Western Railroad Discussion > Kansas & Oklahoma 4001 at Albert, KS, 24 June 2020

Kansas & Oklahoma 4001, GP40-2, and 3827 were tied down at Albert, Kansas, 24 June 2020.  The 75-car empty grain train came from Great Bend, KS, and was headed west to Towner, Colorado.  Next day train ran from Albert to Scott City, KS, where it tied up on the former Missouri Pacific line just east of the Scott City diamond.

NO sound video with view of house at Albert, KS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/20 04:21 by cozephyr.

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One of my favorite branches that I worked in the late 60's-70's to the mid 80's.  We called it Bucky Land, after the name of the Conductor who moved to Great Bend to work this job.  Most of us worked this job when our seniority allowed until we could move to the mainline jobs between Newton and Dodge City.

Kansas & Oklahoma 4001 west with 75-car unit grain empty from Great Bend, Kansas, headed for Towner, Colorado.  Thunderstorm was moving in 24 June 2020 and crew tied down the train at Albert, KS-crew had reached their hours of service.

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Great images including the Kansas boomers.

BB

Thanks for sharing your photos!!

Can someone verify the routing, west from Wichita to Great Bend, then where does it get onto the old Mopac for the trip to Towner?  Who do they interchange with at Towner?  Great to see this line saved and back in service!

thanks,

Dan in Wichita

My deceased fathr-in-law, Mike Hurley, was a west-end SF trainman @ Newton 1947-1986. I recall him talking of working the branches out there when he could not hold a job that went on duty in Newton

superfleet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can someone verify the routing, west from Wichita  to Great Bend, then where does it get onto the old  Mopac for the trip to Towner?  Who do they
> interchange with at Towner?  Great to see this  line saved and back in service!
>
> thanks,
>
> Dan in Wichita

Routing is as follows Dan:
1)  Old Mop from Wichita to Hutch. 
2)  At Hutch the ATSF parrelled the Mop to Sterling. Before the K&O formed the lines were combined into joint trackage and the other line was abandoned. i believe it was the Mop side of the line that was abandoned.
3) At Sterling the ATSF line continued northwest to Great Bend.  The Mop headed north here to Geneseo.
4) At Great Bend the line splits with the northwest direction being towards Scott City.  The southwest direction originally went to Kinsely with the arc from Hutchinson - Great Bend - Kinsely being the original ATSF mainline across Kansas later superseded by the current mainline that BNSF uses.
4) At Scott City is the old Mop Pueblo-Hoisington-KC mainline. 
5)  The K&O runs west on that line into Colorado. (They also run Northeast to Healy from Scott City)
6)  The Towner line as it is now called was initially owned the by state of Colorado.  A&K scrap bought it and "operated" it for years.  They started to do some scrapping without permission.  A long fight ensued and it was recently sold. Towner is the farthest west that K&O operated but I heard they were going to run even farther as the line is reopened as a contractor for the new owner.
7) Of interest K&O's line from Sterling north to Geneseo also joins the old Mop Mainline.  They run west out of Geneseo to McCracken.  Everything east of Genesseo and between McCracken and Healy has been abandoned.

The K&O has a nice map on their website.  Check it out here: https://www.watcocompanies.com/services/rail/kansas-and-oklahoma-railroad-ko/

Mark