Western Railroad Discussion > Jan CTC Board - Another Good Issue (MoPac)

I just received the January CTC Board issue today, and it's another good one showcasing another UP merger victim, the Missouri Pacific. 38 pages which includes 5 articles and a photo section with a grand total of 50 photographs (including the cover and inset) of the great blue road. The coverage of the old MP system is pretty balanced except for a couple areas. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any coverage of the Osawatomie to Pueblo main line or of the lines in SE Nebraska. But, besides that, it's a pretty good issue. I'm sure it will please Powerbraker1.

Sounds like a developing trend, victims of mergers. SP, Rio Grande next? And how about the BNaSiF side? Burlington, GN, NP, Frisco(well maybe, they are in charge...)FW&D, etc.


TCS - is that you Santy clause?

cdub wrote:

> I just received the January CTC Board issue today, and it's another good one showcasing another UP merger victim, the Missouri Pacific.I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any coverage ofthe Osawatomie to Pueblo main line or of the lines in SE Nebraska.>>

Probably not one of the more visited lines (Pueblo to KC) for railfans, and that's a shame. I see bits and pieces of it in KS and think how nice a set of "screaming eagle" SD40's would look.

Someone, somewhere, has some shots. But they might never see the light of day.

TopcoatSmith wrote:

> Sounds like a developing trend, victims of mergers. SP, Rio
> Grande next? And how about the BNaSiF side? Burlington, GN, NP,
> Frisco(well maybe, they are in charge...)FW&D, etc.

I don't think it's a trend, but then again the railfan mags do have a tendency to be nostalgic at times. The reason they did the WP feature last month and the MP this month is that it's the 20 year anniversary this month of the UP-MP-WP merger. I'm sure in 2008 they will do a special issue for the MKT, then in 2015 for the CNW and SP in 2016.

chilli wrote:

> cdub wrote:
>
> > I just received the January CTC Board issue today, and it's
> another good one showcasing another UP merger victim, the
> Missouri Pacific.I was a little disappointed that there wasn't
> any coverage ofthe Osawatomie to Pueblo main line or of the
> lines in SE Nebraska.>>
>
> Probably not one of the more visited lines (Pueblo to KC) for
> railfans, and that's a shame. I see bits and pieces of it in
> KS and think how nice a set of "screaming eagle" SD40's would
> look.
>
> Someone, somewhere, has some shots. But they might never see
> the light of day.

Back in 97' when I lived in Manhattan, KS, for about a two month period in April and May, I was taking trips down to Herrington and over to Hoisington every other weekend before the Tennessee Pass/Central Corridor shut down. I'm sure the Pueblo line must have been interesting to fan back in the 70's with all the blue power, but I think they were running only 6-10 trains a day over that line right upto the UP merger. This might be an overstatement, but I think the Pueblo line was as interesting to railfan after the merger, even though the number of trains wasn't great at times. Just consider when the Rio Grande took it over, and then on to the Philip Anschutz/SP regime. Even though I caught the tail end of the life of the Pueblo line, it was still interesting back in 97'. Also neat was they still operated with train orders (by radio) and ABS block signals at the end. Most of the power was still pure SP/DRGW, and you could sometimes find as many as 10 trains a day in daylight.

I'm surprised CTC board didn't run anything from this segment. It WAS pretty well photographed in the last years, for I know Mark Hemphill and Mike (Mr. Metra) Abalos were hot and heavy on this line, especially west of Lindsborg, KC, before the UP-SP merger.

But, I'd imagine that lots of good photo coverage of this segment before UP/SP/RG operation over it is hard to come by.

In the case of an abandoned line, though, I wouldn't mind seeing SOMETHING published on the line--the MoP wasn't ONLY a paint scheme. . .

Definately a good issue. I never saw the MP in person, other than some stray MP units on the CNW after the UP/MP merger. I've always had a liking for the "modern" MP with all their SD40-2's and GP15-1's, etc.

L.G.

rrnut_99 wrote:

> Definately a good issue. I never saw the MP in person, other
> than some stray MP units on the CNW after the UP/MP merger.
> I've always had a liking for the "modern" MP with all their
> SD40-2's and GP15-1's, etc.

Another thing I noticed lacking in the issue was no pics of the 6000 series SD40-2s, the ones with dynamic brakes that were run in coal pool power service with Rio Grande and BN. I always thought this was the neatest group of SD40-2s, especially the first few units that had the grey lights mounted on the nose. OK, I'll stop nit picking. It was a great issue, regardless that they did overlook a few things, which will happen when you try to cover an entire 10,000 mile plus railroad.

I was told that Mike Abalos did "write" a Photo Essay on the Hoisington line, but certain factors kept it from being included in the all-MoPac issue. Look for the photo essay to run in a later issue of CTC Board in 2003.

Craig