Rudy Patrick Seed Co. - West Bottoms - Kansas City, MO

During our Frisco Day on March 21, Mark Davidson (Mark), John Moenius (Boomer John) and I toured the KC West Bottoms. In this post I have included several shots of Rudy Patrick Seed Co. buildings in the Bottoms.

One of the more interesting buildings in the Rudy Patrick complex was the curved building in the first two and fourth shots. If I remember right, the Frisco track curved from the north to the west and on to Swift Packing Co.

The third shot is Mark using our trusty 1969 SLSF Industry Schematic to show John "Boomer" Moenius the lay of the land in the Bottoms.

The fifth and final shot is another Rudy Patrick Building about a block away from the building with the curved back. It has a very interesting vertical sign on the corner.

I will get more photos of the Bottoms out to the site as time permits.

Ship IT on the Frisco!

Rick

 

Mark did a great job that day and really knows his way around the West Bottoms area.

Using the track charts and the tour that day I have come up with a nice track plan that fits my allotted space. Will not be able to start construction until maybe July. So now I'm going through the mental gymnastics of the trade-offs, if I do I switching layout I give up.......

For example, later that day I had great fun operating 19th Street yard on Rick's layout. This track plan would not have that opportunity.

Can I live with what I would give up?

It would also take a lot of large brick buildings.

Could I use mock ups of Photoshop buildings on foam core board, at least as place holders?

To get all the bends and twists it would take number 4 turnouts.

Can a 0-6-0 or a Baldwin with 40 ft cars operate through number 4 turnouts without derailing or stalling?

And how do I handle street trackage?

These are some of the questions I have a couple of months to figure out.


John

 

Sounds like a great way to spend the day.

The Kansas City West Bottoms are truly fascinating. When I first moved to KC in 1981, I lived in a 10th floor apartment on the bluffs overlooking the bottoms. Sadly we have lost several West Bottoms structures since then.

I will be modeling about 6 square blocks of the West Bottoms on my N scale layout, the Kansas City, Osceola and Southern. I plan on using sheet styrene for the streets and to cover the street trackage. Not sure yet how to approach covering the turnouts.

I will also be modeling 19th Street Yard but more as an open, sceniced staging yard than as an operating yard. Who knows though, my operating scheme may evolve to make it an operating yard in the future.

Any chance we could persuade Mark into posting scans of the Industry Schematics?

I don't recall seeing these for the KC area. Thanks to Karl Brand we have industry schematics for all the Clinton Sub from Alexander to Springfield. Would really like to see schematics from the northern end of the Clinton Sub and KC West Bottoms.

Dale Rush
Blair Line LLC
Carthage, MO

 

Dale,

I initially wanted my 19th Street yard to be an open staging yard too.

Then our only BN modeler in KC, Joe Kasper, talked me into making it an operating yard. I have never regretted that move. I had initially thought that a stub ended yard would not be interesting but I added a switch at the end of the Receiving Track for power to come back to the engine facility and it seemed to work out.

19th Street Yard was real interesting because it serviced cabooses as well as engines and, I believe it originated at least one local, Clinton, Harrisonville, as well as several West Bottoms switch jobs.

Mark and I don't have a scanner just yet but we could make you a paper copy of the KC track schematic and mail it to you.

How is that?

Ship IT on the Frisco!

Rick

 

More photos from the West Bottoms.

The first photo (impressive?) is just south of the old CGW office (brick structure to the right) and was the site of the small Frisco holding yard for Swift Packing Co. cars. Hard to tell there was ever a small yard there but the railhead on the lead track from the east is visible in the old grade crossing.

The second photo looks northward up St Louis St. and shows KCT Tower Number 2 and a very interesting curtain wall structure to the left.

The third photo shows the site of the Frisco Freight House and the fourth photo shows the driveway just to the west used by trucks. Interesting to see the bricks still in the pavement.

While many structures in this area have been victims of fire and demolition, there are still a lot of buildings in use although with new owners.

Ship IT on the Frisco!

Rick

 

Rick/Mark,

Thanks for the generous offer to copy the track schematics. I got an email yesterday from Karl Brand and he has the same KC West Bottoms schematics and offered to scan and post them here on the website. I would be ok to wait on Karl, that way they can be added to this site for all to see.

I am somewhat reluctant to see the schematics. When Karl posted all the Clinton Sub schematics it took me about 6 months to make all the revisions to my layout plans. But I did end up with a much better and more prototypical track layout. I have posted a copy of my track plan over in the layouts area. Per your suggestion I am considering making 19th St. Yard an operating yard instead of just a staging yard. Good idea. May combine the yard operators job with the West Bottoms switcher. Would be a much busier and time consuming job than switching industries alone.

Dale Rush
Blair Line LLC
Carthage, MO

 

Dale,

I was not able to add the West Bottoms to my layout, one of my more glaring mistakes. However, I was able to add some of the smaller industries located on "The Hill" or Fairgrounds branch. I have my 19th St Yard Master switch The Hill if he runs out of things to do but that doesn't happen very often.

His duties include

* receiving and classifying inbound trains (2-3 trains that average 20+ cars per session)
* switches the freight house/sand track/company fuel/auto ramp, etc.,
* assists road crews picking up or putting away road power
* making transfer runs with cars for Rosedale (outbound yard) at least once a session
* making transfer runs to connecting roads (staging or the MKT yard)

Most of the time The Hill is switched by a separate crew.

The best suggestion is to see how much your 19th St guy can do and take it from there. You may experience the same thing that I do, sometimes 19th St has time to do the additional switching and sometimes he doesn't. Wow, isn't that prototypical?

Ship IT on the Frisco!

Rick

 

I've also pulled the 19th St job and stayed busy.

Didn't get around to switching the industries, may not have run the interchanges. As the layout matures, I can see another person being needed more.

I toyed with modeling that area, but settled on just simplifying my Arkansas layout to Fort Smith/Van Buren, no helix. But have poked around some up there and operated all the jobs at Jim Senese's, so will be interested in seeing Dale's plan.

Maybe he'll have it with him at Springfield?

Our local Frisco veteran isn't familiar with operations up there but thinks that a former Rosedale yardmaster is still kicking up there. I'll try to get a name. He might have info that will really blow Rick's operations up.

 

I too have operated Rick's 19th street yard.

It is a hoot. Last time I was there I got to run the Hill as an extra operator with a 45ton locomotive. It was a blast. I enjoyed that little loco so much I purchased one. It will be used to exclusively switch one of my Grain elevators.

Here is an idea that will blow Rick's mind! Hey Rick, move a couple of doorway's and Bingo Bango Bongo West Bottoms.

El Bobo