Latour Subdivision Train Manifests

Home Page › Forums › Prototype and Historical › Freight Operations & Equipment › Latour Subdivision Train Manifests

  • This topic is empty.
Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • January 20, 2021 at 7:45 pm #6447
    kevin_herrington22
    Participant

    Hello,

    I am seeking any freight train manifests or information about train consists that ran in the Latour Subdivision from about the year 1910 to 1970. I am from Delta Heritage Trail State Park in Arkansas and we are going to use these to research about a model train display we want to make.

    Any information you have on this topic would be appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Ryan Smith, Park Interpreter, Delta Heritage Trail State Park

    January 20, 2021 at 11:14 pm #10049
    peggyrothschild
    Participant

    Ryan
    Unless someone took one home there shouldn’t be any freight consists available. Dispatcher sheets would record a passenger train consist but not freight. The railroads were to destroy any car movement records after five years and we had station auditors and Supervisors making sure the policy was complied with. One, there generally wasn’t room to store all that paperwork, two rate sharks could only go back five years (these were individuals that would find a cheaper freight rate on a commodity and go back in history for refunds for a shipper and charge a fee or percentage) and three the lawyers didn’t want lawsuits being able to go back anymore than the five year statutes of limitation.

    January 22, 2021 at 3:11 pm #10051
    bargetanika
    Participant

    Charlie, wouldn’t the track profiles be useful in creating an accurate model railroad? Online customers, siding locations and capacities, water tank and depot locations, and on. My Gulf Coast Lines profile book is a gold mine. The poster could get an idea of what on line traffic was generated where, what other roads interchanged where that would deliver or receive freight, etc etc.

    Access by the poster to such information is another question since few books probably survive.

    January 23, 2021 at 12:29 pm #10055
    peggyrothschild
    Participant

    Pat
    The ZTS books would provide the customer names and the track layout (although not to scale). So if the name incorporated the commodity he’d have a clue what was shipped or received. Ryan was looking for 1910-1970 data and the ZTS books weren’t published at the earliest until around 1975 but that still would provide some insight to the MP served customer base.

    March 25, 2021 at 6:44 am #10090
    elsaanderson820
    Participant

    Ryan,
    I do not remember seeing that division in ‘Down the Iron Mountain Route’, but I might be mistaken.
    I just opened up “The Empire that Missouri Built”. Quite a few entries for Arkansas, but the entries are alphabetical, not by division.
    If you have the town names on the division, I can look up the entries.
    Nice blurbs on each town, but not much operation details.
    Thomas
    DeSoto, TX

    March 25, 2021 at 6:50 am #10091
    elsaanderson820
    Participant

    Just looked up the entry for Lexa.
    “Lexa is one of the principal icing points for perishable produce being shipped from the Rio Grand Valley through St Louis”.
    So an icing dock at Lexa would handle strings of ART reefers.
    Not local, but could ne interesting to model and talk about ice reefers and how that changed the eating habits of the nation.
    Thomas

    March 25, 2021 at 1:13 pm #10092
    kevin_herrington22
    Participant

    @mclae wrote:

    Ryan,
    I do not remember seeing that division in ‘Down the Iron Mountain Route’, but I might be mistaken.
    I just opened up “The Empire that Missouri Built”. Quite a few entries for Arkansas, but the entries are alphabetical, not by division.
    If you have the town names on the division, I can look up the entries.
    Nice blurbs on each town, but not much operation details.
    Thomas
    DeSoto, TX

    Hello Thomas,

    Thanks. There a couple of pictures in the “Down the Iron Mountain Route”. One from Lakeview, Mcgehee, and Latour and several of Lexa. I just got that “The Empire that Missouri Pacific Built” book and it does indeed include info about several stops on the line. Thanks for your help and let me know if you run by anything else

    Ryan

    March 25, 2021 at 1:19 pm #10093
    kevin_herrington22
    Participant

    @mclae wrote:

    Just looked up the entry for Lexa.
    “Lexa is one of the principal icing points for perishable produce being shipped from the Rio Grand Valley through St Louis”.
    So an icing dock at Lexa would handle strings of ART reefers.
    Not local, but could ne interesting to model and talk about ice reefers and how that changed the eating habits of the nation.
    Thomas

    Thomas,

    Yes, Lexa is just north of where the park “Delta Heritage Trail State Park” that I work at ends. There was a lot of activity in Lexa with livestock pens, at least one cotton gin, and the icing station. From what I heard, people in Lexa used to call the ART reefers travelling through “banana cars” from being yellow. We are in the process of putting together a model display of trains that ran on this line and ARTs are for sure one we want to use.

    Thanks,

    Ryan

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.