Nostalgia & History > MoPac Monday: Joe Ball

Channeling my inner santafe199 here with some low-light photos from Kansas. Not high quality mind you, but they capture a moment in time. During my short stay at Atchison in 1979, MoPac ran it's Kansas CIty Neff to St Joseph MO via Atchison at night. They were number 173 and 174. I have not found evidence that I captured 173, but documented northbound 174 at least twice. They were called "Joe Balls" in honor of MoPac's late, great "Red Ball" freight operations.

1) MP 2305 leads 174 past the Missouri River Bridge operators cabin at Atchison KS enroute to St Joe in September 1979. A train order signal can be seen but I don't recall an operator on duty. Evidently the operators prefer Pepsi as the porch has a large stack of bottle racks. BN, ATSF and MP trains all use the bridge at this time.
2 & 3) On another trip in October 1979, MP 1670 leads 174 around the curve and on to the Missouri River bridge. 

The building still stands, but I'm not aware of any purpose for the Missouri River bridge at this time. The CB&Q and MoPac shared a line east of the bridge to Armour MO. It's been fully abandoned. ATSF and CRIP shared a line east of the bridge to St Joseph. I believe Rock Island used a car handling agreement with BN by the late 70's, but that could be incorrect.  ATSF and BN have merged and the ATSF line from Topeka to Atchison is gone. The MoPac is now Union Pacific. It now uses BNSF trackage rights from Kansas City to St Joseph on the the Missouri side of the river.

Bob
Omaha

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/23 14:01 by King_Coal.

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King_Coal Wrote: > ... Channeling my inner santafe199 (NO caps!!) here ...
Ah yes... exercising the "Art of Darkness"... ;^)

> ... I'm not aware of any purpose for the Missouri River bridge at this time ...
Last I heard the west end of that bridge can be used as the "east leg of a WYE" maneuver...

Lance

Wow. Fantastic shots of a once really neat area. Really like seeing the high nose units and in the last shot the MoP style switch stand target
Brian Stevens

Posted from iPhone

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Last I heard the west end of that bridge can be
> used as the "east leg of a WYE" maneuver...

That's my understanding too from a visit to Atchison some years ago, and a chat with a crew doing some switching. 

Thanks for these images. I spent an interesting afternoon in Atchison, and these bring back some good memories.

MC