Nostalgia & History > Kansas City 1951 Flood a few views

The Kaw (Kansas) river flooded in July of 1951, as one of the worst floods in the midwest. Since the railroads almost always follow drainage districts the KC area railroads were heavily damaged. These are in no particular order date wise or location, I have found that the Rock Island Armourdale was photographed more than others. Pictured are from a couple of unknown photographers, my collection KCRW287

  1- from the Inter-City Viaduct looking east over the CGW yard, with the CGW roundhouse on the right.
  2- from the viaduct looking down on the MP bridge over the Kaw, CGW used this bridge to get into/out of KC
  3 I think this was the old 5th Street Viaduct that came off the bluffs. The tall brick building on the left was the old Sunshine Bisquit Company, a KCS Freighthouse in the middle, and the KCS Henning street yard beyond that to the right.

 

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Bet they had to get train loads of journal oil and packing.

  4  At the Santa Fe Argentine Yard looking east from the 42nd Viaduct, mainlines were full of derailed cars, I think the tank car shop on the right was a GATX plant, showing a lot of work to be done.
  5 Taken from the KCT Hi-line track 76, looking at the trestle that 74 & 75 run on, the old 7th Street station would be further  to the right.
  6 The RI Bridge over the Kaw, looking west, this was located north of the 23rd Street bridge close to Kemper Arena, still stands today

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  7 Looking onto the bowl tracks of the RI, from 18th street viaduct
  8 looking back east toward 18th Street. Looks like these cars were completely under water.
  9 Cleaning the deep silt build up from the bowl tracks at Armourdale

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  10 Cleaning out the turntable pit at Armourdale. I wonder if the steam engines were put back into running shape or were they scrapped? the RI was all diesel in 1952??
  11 Armourdale RH clean up.
  12 clean up in the Armourdale tracks.

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  13 Along the KCT Hi-Line tracks, MOP Cyprus yard behind the the cars, work train the distance.
  14 MOP Cyprus Yard, looks like a lot of their merchandise cars met their end here. 
  15 From the 7th Street bridge looking west into the UP Armstrong Yard. The 7th Street Station concrete platform on the left
      
      I hope this wasn't too long, any info is appreciated. KCRW287

 

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What a mess! It's amazing what a molecule of H2O can do, teamed up with several zillions of little partners. NEVER piss Mother Nature off, if you can help it... ;^) I'm from that generation that grew up listening to all the "adults" (parents, aunts & uncles, etc) talking about "the '51 flood"! It was a subject that cropped up all the time. But even with looking at the many photos I have seen from those days I don't think I'll ever truly understand the complete devastation involved...

Lance

KCRW287 Wrote:

> I have found that the Rock Island Armourdale was
> photographed more than others.

There were lots of photos taken at Santa Fe's Argentine Yard too; there just aren't many online:

https://www.larryflinchpaugh.com/s/cc_images/cache_4097395621.JPG

Pages 61-79 of Santa Fe Heritage v.2 are devoted to coverage of the 1951 flood at Argentine using photos from the Kansas State Historical Society, but the only 1951 flood photos of Santa Fe facilities the KSHS has online appear to be from Topeka:

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/210976
https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/220186

Thanks for a very interesting series with a HUGE mess to clean up!

Larry

Fantastic photos! Thanks to those who contibuted to this interesting disaster from years ago.

There are a couple of yard photos that show tank cars off the rails and other types of equipment near them still on the rails.  I wonder if the tank cars, because of their design, were more prone to floating like a boat? Hence a track of derailed tank cars next to a track of boxcars still on the rails.

I must of missed this one on my earlier post, MOP Cyprus yard.

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Thanks for all of the postings.  Never too many.

 

Thanks so much for these. Every railroader in KC, when I was there, had the '51 flood as a reference point.  Devestation of the KC, Kansas Community was equally complete.

Wow!  What a cleanup job that must have been.

< < < I hope this wasn't too long..... > > >
You could have posted 50 more photos of this disaster and I certainly wouldn't be bored!
How long did it take for the railroads to get their passenger trains rolling through KC again? 

OliveHeights Wrote:
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> There are a couple of yard photos that show tank
> cars off the rails and other types of equipment
> near them still on the rails.  I wonder if the
> tank cars, because of their design, were more
> prone to floating like a boat? Hence a track of
> derailed tank cars next to a track of boxcars
> still on the rails.

It never dawned on me before but I was thinking the same thing. Empty sliding door boxcars and coal hoppers aren't water tight so they would tend to flood inside as the waters rose and stay put.   Empty tank cars, being water tight, would react to flooding like a steel ship, although without a power or a rudder, their seaworthiness would not win them any yachting pennants.  

What a ginormous mess.   And the pictures aren't conveying the aroma, either.   Amazing the amount of mud and debris that needed to be removed.

Thanks for sharing these!

- Norm

The Frisco roundhouse and yard was destroyed too.  Unbelievable.  Isn't there a Santa Fe mike in the river somewhere?

After I hired out on the MOP in 1970 I heard a lot flood stories. They said the railroad would pay the regular daily rate to yardmen, clerks,etc that would work in the cleanup. They said it warmed considerably after the flood and the stench from the heat, mud and dead animals was unbelievable.

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The fate of the floating tank cars is very interesting. I don’t think they would have to be empty for this to happen. Fuel is lighter than water so it’s possible they floated fully loaded.

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