Nostalgia & History > few for Toto . . .

. . on an August '72 trip east from CA ATSF100WEST and I stopped in Paola, KS for a few hours prior to the arrival of a nasty Kansas thunder storm. Paola lies about 45 miles south of Kansas City, KS and was the junction of the MKT, MP and SLSF. SLSF and MKT used the same rails from Kansas City to Paola then went their separate ways SLSF heading for Springfield and Tulsa, MKT heading due south for Parsons while MP crossed both on the way to Osawatamie and points south and west. Needless to say this was a pretty awesome junction located in town and just like almost all junctions back then totally accessable and with excellent variety.
top: southbound MP local.
middle: (northbound) westbound SLSF train.
bottom: last train before heading for the hills MKT southbound.
JB

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What a great set of pictures! Thanks for sharing!

So that's what railfan heaven is like...

-Ryan

Cool stuff, especially that Mopac RS............

Rich O

A Fantastic Series! I stopped by Paola in 1984 and it was still a great place to watch trains with tons of variety. Since your visit in 1972, Burlington Northern replaced the Frisco, MKT was still hanging in there but with John Deere green replacing the red and MOP blue was being rapidly replaced with Union Pacific. A fourth railroad had showed up with Rio Grande getting trackage rights over the MOP headed towards Kansas City after the MOPUP merger in 1982. Everything you shot in 1972 was long gone, Thanks for sharing!

Super excellent JB--I never got to see any MoP RS units in Salina and Katy was always best in red. Thanks for being there to preserve the images.
Brian Stevens

Thanks for the memories Joe.

Bob

Great exposure on the Katy, JB! My movies would show how dark it really was when the train showed up. At Paola, I sat in the truck melting, which resulted in me missing a few (thanks to the the dang mosquitoes), which mistook me for a catering truck!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out