Western Railroad Discussion > Arkansas Oklahoma RR ops summary?

I'm planning a trip for next week that, weather permitting, will include at least a couple of days on the AOK. I understand one of their bases of operation to be McAlester, OK, and another to be near Oklahoma City. Can anyone provide further details about when and where they run?

I did get this much a little while ago from fwwr. Thanks! http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,891468,891863#msg-891863

Don't forget about Wilburton on the McAlester-Howe line. It's home to the AOK "World HQ" and is a base for power on that line. There's usually at least something in McAlester though, to switch the UP interchange and the area up on the north side of town (a grain elevator spur I believe?)

Check out Railspot over on Yahoogroups if you get a chance; several Oklahomans over there can probably help you better than I can, especially for the OKC area ops.

On the McAlester line, last I heard, most weekdays they make a run from Wilburton to McAlester and then head back the next day, but there's some business east of Wilburton that must get switched at some point. (Also at least one nice "Rock Island" bridge somewhere east of Wilburton too, in case you catch one out that way.)

I'd be interested to hear how your trip goes! Happy hunting....

Thanks. I've also downloaded a sheet from UP's web site that has some AOK information.

Oh, and while I'm at it, what don't-miss photo locations should I keep in mind? I remember seeing a picture of the OKC operation crossing a river bridge with autoracks -- what else?

P.S. The trip is not a done deal yet. Right now the weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday looks a little iffy, and I'm not a big fan of driving long distances to shoot in crappy weather. But if the outlook doesn't get any worse, I'll probably go. A few thunderstorms is one thing, days of clouds and rain is another. If things do slip, the best alternative right now appears to be to go do the shortlines in the Southeast.

Well, I haven't had a chance to shoot it in action "on the road" yet, on either line, but here are a couple of places I'd *like* to catch it on the McAlester-Howe line:

-- There are a couple of decent shots coming out of McAlester, including at least one place where it looked like a decent "looking down" shot from a bridge could be had

-- In Hartshorne, the tracks run on a "shelf" behind part of the town, just a little bit elevated-- if the vegetation and trees between "downtown" and the tracks haven't bloomed too much yet, it looked like a great shot to be had

-- More bridges to shoot from on either side of Hartshorne,

-- Looked like a pretty nice curve in Wilburton, coming into town from the west

-- Somewhere east of Wilburton (don't remember exactly) there is a bridge with a readable "ROCK ISLAND" in big letters on the side. It's somewhere where the tracks run right alongside US 270. If you're lucky enough to find it and a train in that area, it's what I'd call a MUST DO SHOT!

-- Also east of Wilburton were several areas where grade crossing wedgies could be had with the "highway-sign-style" mileposts that have been installed in that area.

-- Finally, not AOK per se, but in Howe where the line ties into KCS there's a stub of the Rock mainline that goes straight from the connector switch up to the KCS tracks and dead-ends, complete with a couple of Rock Island style circular tri-light signals at the connector switch. These make for some fantastic photo props for afternoon KCS shots if you happen to be in the area and can work them into your shot.

That's about all I can think of for now...I need to get up there and try to catch the AOK in action sometime, if I can ever get a good weekday off from work!
:-)

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Thanks. I've also downloaded a sheet from UP's web
> site that has some AOK information.
>
> Oh, and while I'm at it, what don't-miss photo
> locations should I keep in mind? I remember seeing
> a picture of the OKC operation crossing a river
> bridge with autoracks -- what else?

That would be the bridge over the North Canadian river (renamed the "Oklahoma River" for a few miles inside Oklahoma City) - it's located just east of I-35 on NE 4th. The street crosses the river just north of the bridge, and it's usually possible to park and walk in the normally-dry flood plain to the south side.

Since the McAlester-Wilburton-Howe operation has been mentioned, there's a few places on the Oklahoma City-Shawnee operation. For the most part, it's main purpose is to swtich the GM auto load/unloading facility on the northeast corner of NE 10th and Sooner Road and deliver cuts to the UP's Oklahoma City yard (the old Rock Island Harter Yard). Usually, 2-3 of the B23-7s will be somewhere between the GM yard and the UP yard. If nothing's running, they'll be parked inside the facility.

East of the GM facility, the tracks roughly parallel US 62/NE 23rd to the south, but until Choctaw, there not within sight of the highway. Through Choctaw, the tracks parallel the highway, passing next to the Choctaw Caboose Museum (an old RI wooden caboose) and, as of the last time I was out there, a RI station sign. On the east end of Choctaw, the tracks swing north, and parallel the highway (again, not within sight) to Harrah, where the old RI depot (plus a Santa Fe caboose and a couple of OG&E [Oklahoma Gas & Electric] cars) sits on the west side of the tracks in "downtown". From Harrah to McLoud, the tracks are off in the river bottoms, while the highway (now Oklahoma 270, not to be confused with the US 270 that runs on I-40). From McLoud to Dale, the tracks are alongside the highway for most of the distance through mostly farmland. At Dale, the line can be followed somewhat by using section lines, but it's hit-and-miss all the way to Shawnee.

In Shawnee, the yard office doubles as housing for the manager (it's a doublewide trailer), any power will be tied down outside, and most of the ex RI yard is used for car storage. Operations only go as far as Shawnee Mills, just south of downtown; there's some interesting photo angles with the elevator and mill buildings.

As far as operations, they seem to vary - I haven't caught them on any sort of schedule, but I'm not down that way on weekdays very often. The OKC operation switching autoracks is usually somewhat more active than runs between Shawnee and OKC, though.

As well, the BNSF still runs over the AOK to Shawnee to access a isolated piece of former Santa Fe trackage - the normal pattern was out to Shawnee one day, back to OKC the next. It used to be on a Tues/Wed pattern, but I'm not sure if that's changed recently.

There is quite a lot of abandoned Rock Isl track between Shawnee and McAlester. I remember seeing weed-covered tracks and an abandoned bridge going over a highway (US75). Who owns this track, and what is the chances of it going back into service?

Also, who has a current roster of the AOK? It seems that AOK does a lot of interchange. Here in San Diego there are a few of the Auto-Max autoracks that have AOK marks.

okieinexile Wrote:
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> There is quite a lot of abandoned Rock Isl track
> between Shawnee and McAlester. I remember seeing
> weed-covered tracks and an abandoned bridge going
> over a highway (US75). Who owns this track, and
> what is the chances of it going back into
> service?

That's AOK too, still out of service. Eventually they want to re-activate it though. Perhaps they could move some traffic between the OKC and the KCS connection at Howe once it was open again?

> Also, who has a current roster of the AOK? It
> seems that AOK does a lot of interchange. Here in
> San Diego there are a few of the Auto-Max
> autoracks that have AOK marks.

As far as locomotives go, they have two ex-NS, exx-CR, nee-MGA B23-7R's (Super Sevens) numbered 4093 and 4098, plus former-MidSouth 1050. Also a handful of straight B23-7's of former NS/Conrail heritage.

There's also a blue and yellow high-hood Geep of some sort, I suspect it may be an ex-C&O unit? Also one SW-type that (at least in the past) has usually been around Wilburton, and is in an SCL black and yellow sort of scheme.