Nostalgia & History > Ghosts of the MKT in Emporia

I caught a little blast-from-the-past the last time I was in my old Santa Fe employment town of Emporia, KS. The MKT’s Parson ~ Junction City branch was abandoned & gone around 1958. This was largely because of needed construction of the Council Grove & John Redmond reservoirs for flood control after the devastating Great Flood of 1951 in Kansas. So I was happy to catch the scenes below, plus one from 1981. This trackage is still used by the BNSF (nee Santa Fe) to serve the huge Bunge Elevator complex just north of NR Jct on the east side of town. The old MKT Emporia depot once stood somewhere in the right hand side of all 3 images.

1. & 2. Dual views of BNSF 3031 sitting on the ex-MKT line
Photo date: October 27, 2017.

3. AT&SF 2250 with 3 hoppers on October 18, 1981. (image previously posted)
All photos looking south from E 9th St in Emporia, KS.

Thanks for remembering!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/22 00:54 by santafe199.

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That third shot is priceless, and says so much about Santa Fe Railroading in the 80's.

You definetly know who's railroad it is!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/17 09:57 by Fiftyfooter.

Well now you've done it. My (self-assigned) homework for the night is to dig thru an old Official Guide to follow this former MKT route.

Rathole Wrote: > ... follow this former MKT route ...

Early in my Santa Fe train service days my Dad used this branch line to play a trick on me. He was aware of my deep interest in Santa Fe's rich passenger history. So he told me he once rode a passenger train through Emporia. I started guessing every Santa Fe named train I could think of. At every guess all I got from him was a jeering "WRONG!" After he let me stew for several moments he finally told about his induction into the US Army/Air Force in 1946. With Uncle Sam picking up the fare, he rode the UP from Manhattan to Junction City. He changed trains AND railroads and rode the MKT down to Parsons =through Emporia=. At Parsons he changed trains again for the final leg into San Antonio, TX. Of course he couldn't remember the individual train numbers, but I was fascinated at this small bit of railfanning intelligence gleaned from my non-railfan father... :^)

Lance

Great story; my dad was not a fan either but he a sharp memory with regard to time of day and RR when it came to travel, especially during the war as he made a lot of trips between KC, New Orleans, Houston and the deep south like Mobile, Demopolis, Pensacola etc. building and staffing redi-mix plants as he worked for a cement company(Lone Star) that had rec'd a lot of contracts from the WPB, building out the harbor facilities at Mobile was one of the largest jobs they got. I've spent a lot of time with OG's looking up the train's and roads etc. and am now after the fact just interested in the railroads involved.
Pete

santafe199 Wrote:
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> The old MKT Emporia depot once stood somewhere in the right hand side of all 3 images.

My father-in-law said he remembers what he thought was the MKT depot being just south of 6th St / Old US 50. The route heading SE out of town is still fairly visible, as well as the nearby ATSF Howard Branch.

Looks like the end of track in the second picture has been challenged a time or two.