Fencing

I found this great post over at Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine on James McNabb's fencing project that is worth sharing and saving: Don't Fence Me In.  The results are great and the price is right.

Rail Waybill Data

In a follow up to my musing in the Carthage Marble post about researching commodity flows, I came across a modern-day data set called the Public Use Waybill Sample provided by the STB.  The data files themselves are large and in record format that can be deciphered using this guide.  I'll play around with one to see what it might provide.   Microsoft Excel should prove handy for splitting the data file into usable fields.

==edit==
Parsing this data with the MSExcel Text Import Wizard is quite error prone, but it worked for a quick test.  The file is longer than my outdated version of Excel can handle (>65535 rows).  For the previously posed question about cut stone products, there is an Standard Commodity Code (STCC) series for it (328**), but in what I managed to open of the 2011 sample, there was only a single 32819 Clay Stone Products shipped in a trailer on a single unit flat car.

==edit==

The STB website only has the previous 11 years (starting with 2011) of data accessible.  I've seen references to this data existing as far back as 1986, and for $80 USD, the 1988 to 1992 data is available on CD-ROM.   I also found a good reference for AAR car types.

Fairgrounds Branch

Finally got connected up with the Frisco.org website (spam filter stole my activation email), and already found more detail on the line, including that it was actually named the Fairgrounds Branch.

Quoting from a post on the Frisco.org website, there's a ton of detail:

The Fairgrounds Branch (also known as (aka) "the Hill") was an interesting industrial switching area near West 31st Street and Southwest Boulevard, close to the state line border of Kansas and Missouri. In the Frisco's Kansas City Terminal Industry Schematics it is known as part of the 29th Street Industrial Area, Zone 3.

The branch is located between the Frisco's Rosedale and 19th Street Yards. It starts at 29th Street Interlocking, under the I-35 overpass behind Ponak's Mexican Restaurant, curves southwest across Southwest Boulevard, passes and serves Schutte Lumber, starts uphill climbing across 31st Street, turns generally southeast and parallels Roanoke Road.

Climbing out of the Turkey Creek valley (prone to flooding) the line climbs in vertical elevation 80 feet in just under 1 mile. Close to the end of the line, after crossing West 34th Street, it stub ends near Karnes Boulevard. From here there is a switchback uphill to serve additional industries to the northwest that again climbs and runs on either side of Terrace Street.

In addition to the really neat area area around Schutte Lumber (with several switch backs and tracks inside lumber sheds) industries along the line included the Garfield Team Track, Paper Supply Company, Carthage Marble, W. C. Tingle, Pacific Mutual Door Company, Battenfield Grease & Oil Company, Safeway Bakeries, Motor Parts Distributors, Sherwood Chemical Company, Union Carbide, American Mineral Sprits, Southwestern Bell Telephone, U. S. Engineering, Swenson Construction Company, Ftyro Fabricators and Fred Wolferman Groceries.  <edit> Additionally, I've found Columbia Bedding, Fairfax Bread Co., Western Electric, Sherwood & Co, Inc., plus Concrete Building Units Co. on a Sanborn Map updated through 1950. </edit>

Branching off the Fairgrounds Branch in the 29th Street Industrial Area is Zone 4 (aka "the Alley"). This spur takes off to the northeast on the south side of Southwest Boulevard. This line ran in an alley (hence the name) behind the buildings that fronted Southwest Boulevard, across from the Kansas City Terminal (KCT) Railway roundhouse.

Industries served on this line included the American Dish Service Company, Rite-Made Paper Converters, Hubbard's Imperial, Combs & Company, Bartlett Container Corporation, C. S. Tull Transfer, City Wide Brick & Supply Company, Koch Supplies, Roll Easy Door Company, K & K Sheet Metal, Gate City Petroleum (tank farm), Dairy & Creamery Equipment Company, Gresham Company, Anchor Roofing and Siding company, Foreign Car Auto Salvage, Webb Belting & Supply Company, Aero Plastics, American Steel Company (with overhead transverse crane), Texaco, Inc., Corbin Equipment Company, Hill Building Materials Company, A.P. Green Fire Brick Company, Skelly Oil Company, Roberts Furniture Company, Jianas Brothers Candy Company, R. L. Faubion Steel and Tank Company, Flint Ink Company and Funkhouser Machinery Company (including an end loading ramp).

Today only a short spur remains from the 29th Street Interlocking to serve Schutte Lumber. Many of the buildings, signs of track in streets and some of the original businesses listed above remain. This would be a great area to model in a relatively small space as it featured a great number of industries in a relatively small space, most types of freight cars served the different customers and would need only a switcher or two for power.

 That last sentence of the original post sums up what I'm aiming for.  Now I have some company names to continue research on and narrow down an era when most of them might've still been receiving rail service.

<<edit>> Corrected W.C. Triangle to W.C. Tingle, a flooring supply company.

Inspiration

Though I've not actually started construction, I've come across a number of really good resources for ideas on other blogs and sites I've been following.

One of the more active ones is Greg Amer's Industrial Lead; I've been enjoying the posts about creating high-quality handlaid track.  Very good and detailed information even if I don't make the leap all the way to Proto87.

Also, Charles Hostetler's CNW in Milwaukee is another of my favorites, firstly because his modeling efforts are on Milwaukee, so I can relate to the locations, and secondly, he does deep and thorough research.  The series about the prototype waybills is interesting to follow -- A late model railroader friend of mine had created software to replicate those waybills and some of the car routing associated with them.

Tour the Line

Thanks to Google Maps and Street View, I can see a good portion of the line from 550 miles away.

Overview map showing relationship of all locations
1) Genesse St looking south towards Rosedale Yard remnants
2) Genesse St looking north at where the spur diverged (to the right behind red Mexican restaurant)
3) Southwest Blvd looking mostly south at a former warehouse
4) Southwest Blvd looking mostly south at Schutte Lumber Company
5) Schutte Lumber Company from 31st Street
6) Pacific Mutual Door Company from 31st Street
7) ROW South from 31st Street, the spur to PMD was up at a higher elevation
8) Looking northeast from Roanoke Rd, one can see that the ROW was at a higher elevation
9 & 10) Next road access is from 34th Street; looking back north and south
11) The hilly nature of the area looking east from that same 34th Street spot; we'll be up there shortly
12) The ROW briefly appears again between warehouses as viewed again from Roanoke Rd looking east
13) The line ends between two warehouses as viewed from Karnes Blvd.
14) At the tree line in the distance is where a switch back went north along Terrace St.
15) Terrace St had tracks along both sides of the road (looking north now)
16) Top of the hill on 34th Street where it intersects Terrace St.

Spur Identification

With a little web sleuthing, I'm pretty sure I've narrowed the spur line down to the Zone 3 of the Frisco RR's Kansas City Terminal.  I signed up on the Frisco.org and hope that I can get final confirmation of the line's history there.  Additionally, I discovered at least one Sanborn Map of the area from the Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Collection -- though due to copyright restrictions, I can't post it here.

Introduction

Welcome to the online documentation of my railroad modeling efforts.

First, a little background.  I've been active with model trains for nearly 20 years, ranging from assisting my both my father and brother with design and construction of their respective layouts and operating on several fine model railroads across the country.

I owe most of my experience in the hobby to the people in Rail Group in Chicago, IL, a group of serious model railroaders who've fully explored the finer points of operation.

Astute readers will recognize me as the designer and author of a track plan for the Milwaukee Road's Beer Line published in the November 2011 Model Railroader magazine.

My target for what to model used to be practically etched in stone...Clinchfield Railroad in 1972.  A fair portion of the equipment for such a recreation is in storage but the space to do it justice as been elusive.

After having produced the Beer Line design, I've taken quite an interest in smaller switching layouts.  Two prototypes have since caught my interest: 1) Green Bay, WI and 2) Kansas City, MO.   Of course, there are (or were as the case may be) industrial switching prototypes all over the place, but these two have been accessible to me since family lives near each and provides a good reason to visit.

My current focus is on an industrial spur line of the Frisco RR in Kansas City, MO -- hence the name for the blog.  Here's the present day Google Map of the area.  Visible on the map is the intersection of Southwest Boulevard and Liberty St where the spur crossed the road, served a lumber yard and continued southeast curving around the bluffs to server several smaller industries.

More posts on the history of the line as I learn it.