows the dam, the Clinton Subdivision (KCOS) river crossing, the former Osceola Subdivision (KCCS) river crossing, and the Frisco route though Osceola.

The dump of the abandoned KCCS is easily seen. At Harlan Junction, MP 118.2, south of Osceola, the High Line "switched" onto the KCCS.

I have annotated the abandoned KCCS in Red and the abandoned KCOS in Blue.

 

Dale,

I just realized, looking at this thread, that I'm guilty of some kind of ingratitude.

Your upload of the "Three Bridges" picture was almost certainly the source of the picture that I used in my KCC&S presentation at the 2011 convention.

I would have asked you about it beforehand, and given you a "from the collection of...." credit, if I'd remembered where it came from.

So let the record show that you deserve the credit for making that picture available to me and to others.

And I apologize for not acknowledging you in the first place.

Bradley A. Scott

 

Bradley,

Not a problem at all and no apology required.

Thanks again for your great presentation at the Frisco Convention. A trip along the Leaky Roof was fascinating, my favorite part of the convention.

Almost all of the images you showed were new to me. I didn't know there were that many photos of the Leaky Roof in existence.

Maybe a trip from Clinton to Olathe next time?

Dale Rush
Carthage, MO

 

So, while unloading boxes and boxes of stuff, I finally got to some Frisco photographs.

These are of the Frisco bridge at Osceola. The first one has an inscription that reads "McNerney Bros. Con. Carthage MO. 1897". Under it is another inscription "C. Miller President, S. S. Josselyn, Gen Manager".

The second photo shows part of the clean up after the dam was "blown", the third is just a general photograph of bridge, and the last shows remnants of the old dam.

While on the bridge, I got a photo of one of the rails with "Carnegie 1896" and the guardrail had "Cumberland Steel 1886". They either recycled old rail or didn't need to replace them.

I do have a bunch of other photos, but these perhaps are the ones that most would be of general interest.

And yes, I was there when the old dam was breached in Spring of 1977.



South end rough faced cut stone abutment and 35' deck plate girder. These are the engraved builders and date stones. Note the low water roadway under this end of the bridge. View looking west.



The Osage River Bridge, 114.2, consisted of three 135' through pin connected trusses (TPCT) and a 35' deck plate girder (DPG) spans supported on stone piers and a stone abutment connected to pile timber trestle on the north end. Note the upstream angled and pointed breakwater face of the piers. View looking upstream to the west.



View from downstream of the bridge. Out of view to the left on the south end of the bridge are the deck plate girder and stone abutment in photograph one. View looking west.



Just to the north northwest of this location were three additional steel bridges. As the railroad descended from the plateau into the Osage River valley it followed Gallinipper Creek. The creek flowed into its confluence with the Osage River just downstream of the bridge in these photographs.

The Gallinipper Creek bridges included the following steel spans.
Bridge 110.8 - a 30' deck plate girder (DPG).
Bridge 111.4 - 1 40' deck plate girder (DPG).
Bridge 114.4 - a 100' through riveted truss (TRT).

Further north the railroads had crossed, and the KCOS specifically the Grand River on bridge 95.0. That steel portion of that bridge had consisted of two 46' deck plate girders and a 156' through pin connected truss. Both former bridge sites would be flooded by the impounded backwaters of Truman Lake.

Edit 1/28/2024: Added additional photograph narratives and view directions.
MKD

 

Bob,

I have never seen these photographs.

These are the clearest and highest resolution photos I have seen of this bridge.

Thanks for sharing them. I, for one, would be happy to see 100 more photographs of this neat bridge.

I will model this bridge in N scale at sometime in the future and this will help.

 

Dale,

I'm glad you liked them.

Until I developed a love of the Frisco, there just wasn't much of an interest in them, nor a forum where people would appreciate them. I got lucky.

Backstory - I was a safety consultant and our company insured most everything that had to do with the construction of Truman Dam. That included the company building the dam, bridge builders, land clearing, you name it.

When it became time to demolish that low water dam, we held a series of meetings with the city and they were extremely nervous about the possibility of many of the old downtown buildings collapsing. No joke.

We brought in White Seismology out of Joplin who set up a series of seismographs between the dam and the downtown. Just prior to the shot, we managed to record the passing of a Frisco engine with several cars which we could use as a ground wave baseline for comparison to the actual shot. To this day, I regret not having a camera with me to record it's passing. It never happened again.

Anyway, the blasting crew came out of Louisiana and popped the gates. I was just lucky that I came back around to the area when they were doing the demolishing and cleanup of the old dam. I thought the bridges looked interesting and grabbed some shots.

 

Wow!

Thanks for sharing these photos and the story behind them Bob.

Incredible shots.

 

I'm about to start an O gauge layout of the Frisco line going thru Osceola and this helps greatly.

Of course it may take me till the year 2525 to finish it, but thanks for these pictures.

Were there two railroad lines going thru Osceola?

I'm not sure looking at the map if the Redline is a second railroad or not.

 

Yes,

The line in red was the old KCCS or Leaky Roof as mentioned in Dale's post.

 

Thank you.

After looking more closely I seen that the blue and red lines were abandoned.

I'll try to READ all of what is posted in the future.