Starting during the early '70's, the Frisco sought to decrease yard time for trains passing through Tennesee Yard, Cherokee Yard, and the West Yards in Springfield. The centerline distance between R&D tracks was increased to allow four-wheel Cushmans room to operate between the tracks. This allowed the carmen to carry brake shoes, air hoses, etc directly to the car. When a carman discovered a part that needed replacement, the new part was right at hand, and the repair could be made quickly. Instead of building the track in place, the Frisco chose to build panel track. Once built, it was faster to lay, and therfore caused less disruption to the yard operations. In Tulsa the panel track was built near the roundhouse. In the photo, cars of incoming ties, rail, and otm can be seen on the left. The panel tracks were built in the center area of the photo, and then loaded to empty gons over on the right side of the photo. There are a couple of shots of the obviously-posed trackmen building the panels. In the last shot my father and another gentleman review plans for the benefit of the ALL ABOARD photographer.
In the third photo of the guys building track panels, the first guy on the left is Kenny Rose who retired from BNSF a couple of years ago. The next guy is Dana Sconyers still working in Tulsa in the track department. The third guy you can barely see behind Dana is Bob Parker who transfered to the Signal Department and just retired today, 12-19-07 after 30 years with Frisco, BN and now BNSF. I am still looking into the next man's name and I was told the black man has passed on. I had emailed these pics to the Tulsa track guys so they could tell me who these people were. I currencly am the signal maintainer in Catoosa for BNSF and my territory runs from Claremore to Tulsa. Steve.
