Western Railroad Discussion > East end Avard acton

Saturday a retired friend from Wisconsin was in town who used to live in Tulsa back in the 70s. We decided to do a little foaming on the Avard sub, in spite of the fact that it was a drizzly cold wet day in the mid 30s. We checked on action at Cherokee yard and found the TULTPL departing to the west, so we proceeded west to Shirk siding where we found an eastbound waiting for them.

1. Three flavors of Dash 9s stand in Shirk siding awaiting the passage of westbound TULTPL. Lead unit is H2, middle is warbonnet, trailing is H1.

2. The traditional wave greets TULTPL's crew as they roll by with a pair of ES44s, one orange and one blue.

After we capture the meet, we move on west to Mannford where we thought TULTPL was going to meet another eastbound. It turned out to be a 3 train meet with an eastbound Z train taking the siding to meet another westbound and the TULTPL.

3. Eastbound Z train enters the siding at West Mannford.

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4. The Z meets a westbound mixed freight.

5. The westbound gets a clear signal and after getting the train rolling notches the 2 Dash 9s and SD70MAC out. The second Dash 9 appeared to be having respiratory problems.

We continued our trek westward, driving by Hallett siding and finding another eastbound there, which we did not shoot due to the swamp-like conditions there. We continued on to Pawnee where TULTPL caught up to us again.

6. TULTPL passes a grain elevator on the north side of downtown Pawnee.

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7. A westbound Z train, possibly Z-MEMLAC, with the usual 3 GEs was not too far behind the TULTPL. We captured it at MP 478, which is just a few feet east of the east switch of Pawnee siding that is now out of service, having been replaced by the new Camp siding about 3 miles east of Pawnee.

8. The trailers on the Z pass by the tin box that Frisco erected on the site of the former joint agency SLSF/ATSF Pawnee office.

9. We found WAMX 7022, an ex-Santa Fe GP7 painted in Oklahoma State University orange for service on the Stillwater Central, sitting on the SLWC/BNSF interchange track west of Pawnee. It looked like it had given itself an oil bath. A friend tells me it has been in storage since 2008. Perhaps it has drawn its last breath.

Bill Gillfillan
Tulsa, OK

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Nice views Bill, and what a nasty day it was. That Stillwater Central unit has been static for quite a while but I always thought it was unique they portrayed the entire route map on the nose--a straight line between Pawnee Ok and Stillwater Ok. Thanks for showing.
Brian Stevens

Great series of photos Bill considering it was a cold and miserable day last Saturday.

Ronda Thomas