Western Railroad Discussion > Some from Sharon Springs, Kansas

Located 210 miles East of Denver on the old Kansas Pacific route, Sharon Springs is the crew change point between Denver and Salina. Besides that, there is not much else going on in this dying, dusty town!
1)A pair of Westbound coal empties are tied down for the day waiting for a steel gang working West of town that is finally replacing some of the old jointed rail with welded rail. In the North Pass is UP 7143 and occupying the South Pass is the UP 7184 that has received a winged emblem on the nose somewhere along the way that is already peeling off.
2)Parked in front of the United Plains AG elevator, sometimes these things even make the trains appear small!
3)An Eastbound coal load led by UP 5651 enters Yard Limits at Sharon Springs and slows for the crew change.
All photos taken on November 14th.

Next Three pics, some relics at Sharon Springs------------------



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/12 14:51 by SP8595.

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4)MSTL 16203 is a flat loaded with snap track and is still lettered for the Minneapolis & St. Louis and shows a built date of 5/59!
5)Ballast car CNW 791045 shows off both its ex-Rock Island and Chicago & North Western heritage.
6)SD40-2 NREX 7264 (ex-Burlington Northern) is the new elevator switcher that has replaced a neat old ALCO switcher that was used at Sharon for years.

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Good stuff, John! I like the low angle in #1 that shows what the future would be if the 7184 decided to get frisky. And #3 captures the essence of western prairie
railroading. Thanks for the roster of the ex-BNSF unit. It was pretty well buried during our 844 chase a few months ago...

Lance

Great photos for sure. I don't recall ever seeing a RI ballast hopper like the one pictured here.

oakley could have had all of this

dan Wrote:
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> oakley could have had all of this

Where at? You would have had to build a US-83 overpass or shut down the main road into downtown. That or move everything west or east of town, not to mention the HUGE run it would have been for Denver guys.

"Dying, dusty town," sounds about right John! That could pretty much sum up ALL of western Kansas. Thanks for posting photos from a rarely seen part of the KP...I mean I've only been there one time!

Rathole Wrote:
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> Great photos for sure. I don't recall ever seeing
> a RI ballast hopper like the one pictured here.

See the bottom of this thread for another:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2917786

They had a whole string of them.
- Jeff Carlson

Great stuff to look at John. When I was a youngster in Salina, crew terminals were at Salina, Ellis, and Sharon. Over the years the Salina crews passed Ellis and ran further west to Oakley and now to Sharon Springs. Its really nice seeing an area that doesn't get much coverage, thanks for the looks.
Brian Stevens

thought UP offered Oakley, the crew change point when reactivating the KP, Oakley, town didn't want it.

wasn't Oakley the in use crew change point for the diesel era?

dan Wrote:
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> thought UP offered Oakley, the crew change point
> when reactivating the KP, Oakley, town didn't want
> it.
>
> wasn't Oakley the in use crew change point for the
> diesel era?

That I don't know, I just know in its current arrangement, Oakley would have made a poor crew change point. There is a crossing just east of the depot and then about 3/4 of a mile west of the depot. Oakley was a crew change point post 1978, when it was moved from Ellis to Oakley. I don't know the exact year it was switched to Sharon Springs, I'm sure PRose would know more on the subject, considering he used to work Salina to Oakley.

Yes, Oakley used to be the crew change point. When the Denver crews couldn't make it to Oakley in there time limits, they moved it to Sharon Springs.

The track panel loads and the RI covered ballast cars are train wreck cars. The track panel to put down and then the ballast over them. There is 4 panel cars and I think it is 5 ballast cars sitting in Salina now for a wreck. The cars were taken to Eastern CO when the wreck happened out there earlier this year. There used to be 4 semi loads on track panels sitting in Salina but haven't seen then since the wreck in Eastern CO. upkpfan