Nostalgia & History > Oklahoma Snow Storm and Other Random Scenes

Oklahoma isn't well known for dramatic winter, however it is known for dramatic weather. I was able to find another set of photos from my dad's archives that I thought were worth sharing. None are exactly related in anyway besides the fact that I scanned each one after another.

1) My father captured this 'white out' scene in Claremore, OK date is unknown but an obvious eastbound on the Cherokee sub with what looks to be 4 SD40s as they are about to cross the Missouri Pacific line to Coffeyville.

2) Not much is known on this shot, other than its certain to be in Oklahoma wintertime, most likely south of Tulsa bound for Texas

3) This shot has no information other than the fact that its an SP or possibly Cotton Belt train on a bridge. Hopefully a fellow Trainorders member can figure it out.

All taken by Daryl McGee
BNSF-6432
PQM

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Last one crossing the Mississippi?

No that has to be the Arkansas River.

The bridge looks alot like the the mo pac / cotton belt bridge across the mississippi river between Thebes, Illinois and Illmo, Missouri.

Posted from iPhone

#1 - lead unit is 757 which was a GP40-2, so it's probably a quartet of Geeps. Frisco liked to run them in matched sets when they were fairly new. Train is westbound at Claremore and appears to be an auto train, likely the one that originated in Valley Park's Chrysler plant that went to Texas.

#2 - lead unit has a 4 digit number, meaning it was BN and not Frisco, so it's probably around 1981 or a tad later. There wasn't much orange paint left within a couple of years after the "merger" of BN and Frisco. The semaphore would have been on either the Creek sub going south or the Sooner sub going west out of Tulsa.

Bill G.
Tulsa, OK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/14 20:22 by TTownTrains.

#2 looks like Daryl was looking north off the I-44/Turner Turnpike bridge over the Sooner Sub (err, Oklahoma Sub at that time) towards Luther (the bridge in the background is Hogback Road); the scene looks pretty similar today....just with more trees and less pole line (and no semaphore).

#3 is the "Cotton Mop" bridge at Thebes.

Thanks for sharing these.

Alexmarissa Wrote:
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> The bridge looks alot like the the mo pac / cotton
> belt bridge across the mississippi river between
> Thebes, Illinois and Illmo, Missouri.

Correct, Thebes Bridge over the Mississippi it is.

This view is on the Illinois side at Thebes, where the two tracks basically jump off the high bluff on the east bank, and use these tall concrete arch spans over the narrow floodplain on the Illinois side before reaching the main truss spans over the river itself. On the west bank on the Missouri side, the ascent/descent is more gradual via a long earthen ramp down into the small village of Illmo and adjacent Scott City, Missouri.

The Cotton Belt train depicted has just crossed the river from Missouri, and is northbound for East St. Louis via trackage rights on Missouri Pacific (today UP) trackage. After passing the small town of Thebes, Ill. it will make a sharp turn to the left and head downgrade to the level of the Mississippi's floodplain, which it will follow all the way to East St. Louis.

A very interesting and busy area to railfan, then and now.

MC
Columbia, Missouri

Great find Patrick. I really like the first photo. Keep them coming.

Ronda Thomas

Alexmarissa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The bridge looks alot like the the mo pac / cotton
> belt bridge across the mississippi river between
> Thebes, Illinois and Illmo, Missouri.
>
> Posted from iPhone


That's the same spot that Fred Frailey took his pic for a cover shot in an 1980's article in Trains Magazine.