What is the history of the rail line that parallels Highway 69 in South of Tulsa in OK. It looks like UP RR now, is it former KATY or MOPAC? Whatever it is, the owning railroad did a upgrade of it's CTC, brand new hooded tricolor CTC signals facing both directions for most of the line that was visible from the highway. If I had to guess it's the former Kansas City to DFW line of either MOPAC or KATY.
MKT until you get into towns like Muskogee which become a mix of MKT, MoP and SLSF
UPRR Wichita Division/ Cherokee Sub MKT blt. 1869-72 (US-69 caused multiple line changes in that area "south of Tulsa")
Speaking of OK.. What’s going on these days with UP’s ex-RI line through the state? Never had time to check it out.
Enid Sub (Home of the world famous Enid Can Opener) or Oklahoma City Sub?
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mudchicken Enid Sub (Home of the world famous Enid Can Opener) or Oklahoma City Sub? Feed Da Bridge: https://www.facebook.com/TheEastMaineBridge
Both
Thanks for the feedback.
From Muskogee the Katy went straight South and paralelled US HW 69. You can see a lot of the track (UP now) from the highway. The MP curved to the SE away from Muskogee.
Northtowne
Ahh, yes, the East Maine bridge. That made the paper a number of times and caused the division MoW surfacing gang to come up (or down) to realign the track. One time it was hit and the MTM said that hit put the bridge back in position! They still had to do a realignment.
I drove under through there a number of times, albiet with my S10 pickup or UPRR Astro van. The height was clearly marked, but...
One particular picture I recall a van trailer with about 2/3 of its body owrk accordianed back and the bed and frame jammed up with its nose against the bottom of the bridge. Apparently, it just ripped it off the fifth wheel of the semi tractor. The photo included the "driver" (steering wheel holder?) just standing there staring while the police were writing their report.
SD60MAC9500 Speaking of OK.. What’s going on these days with UP’s ex-RI line through the state? Never had time to check it out.
Late to the party with this but...
The Enid sub still sees 8-10 trains a day on average, though that number can fluctuate wildly on any given day. You can usually count on a:
M-WTFW (manifest between Wichita and Ft. Worth)
M-FWWT
A pair of Dolese rock trains
A pair of auto trains
(note the above two trains are often combined)
After that, look for a random mix of grain trains, frac sand trains, coal (usually northbound empties), ethanol, and the occasional windmill train. Grain trains pick up in the summer, frac sand trains (which were booming for awhile) have markedly decreased. The Enid local may often be disguised as a rock train or auto train too. Further, PSR has changed all of the above so it's not uncommon to see what once might have been a 60-car M train running daily turned into a 120-car train running every other day (often appearing as two trains tacked together so the power of the second train appears as mid-train DPU)
bigwally SD60MAC9500 Speaking of OK.. What’s going on these days with UP’s ex-RI line through the state? Never had time to check it out. Late to the party with this but... The Enid sub still sees 8-10 trains a day on average, though that number can fluctuate wildly on any given day. You can usually count on a: M-WTFW (manifest between Wichita and Ft. Worth) M-FWWT A pair of Dolese rock trains A pair of auto trains (note the above two trains are often combined) After that, look for a random mix of grain trains, frac sand trains, coal (usually northbound empties), ethanol, and the occasional windmill train. Grain trains pick up in the summer, frac sand trains (which were booming for awhile) have markedly decreased. The Enid local may often be disguised as a rock train or auto train too. Further, PSR has changed all of the above so it's not uncommon to see what once might have been a 60-car M train running daily turned into a 120-car train running every other day (often appearing as two trains tacked together so the power of the second train appears as mid-train DPU)
The Dolese rock trains originate from their Richards Spur quarry just north of Lawton and supply their stone yards in Enid, Yukon and OKC Midtown. Until very recently, the Enid trains were 100 car unit trains that generally showed up at about 6 a.m. 2-3 times per week depending on demand. UP pulled them onto Dolese's loop and left them for the Dolese crew to unload. When they were done (about 9-10 hours depending on the weather). they contacted UP to pick up the empties and return them to Richards Spur for the next job. I'm not sure why, but UP will no longer leave the power on the train while Dolese unloads it.
As for the other 2 Dolese locations, UP will drop the cars at Chickasha where they will be added to trains headed to OKC.
When I saw the name Muskogee, Frisco immediately came to mind. We never got to OK or TX but knew the names of the towns Frisco served. Sapulpa, Okmulgee are two that come to mind, and if I did not spell them correctly, I apologize. Been a long time since I heard those names.
And Ada, OK where I went to college, and Madill near the TX border.
I've seen BNSF running the former Frisco Rock trains through Propser and into North Dallas suburbs as well. They are pretty frequent still.
They changed out a lot of rail the past two years between Vinita and Muskogee, all the old rail was chopped up and hauled out by truck...........
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
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RadioTech mudchicken Enid Sub (Home of the world famous Enid Can Opener) or Oklahoma City Sub? Feed Da Bridge: https://www.facebook.com/TheEastMaineBridge Ahh, yes, the East Maine bridge. That made the paper a number of times and caused the division MoW surfacing gang to come up (or down) to realign the track. One time it was hit and the MTM said that hit put the bridge back in position! They still had to do a realignment. I drove under through there a number of times, albiet with my S10 pickup or UPRR Astro van. The height was clearly marked, but... One particular picture I recall a van trailer with about 2/3 of its body owrk accordianed back and the bed and frame jammed up with its nose against the bottom of the bridge. Apparently, it just ripped it off the fifth wheel of the semi tractor. The photo included the "driver" (steering wheel holder?) just standing there staring while the police were writing their report.
Johnny
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