TOFC Ramps - Various Locations

Discussion in 'TOFC Facilities' started by chris, Feb 4, 2002.

  1. chris

    chris Guest

    TOFC Ramp, South Fountain Street - Cape Girardeau, MO

    TOFC Ramp, Cape Girardeau MO.

    Located in the "Shops" area where yard is still in existence.

    The address is 734 South Fountain Street. This is just north of the intersection of South Fountain Street and Elm Street, just south of the Mississippi River bridge.
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2024
  2. ken

    ken Guest

    I once saw a new fire engine delivered to Cape Girardeau at this ramp shortly after it was installed in the late 1960's.

    The fire engine was transported in a boxcar with end doors.

    The one-stall metal engine house, which housed the local Alco RS-1 or GE 44 ton switcher, was about 300 feet south of this ramp.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2024
  3. chris

    chris Guest

    Swell information, Ken; thanks for sharing.

    If this ramp was used for TOFC use, it sounds like it was also more versatile.

    I know there is a large, long brick building to the Northeast of here toward the end of the yard that is currently part of the Missouri Barge Lines dry dock operation. It looks old enough to have been used for the railroad, and from looking at old Sanborn maps, I think a turntable would have been in its vicinity.

    Any thoughts as to what this may have been?
     
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  4. ken

    ken Guest

    I have many photos and postcards from the early 1900's of trains, facilities, steamboats and railroad ferries around Cape Girardeau, mostly taken by my great uncle.

    They are in a scrapbook. It would be nice to scan these and put them on this site as they are fabulous. They show the SM&A, Frisco and many facilities, including the roundhouse in the shops area that you refer to. I don't have the capability to scan them, but perhaps we could collaborate on such a project. I also have photos that I took in the 1960-1980 time frame.

    If I visit my parents in Cape soon, I'll bring them and the others for you to see, if we can get together.

    Ken
     
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  5. chris

    chris Guest

    Wow - sounds like an impressive collection!

    Stay in touch; we only usually make it to Chaffee 2-3 times per year barring family emergencies, and usually those trips are well-packed with our toddler's "World Tour" to cousins, great-grandparents, et. al. Plus the trip to the main grade crossing in Chaffee to see the "too-too". We usually go down at least once in the spring, once around the first of August when peaches are being harvested, and around the holidays.

    Do you still live in Iowa?

    If a sojourn to Southeast Missouri brings you down US 63 this way, let us know.
     
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  6. paul

    paul Guest

    TOFC Ramp - Commercial Street - North Yard - Springfield, MO

    Here's the old TOFC area at the North Yard in Springfield.

    Photo was taken November 25, 2000.

    It looked quite a bit different when it was active.

    The best photo I've seen is this one from George Elwood's site:

    http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/slsf/slsf757bbp.jpg
     

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  7. paul

    paul Guest

    A note about my last post regarding the North Yard TOFC ramp.

    The track that actually still has the ramp in place is the second track from the mainlines.

    The two ramps on the track closest to the mainlines have been removed, and that track is now a complete siding.
     
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  8. Re: TOFC Ramp - Commercial Street - North Yard - Springfield, MO

    Here are some updated photos June 2006 of the Frisco (BNSF) TOFC on Commerical Street.

    FM
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2024
  9. tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018)

    tomd6 (Tom Duggan RIP 2/11/2018) Passed Away February 11, 2018

    Re: TOFC Ramps - Birch Street - Rogers, AR

    Here are 7/10/2006 images of the two side by side TOFC ramps located north of Birch Street in Rogers, AR.

    One of the ramps looks somewhat newer than the other. In the 1960s and 1970s this area was filled with trailers that were hauled by road to Wal-Mart, Inc. in Bentonville, AR. Legend has it that Wal-Mart asked the Frisco to build a TOFC ramp in Bentonville on the Bentonville Branch.

    The Frisco refused citing a concern that if they built a TOFC ramp for one customer then they would have to build ramps for all important customers.

    Wal-Mart may have wanted their own TOFC ramps as the Springfield-Fort Smith interdivisional freight dropped TOFC cars off at night. The Rogers switch crew would then deliver them to Wal-Mart the next day. Time is money and the rest is history.

    Tomd6
     

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