Western Railroad Discussion > A Union Pacific "double-use" diamond in Kansas

There is a railroad diamond about 1-1/2 miles east of tiny Ramona, Kan., that gets double use by the Union Pacific Railroad. It's officially been that way since the U.P. acquired the Southern Pacific Lines in 1996. The diamond has long been nicknamed "Jacobs Crossing."

To explain, Photo One shows an eastbound U.P. train hitting the diamond on Dec. 15, 2001. Within several minutes, the train would be arriving in Herington, Kan., for a crew change. This is on the Golden State Route, formerly operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad and later the St. Louis Southern Western Railway (Cotton Belt), a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific.

Photo Two shows a northbound U.P. train approaching the same diamond on Sept. 12, 1993. The train was in the process of making a run from Wichita to Salina. At this location, the train was on ATSF Railway tracks under a trackage rights agreement originally acquired by the former Oklahoma-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The U.P. was able to continue the trackage rights between Lost Springs, Kan., and Abilene, Kan., with the 1988 acquisition of the OKT and MKT (Katy) lines. Please note the Missouri Pacific boxcar behind the power consist. Not too many of those are still around.

There are not very many rail diamonds in Kansas where railroad lines intersect themselves, which makes this particular rural Marion County site rather unique. A Rock Island/ATSF interlocking tower existed at this remote site decades ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 09:20 by JoCoLB.

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Very nice Larry..
Clarence

Here's a photo of the former interlocker tower at Jacobs Crossing. Date of the picture is unknown. It may date back to the 1920s or earlier. (Photo from the Larry Byers collection)

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SNOOTS!!

I'm guessing at least one of those rods in the lower right operated the signal in the distance. If that is the case, would all 3 of those rods have been used to operate it or would there have been other things they were connected to?

Different seasonal impact on the tree at the intersection too.

Michael McInerney
Marion, South Australia,

Here is that UP 8702 nowadays, as the WRIX 8702, working for the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad based out of Cheney, WA. Here it is just east of Geiger Jct on 8/30/14.

Drew Mitchem
Centralia, WA

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Thanks for the update, Drew. Always interesting where the older units wind up.

I'm not sure the reason for the young ladies standing on the tower stairs/ Since the girls are in their fashionable dresses, it could have been they were merely posing, possibly on Easter Sunday. There was formerly a rural church just down the road. I acquired this snapshot from an elderly Ramona woman years ago. I didn't think to ask her about the young girls, who might have been her daughters or sisters. Maybe there was a family connection to the tower operators. The woman who shared the photo knew I was interested in antique railroad photos and she allowed me to make a copy.

Also looks like a lot of potential safety hazards at the foot of the stairs, including no hand rails or sidewalk leading to the structure. OSHA wasn't around in those days. The ATSF and Rock Island apparently didn't have liability concerns.

Larry,
Did you get a close up of the Plaque on the middle engine in the first pic.? upkpfan

upkpfan Wrote:
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> Larry,
> Did you get a close up of the Plaque on the middle
> engine in the first pic.?

Here is a photo of the sign on the 9407.

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Thanks upkpfan & BNSF6400. I need to look closer at the engines. I could have raced to Herington for a closeup.

JoCoLB Wrote:
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> Thanks upkpfan & BNSF6400. I need to look closer
> at the engines. I could have raced to Herington
> for a closeup.

I don't know if these signs are even still on the locomotives, I don't remember seeing one in a long time.

These are old engines and probably storied someplace and not out on the road anymore. Thank you for the close up. upkpfan

Which one was Jacob? The girls are obvious clones of Phoebe Snow and have migrated to the Great Plains. Soon to be dirtied by bituminous and oil smoke!
Gonut

I've got a picture of the 9407 from a couple of years ago in Roseville, CA. It still had the plaque on it then and I saw a unit going through Roseville two weeks ago that had a plaque on it too but I didn't have my camera ready and noticed it too late to try and chase it and get a unit number or picture.

AL Bayer

I've been out to this spot once before, and it's a helluva trek just to get out there. About half a mile from either road. And I happened to be out there the one time MoW had authority over the stretch from the west yard throat out to the siding near Canton. Cool pics of the area. I plan to hit some of this subdivision during the summer, so maybe I'll get a chance to hit this spot again.