KCS trip - 3

Hi, It rained all night and continued into the early morning.  It would remain gray all day; the only gray day of the trip.  We headed south.  Our first stop was in Stillwell, OK where I photographed this Herzog work equipment on a spur track.  There is a very pretty depot here now used as a museum which we would come back to shoot later in the week. 

We decided to use this day primarily for exploration, given the weather, so we used some back roads to follow the tracks. In Marble City, OK we found this Southeast Kansas geep working the U. S. Lime Company plant.  The Southeast Kansas Railroad is affiliated with the South Kansas and Oklahoma; both owned by WATCO.

Also on the property was this former Texas Northwestern Railway switcher.

Dale wanted to visit the Ft. Smith, Arkansas Trolley Museum and I convinced him it was better to do it on a rainy day so we could save any sunny days for the KCS.  Sitting outside the trolley barn was this trim ex-Frisco Mike.  The museum had looked into restoring the locomotive to operable condition but found it too expensive for them to handle.
 

Inside the trolley barn the restoration of former Hot Springs Street Railway No. 50, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1904, was nearing completion.

We road No. 224, a Birney built by American for Ft. Smith Light and Traction in 1926.

The trolley barn is part way along the line.  One end is at the Ft. Smith National Cemetery.

The car is very rough riding and the wooden seats don't help.  However, I got to operate the car for part of the run so sitting was not a problem.

The other end of the line was at a park built at least partially on an area that had been destroyed by a tornado a few years ago.

Later in the day we explored around Spiro, OK.  While doing so we heard an empty coal train leaving a power plant at Blazer, a few miles to our south, so we headed south of town for this shot.

After the coal train cleared we went to the north end of the siding in Spiro to watch the head end power on a grain train swap one of its retro Belles for the gray DPU which was not operating properly.

At Howe, from the overpass in the background, we spotted this Arkansas and Oklahoma B23-7.  Howe is the far eastern end of operations by this railroad on the former Rock Island Choctaw Route and its interchange with KCS.  The signal once guarded the KCS crossing and is now inoperable.  We would take 2 more opportunities to shoot this locomotive in sun.

Double track begins at Howe, CP North Howe on the railroad, and continues into the yard at Heavener, OK.  CP South Howe, at Forest Hill, controls a pair of crossovers.  Trains frequently are held here awaiting a place either at the fuel pad at the north end of the yard or space in the yard.  We found a southbound grain train waiting on this afternoon.

In Heavener a two unit power set was moving to get on its train.

This ended our day so we headed back north to Poteau, OK. We would spend 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Express here. Hope you enjoyed the photos.