Nostalgia & History > MoPac-Katy crash at interlocker at Paola, KS, in 1971

The Missouri Pacific Railroad was apparently at fault in the spring of 1971 when one of its southbound freight trains crashed into a Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) Railroad freight train that was already occupying an interlocker diamond at Paola, KS, in the daylight hours.

There was only relatively minor damage to a few Katy boxcars but the first two locomotive engine units in the MoPac train's four-unit locomotive consist derailed big-time after glancing off the Katy train at a sharp angle. The crew on the MoPac engine were injured but survived the sudden stop. No MoPac cars derailed.

I have no other details. Someone might have a copy of the accident investigation report to learn the final determination of facts in the matter.

It's interesting that today the Union Pacific owns both rights-of-way connected to the '71 crash, since the U.P. acquired both the MoPac and Katy a number of years later.

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Last three pics...

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Looks like the engineer hit the glass. Glad they survived.

North of Paola, two lines, south of Paola, there are three.

The Mop train here would have been on their line from KC, and the diamond in question belonged to the Frisco, now BNSF Fort Scott Sub. The Katy used rights over the Frisco from KC to Paola, and diverged from it just north of the diamond via a connecting track in the west quadrant, briefly accessed the Mop, then branched off on to their own line. So I'm thinking the Mop train was actually across the diamond and nabbed the Katy train at the connector switch south of the diamond. Kinda rusty on the specifics, been 25 years since I foamed down there, take a look at this, choose aerial view:

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAucGFvbGElMmMra3MlN2Vzc3QuMCU3ZXBnLjEmYmI9NTguMTcwNzAyNDgzNDg2MSU3ZS03Mi4xNTgyMDMxMjUlN2UyNC44NDY1NjUzNDgyMTk3JTdlLTEyNy4xNzc3MzQzNzU=


LB wrote:
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> It's interesting that today the Union Pacific owns
> both rights-of-way connected to the '71 crash,
> since the U.P. acquired both the MoPac and Katy a
> number of years later.

I beleave the MKT had a diamond just south of the BN diamond up until the UP took over the MKT then
they replaced the diamond with 2 switch's I have UP Timetable #1 April 28 1985 that shows the MKT
crossing at grade Milepost 326.9 on the Kansas City sub.
Starting with UP Timetable #7 October 29 1989 it no longer shows a diamond.

David

David is correct.

The original post involves the old MoPac-Katy interlocker.

I will have another post shortly concerning a MoPac-Frisco interlocker mishap at Paola that was even worse.

Stay tuned.

tht

Try this link to the DOT special collections library. This is the link directly to the investigation report...if it does not work try going to root of this link and use the search function.

http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads

Thanks for all the posts from my old stomping grounds.

Ted in Houston

Well my bad then, but I'm still not clear on where this other diamond is....did the Katy cross the Mop on ANOTHER diamond just south of the Frisco-Mop diamond? Sure seems odd.....Like I said tho, I haven't been there in years so the memory banks are dusty!

Two diamonds in Paola. (Actually there used to be more...but let's cover that later.)

The Katy came up from the south, crossed the Mopac south of Bull Creek, crossed Bull Creek, then paralled the Frisco on the west for a mile or two. There was also a crossover between the Katy and Frisco near the Peoria St crossing. The portion of Katy between this crossover and the eventual connection north of Paola was called the Long Track. MKT trains got on and off the Frisco either at the start of the Long Track, or at the crossover.

The Frisco crossed the Mopac south of Peoria St and north of Bull Creek.

A southbound Mopac train would first cross the Frisco, then Bull Creek, then the Katy.

After the UP merger, the UP replaced the Katy diamond with connections to the Mopac main.

Ted Ferkenhoff
Houston, TX