Through the Ship on the Frisco FB page, I remade the acquaintance of a friend of my Mother. Sally's grandfather was a Frisco engineer with 52 years’ experience, and he was on the last scheduled run of the Chadwick mixed, which was known somewhat derisively as the Chadwick Flyer. Sally is very proud of her Irish grandfather's work on the Frisco, and she has done much to preserve his memory. She had many questions about the Frisco's Chadwick Branch, and after many email exchanges, I put this little piece together to give her a better idea of operations on the branch. It is written for the non-railroader, but those on this site may find it useful. My thanks go to Roger Taylor, John Sanders, John Dill, and Brad Scott from whose posts I took information or who provided me with copies of original source materials. Unless noted, the "Figures" are from my collection. This thread is dedicated to Robert Lyons, who retired Oct 1933. He is shown in Figure 2; the second individual from the right is Mr Lyons.
Karl, Very interesting read, and no doubt a lot of research went into putting this together! I noticed that you said the rest of the line to Ozark was abandoned in 1983. Do you have any information/photos of the later years of the line after the portion to Chadwick was abandoned? Thanks!
These threads may be of interest: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/coal-train-and-caboose-1250.6558/ http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/ash-grove-lime-ge-25-tonners-galloway-mo.3038/ http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/582.1096/#post-6073 http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/galloway-mo.1061/#post-5938 http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/extra-595-south-at-galloway-mo.701/ http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/old-lake-springfield-row.6238/#post-48479 http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/pine-street-jct-mk-jct-old-east-belt.6065/#post-46991 http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/vo-series.341/#post-2799
I haven't stumbled accross many photos of the line south of Kissick. I think Karl missed this one of the Ozark Turn at Cassidy: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/ozark-turn.551/ In print, there is a photo of the Ozark Turn leaving Ozark behind GP7 610 in 1975 on page 206 of Michael Kelly's Rails Around Missouri. This is a good book, and it's about to be reprinted (with a MoPac cover this time.... originally, there was the choice of Frisco or KCS) There is an article by Keven EuDaly in Robert Del Grosso's 1992 Burlington Northern Annual that covers the Frisco. This article has two 1982 photos of BN painted SW1500s on the move between Kissick and Ozark. One photo shows BN49 (SLSF 344) and BN54 (SLSF 349) pulling a covered hopper. The other shows BN54 by itself. There are a few BN era shots on the line by Marty Myers on www.rrpicturearchives.net, but they are all North of Kissick. Paul
My Dad, a longtime Frisco employee, always called the Chadwick Branch the TM&W which stood for Two Mules and a Wagon.
I noticed this small culvert some time back along McCracken Rd just east of Ozark, so I went back the other day to get a picture.
It's truly surprising that during 1930 the Frisco had not seen the handwriting on the wall, and it still had the B&B gang busy on the Chadwick line... to wit, new concrete boxes, new bridge work, and a new steel water tank at Ozark.
There's a small street (an alley actually) in Springfield that runs southeast from Grand Street along the Ozark branch ("Chadwick Line") tracks named "Chadwick Avenue." I'm sure the little street was named back when the railroad actually was the Chadwick Line and doodle bug cars like little ol' #2121 in those snapshots frequented the line. Tom G.
