Nostalgia & History > Rock Island Then & Now

A simple before & after scenario demonstrates the power Mother Nature has when she teams up with Father Time. Here are 2 scenes photographed 33 years apart.

1. CRI&P 385 on train #73 crossing Wildcat Creek in Manhattan, KS on February 15, 1978.

2. Same photo angle on October 18, 2011. (Both photos taken from the Seth Child Rd overpass.)

Thanks for the look!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/22 23:49 by santafe199.

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Time to do some "gardening".

Cheers,
Jack

Great photo (no. 1)

are the rails still there?

I liked it better before.

bluesboyst Wrote:
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> are the rails still there?


The rails are long gone. This branch was briefly operated after the Rock went belly up but was abandoned and pulled up shortly after.

Great shot and comparison, Lance!

imrl Wrote:
> The rails are long gone. This branch was briefly
> operated after the Rock went belly up but was
> abandoned and pulled up shortly after.

There is a bicycle/walking trail that uses this old bridge which extends from the background area you see in shot #1, across Wildcat Creek wrapping around behind part of the Westloop Shopping area on W. Anderson Ave. With the exception of one pretty obvious area mid-way, most of the old roadbed from here on west to Keats has disappeared with housing & recreational development, farmland cultivation & so on. I was disappointed that traces of the Rock Island in the Keats were all but gone. Keats was a pet favorite spot for me to shoot at during '77 & '78. 2 of my favorite Rock Island shots were taken there.

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/16 12:26 by santafe199.

Great shot! Sad to say this track was gone by the time I attended Kansas State Univ.

Mike

I used to go down to the depot in 68/69 and watch the UP passenger trains come in. On Saturday or Sunday I would go down to see the Rock Island freights come through. I had quite a few photos that were later lost. Only a very few left.

If fading memory serves, 73 was the KC-Denver manifest - actually, the ONLY KC-Denver train. The lack of traffic on this particular day tells a story.

Good 'then and now' shot..........several miles (20-25 or so)beyond this iron bridge is another bridge that still exists..........near Bala, KS is an old stone arch Rock Island RR bridge that defies time and gravity. Makes a neat photo opportunity except that I can't remember where I stored mine.

Vince in Valley Center

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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> I used to go down to the depot in 68/69 and watch
> the UP passenger trains come in. On Saturday or
> Sunday I would go down to see the Rock Island
> freights come through. I had quite a few photos
> that were later lost. Only a very few left.

Sounds like the very same thing Mike Murray & I used to do about 8 years later. Only problem is, the passenger trains were gone. And the rare times we saw a
Rock Island train >>>IN DAYLIGHT<<<, we got a shot but never chased it out of town. How hard would it have been to chase at 10 MPH? Even if we were shooting
126 Instamatic...

Isn't hindsight wonderful???

Lance

Thanks for posting this, Lance. You answered the question I forgot to ask after your show in Topeka last month. If you look close, you can see a couple smaller, wood trestles along this route as you head west. One of them appears to be in somebody's back yard on West Anderson.

Great before and after shots, too bad the old Rock is gone from the face of the earth.... Where did this branch go from and to? I'm down here in Wichita and at least the Rock Island trackage exists still under the guise of the Union Pacific, except for the trackage through downtown that has been replaced by the elevation project.

Thanks for sharing,

Dan

The CRI&P branch through Manhattan came out of McFarland on the Golden State Route and ended in Belleville up on the Omaha-Colo Springs mainline.

Here's a pic of the bridge that Vince mentioned above. There is also a substantial trestle a couple hundred yards to the left of this bridge. I'm not sure but I think this has the distinction of being the largest stone railroad bridge in Kansas. This is in the "city" of Bala park. I hasn't been kept up very well but it's a nice location for a walk, picnic or dreaming of Rock Island days gone by.

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switchlock Wrote:
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> Here's a pic of the bridge that Vince mentioned
> above. There is also a substantial trestle a
> couple hundred yards to the left of this bridge.
> I'm not sure but I think this has the distinction
> of being the largest stone railroad bridge in
> Kansas. This is in the "city" of Bala park. I
> hasn't been kept up very well but it's a nice
> location for a walk, picnic or dreaming of Rock
> Island days gone by.

Thanks Jim! Back in those days Bala was a place I only shot one time, and that was only off the nearby US 77 overpass. I should mosey out there and look around soon...

Lance

Jim wrote,
>I'm not sure but I think this has the distinction
> of being the largest stone railroad bridge in
> Kansas.< How do you mean? height, width, length or what. I've seen bigger ones on the KP.Height and width. upkpfan

Marv, I think its the biggest stone ARCH bridge. I haven't googled it yet.