Question about Missouri & Northern Arkansas RR

[Anonymous]

Can anyone help me out here? I live in the Kansas City area and "railfan" as much as possible. I used to see Missouri & Northern Arkansas trains as they came through Independence, Rock Creek Jct., and into Union Pacific's Neff Yard. It's been quite a while since I've seen any. Does anyone know if they still come into KC? Also, did anyone else(in or around KC) see the KCS unit train of Exxon covered hoppers with midtrain helpers a couple weeks back? The cars are still in Gateway Western's(KCS) Mill St. yard. If they were empty, why the need for the helpers?

[Anonymous]

can't help you with the unit train question, but I can tell you the MNA still comes into Neff, everyday. I work for the UP into KC from the west, we see the MNA at Neff all the time. Engines are usually tied up by that big grain elevator/mill along the 2 south mains.

[thirdrail1]

Re: your Exxon unit train. It is more economical to manufacture plastic pellets in large batches, but customers don't want them that way. Customers want only one carload of a specific grade or color at a time. So, the manufacturers will make up a trainload and send it to a storage yard to sit until a customer orders that particular grade or color. In short, those were no doubt loaded cars being "stored in transit" for Exxon. There are plastics storage yards in the Houston area capable of storing several thousand cars!

[Anonymous]

derek, thanks for the info. Now can you retire and let me take your job-Ha-ha. Any clue what time the MNA runs are?

[Anonymous]

Gregg-thanks for the reply and the info. I read the article in Trains several months back about the "Chemical Coast" and the plastic pellets. It should have dawned on me that that's what it was. It was the first time I've ever seen mid-train helpers going into Mill St. Yard as it's just not that big!!

[Anonymous]

Mo Pac used to have a line that ran into Springfield, does anyone know if MNA still uses the route? I thought that they used to, but I hadn't seen it placed on recent maps and I thought that it had been abandoned. Does it still operate?

[Anonymous]

Brian-you may want to ask Derek, he works for UP. Or start your own topic, that may bring a bigger if not quicker response.