[Patrick Flory]

I’m preparing an article for The Eagle about a the track plan back home in the early 1950’s when I was a child. It was very complicated for a town its size. I’m going to include Sanborn maps which show what I believe to be at least a dozen rail customers in a town that was 20,000 people at the time, a lot of railroad action for a relatively small town. It’s all nearly gone without a trace today, but I remember it all very well and will describe it in a lot of detail.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4014nm.g033751952/?sp=1&r=0.032,0.038,1.006,1.218,0

[Patrick Flory]

I forgot to mention that also back home was a mile long Spur that ran down the street to reach some other customers that included a freight house, The municipal water plant, a grocery warehouse, and a very odoriferous hide warehouse that shipped out nasty muskrat hides in dedicated old end-of-service-life box cars unusable for any other purpose

[Patrick Flory]

My ag branch layout is set in a different locale than yours, the Gulf Coast, but my main boxcar related customers are a co-op warehouse, an oil dealer, and a team track in each community. I also have wood rack cars picking up pulpwood at the team tracks and gondolas going to an off-layout gravel pit.

On a smaller layout I have at our other house, I have these plus a rice elevator and a small foundry. I also found out that up until this era, bulk rock salt was shipped in dedicated wood boxcars, the use of covered hoppers was just about to begin.

And don’t forget to have interchange tracks.

[Patrick Flory]

That cap is a test, not the subject of discussion

[Patrick Flory]

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[Patrick Flory]

Basically trying to paste a photo and getting nowhere

[Patrick Flory]

It sounds great, but I am presently unable to travel.

[Patrick Flory]

I passed through New Blaine yesterday and the caboose was gone. Not sure if it was moved or scrapped(I didn’t see any trace of it). The depot looked in even worst shape than when I saw it last year. The land around the depot had been disturbed, so I believe it may be torn down soon. 😥 I hope someone can stop this, or somehow move the small depot. If anyone has any information on the depot or caboose, please let me know.
Thanks,

Murphy Jenkins

[Patrick Flory]

Just found out that the #2522 is actually paired with the tender from MP #2347. I wonder if this switch happened before or after the locomotive was sold to the Ft. Smith, Subiaco, & Rock Island?

Murphy Jenkins

[Patrick Flory]

The bell and headlamp are long gone. They were stolen after the locomotive was moved to the park. I have no connection with the Miner’s Memorial Museum in Paris, but this is what I have heard from friends that volunteer there. The locomotive will actually be displayed across the street from the miner’s memorial museum in front of the site of the former Paris depot. A replica depot is in future plans, but that will be a long way off. When restored the engine will have Missouri Pacific Lines lettering on the engineers side, and Ft. Smith, Subiaco, & Rock Island on the fireman’s side. It will some time before they get to the locomotive. The museum is relatively new, and they have several projects going on.

Murphy J.

[Patrick Flory]

I know the roof has been over it for at least a decade. I’ve got some old photos that I took with a disposable camera back in 2005 and it shows the roof over it.

Murphy J.

[Patrick Flory]

There wasn’t much left. The seats in the cupola were there, but that was about it. I believe that UP used this caboose as a shoving platform, until it was wrecked.

Murphy J.

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