In another post and reply interchanges between other roads and Frisco has been mentioned. In Crystal City MO, there is or was an interchange between the Frisco, Missouri Pacific (MP) and Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) in plant railroad operations. PPG was the glass plant there which had its own yard and tracks. MoPac used the PPG tracks to get to the Frisco tracks, to get down to St. Genevieve, MO. If you ever go to St. Genevieve it looks funny because when you go to the north part of town, where the Frisco tracks come in, there is a small to medium sized MP, later Union Pacific (UP), yard there off the Frisco main. PPG would receive Frisco hoppers loaded with silica sand from a mine at Ludwig, MO north of Festus, MO. So the discussion is can anyone add anymore information about this little hub of activity? I know I am leaving a lot out. I am thinking of trying to get a little article together covering this area because there was a lot going on and it would be a great place to model.
Regarding The River Division and Crystal City. I am aware of only 2 roads that served Crystal City, the Missouri Pacific (MP), predecessor roads Mississippi River and Bonne Terre (MR&BT), Missouri Illinois(MI) and Frisco. If you count the 3 switch engines and yard on Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) tracks you would have 3 railroads. MP timetables state that MP "Operation is over PPG Company Tracks from Crystal Junction to SLSF interchange". PPG did not venture out of their immediate plant area with their crews and power. PPG was the major industry on the Frisco at Crystal City. It employed over 3000 people at one time and was the largest plate glass factory in the United States at one point during its history. The plant received inbound raw materials of silica sand in Frisco-marked covered hoppers from Ludwig, mine it owned and later sold to Martin Marietta. Soda ash would come from other points, such as Wyoming in Union Pacific (UP) or private marked covered hoppers. PPG also received rouge and emery in 70 ton Frisco-marked gondolas. This material was used in the grinding and polishing process for finishing plate glass. The rouge was a reddish-looking material and the emery was light grey. I am guessing the plant had around 10-15 miles of track between the fences, including the yard which was adjacent to the Frisco yard in Crystal City and separated by a high fence. Frisco had a local that served PPG and other local industries on a daily basis. The local would operate to Ludwig, River Cement, and U.S. Agri Chemical south of Crystal. River Cement is still in business and actively ships covered hoppers. U.S. Agri Chemical, now LaRoche, recently closed. The local would also take care of any interchange activity with MP, which was accomplished at a small, 3-track yard behind Mississippi Avenue in Crystal City. Early power on this local were black and yellow, Mandarin orange and white GP7s, later replaced by Mandarin orange and white GP38s. Switching was accomplished at the Crystal City Yard and also at McCoy switch south of town. MoPac entered PPG across an interlocker immediately north of the old Frisco depot. A concrete shanty and crossing gate protected the interlocking. I recall seeing MP 695000, 697000 series gondolas loaded with A-frame fixtures that contained large pieces of finished glass. PPG at Crystal supplied all of exterior glass used on the Sears Tower in Chicago. MP also had a circus-style ramp south of the depot that was switched from the south and held around 5, 89' piggyback flats. Finished glass was loaded into MP-marked trailers and loaded on the flatcars at the ramp. Other notable structures in the yard area were a small substation around 50 yards from the depot and horizontal fuel storage tanks that were located in the curve just before crossing the bridge over Plattin Creek. Prior to the late 1970's, semaphore signals were on either side of the main immediately north of the Frisco depot and a manual train order semaphore was located next to the depot. A road master's shanty is located north of the old depot and used to house handcars. The old Frisco depot was torn down in 1979 and the interlocking was removed during the 1980s. MP entered PPG off of the Frisco main after the interlocker was removed. The sand mine at Ludwig closed in the mid-1980s and PPG was closed in 1991. All that remains of the massive plant complex is a vacant field, the plant office, and plant hospital. The piggyback ramp, storage tanks, and the substation are also gone. The yard is still there and used to support local industry. A rip track is also located behind a pre-fab building that replaced the original Frisco depot. The Festus / Crystal City area has a rich history of rail business. PPG was the big player, but smaller companies also received and shipped products via rail. Waggoner Store Company and Robinson Lumber received inbound boxcars and flat cars of lumber. Waggoner via its spur off the MP, and Robinson Lumber via the MP team track located in back of the depot on Bailey Road. Both are now out of business. The team track is still at Crystal City, as is the wooden dock and the depot. The track itself looks to be out of service. Shapiro Brothers receives retired railcars for dismantling and ships gondolas of scrap to steel mills in the Midwest. UP or BNSF controlled 52' gondolas are used for the scrap, retired cars move in on their own wheels or as wrecks on flatcars. Presently, this is the most active shipper in area next to Ameren - Union Electric Rush Island Power Plant south of Crystal City. The only other industry in the area were oil jobbers. There is a tank storage facility at Crystal City, and I believe one other in Festus located off of the spur in the Union Electric facility. I do not have the history of these facilities and how their materials were received/shipped. Further south on the MP "main", McClay Concrete received inbound loads of cement in small covered hoppers. Small, MP-marked covered hoppers were used to ship cement to McClay and the track could hold around 3 cars. McClay, now Breckinridge Materials, no longer receives cement via rail. Jones Chemical received inbound shipments of chlorine in tank cars. Jones still receives tank cars of chlorine and is the only active shipper on the line which stubs south of the plant at Howe. Jones can hold around 5 cars. On the Frisco, the city of Festus used to receive inbound Frisco-marked open top hoppers of cinders during the winter and unload the cars into their city trucks. A spur rack was located off Mill Street and the cars were discharged directly into the trucks via an elevated pit. The pit was filled in a during the 1980s and the spur was pulled up. Also in Festus, Union Electric had a spur track that was used for inbound shipments of utility poles. The track sloped downward from the Frisco mainline and had a small bridge over a creek prior to entering the UE property. UE is no longer located at this site and the track and bridge are now gone. I am a native of Festus - Crystal City and a graduate of Crystal High School. I currently work for Union Pacific (UP) in Omaha. I too plan to model the Crystal City area on my railroad. I am interested in any pictures, history of the area and the operation of the MP and Frisco.
For those of you interested in the Crystal City, MO area, please be advised that the bridge on Mississippi Avenue over the old Frisco main and siding is scheduled to be torn down. It is going to be replaced with something more modern. If you are wanting photographs of this old overpass you had better get them now. Former Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) employee, Missouri Pacific Historical Society (MPHS) Archivist and local citizen.
In response to James' wealth of great information on Crystal City, I would be interested if you or anyone else knows of the following: a) Approximate volume of traffic in cars per day generated by PPG in the 1940s? b) What is the number series of the 70-ton Frisco gondolas? c) Was there an assigned steam locomotive to the Crystal City local in the 1940s? d) If so, anyone know what type and number? e) Anyone have pictures or diagrams of the interlocking and tower that they could post to the Resource Center? f)Anyone have pictures of the Frisco depot circa 1940s? I agree wholeheartedly with Pat; this would be a superb area to model, especially for the modeler interested in switching or who does not have an abundance of room.
I cannot go back to the 1940s but in the 1970s the traffic at Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) was a mix. PPG owned several short covered hoppers that they used to transfer sand from the mine across the creek to the batch house plus several open top hoppers for moving cullet, broken glass, around. Most of the raw material came in via covered hopper with some bags in box cars. I remember waiting for a load of a batch material with the Frisco telling us that it was in the yard but no one could find it. It turned out to have been delivered to Crystal City, Texas. Shipments via rail was mixed between box cars and gondolas. Box cars were used for the pallets of automotive glass while the gondolas had the crates of glass stacked on edge and braced. The orders to Mexico had to be prepaid since the cars that stopped on a siding in Mexico normally arrived without any crating on the glass. Somewhere in the basement I have a shot of the old steam switcher that PPG owned. If I am not having a senior moment, I seem to recall that they purchased it from the Missouri River and Bonne Terre (MR&BT). In the 1970s it was not uncommon to see a Missouri Pacific (MP) SW1200 switcher being used to work the PPG tracks when ever the PPG switcher was being repaired. I also remember the crew spotting a box car inside the plant for loading, the PPG workers cutting the seal in the door and sliding it open only to reveal a car full of brand new washers and dryers. A great place to model. Lots of plant tracks, a working mine, three yards, the best two railroads - Frisco and Missouri Pacific.
If someone is interested in modeling the Crystal City area PPG plant in the 1940s, then do not forget the railroad mail service. Today, if someone in Crystal City was to write a letter to someone in Cape Girardeau, you should not except a response any sooner than 7 days. We have copies of letters between my wife's grandfather and his future bride who were located in these two Frisco served towns. He worked at PPG and she attended the Teachers College at Cape. The time for the letters to get to Cape and back was three days, sometimes less. He would mail his letter at the depot next to the plant where it would go out on the next train, be delivered to Cape in a few hours, then she would do the same. Not this once per day, with letters going from Crystal City to St. Louis, to some regional sorting plant, then finally to Cape. What progress we have made since the rail lines were forced out of the mail business and the cost has only risen from 5 cents to 34 cents.
Here is a photograph of the Frisco yard at Crystal City, MO next to Pittsburg Plate glass (PPG). Its is around the 1950s judging from the automobiles. To the lower right, at the foot of the water tower, you can see the tracks that go to the other PPG yard, which was not much more than a line and a siding that connected with the Missouri Pacific (MP) via the old Mississippi River and Boone Terre (MR&BT) tracks. There is a lot more to see on the photograph, such as the PPG switcher moving cars out of the Frisco yard. There is a flat car with the giant sanding disk for the glass just up from there. To the upper left you can see some more tracks that are across the Platin Creek. That is the location of PPG's sand mine, and they got to them from a separate bridge to the south of the plant. You cannot see the bridge in this picture. I have two other pictures from different angles that I will post in a bit.
1970s derailment near Crystal City, MO. Another shot of the 1970s derailment. The Crystal City depot can be seen to the right in the picture. The Lindenwood wrecker SLSF 99029 helps clear and rerail the covered hopper cars.
Derailed cover hopper cars at Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) sand plant at Ludwig, MO. Note the wrecking crane rerailing a Frisco covered hopper. Photograph by Jerry Howe.
EMD GP7 SLSF 531 at the Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) plant at Crystal City, MO. Shot of 3 EMD GP7s and 2 EMD GP38-2s from the viaduct over the main at Crystal City. The siding to the left leads into the PPG plant. Photograph by Jerry Howe.
Another shot. Included in the locomotive consist are 3 EMD GP7s and 2 EMD GP38-2 units. The first unit is GP7 SLSF 531. The second unit is GP7 534 The third unit is GP7 SLSF 63?. The fourth unit is GP38-2 SLSF 677. The fifth units is a GP38-2 unidentified number.
Another shot of Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) in the 1970s. Better shot of the yard and the line heading towards the Mississippi. You can also see the PPG tracks that cross Plattin Creek to their sand mine at the upper right of the photograph. I do not know when PPG stopped using this mine for the source of silica, or if they ever did, but I know they also got sand a few miles up the line at Ludwig, MO. The shots I posted of the covered hoppers derailed came from there.
Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) Plant Map Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) Industries, Works Number 9, Crystal City, MO plant map which does not show the Frisco mainline on it. The main runs across the lower right of this page, and the Frisco also had a yard that was next to the one shown here, separated by a fence. There was also another trestle across Platin Creek that led to a sand mine which is not shown on this map. But you can see the line running up to it.
I work at Crystal City Underground the old sand mine for Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG). I am looking for old pictures and stories, very rare to find. Thank you.
