Born in '51, watched trains from my 1st grade classroom at Sequoyah elementry school which sat adjacent to the 'Midland valley' main line and paralelled the Frisco's line to the east side of Muskogee Ok. This line serviced numerous industrial areas, which 'Brock Way Glass', now named OI, is still serviced today by the BNSF which has right of way over UP's Tulsa to Muskogee line.
A coal train comes twice a week to the Georgia Pacific plant and the Dal Tile plant which is south of town.
At one time, there where six separate railroads in Muskogee Oklahoma, and there is still a coaling tower still standing for the missouri pacific line now gone. It's ROW a hiking trail now.
I also had to cross these tracks and on many occasions had to wait for the covered wagons to pull thier line of cars past so I could go on home from school.
We would ride out bikes to the missouri pacific and Katy crossing on the north side of muskogee, and watched the Katy flyer (?) from st louis and or dallas.
Today I live on ten acres of land, to the west is the Choctaw sub of the UP, and the east (3 miles) is the Cherokee sub of the UP, coming from Arkansas to Kansas. These two cross at wagner Oklahoma.