May 30, 2015
BNSF Thayer Sub, South and North
Memphis - Springfield, MO

by Dave Ingles

If you consider the four BNSF routes that converge on Springfield, Mo., formerly home to a big Frisco yard, car shop, diesel shop, and so forth, in today’s world the traffic patterns have changed, in that if you begin with the Thayer Sub to Memphis (now split into 2 Subdivisions, Thayer North and Thayer South) and work clockwise, traffic density diminishes at each step.

Second in volume is the Cherokee Sub to the southwest, to Tulsa; third is the Fort Scott Sub, northwest to Kansas City; and fourth is the Cuba Sub, northeast to St. Louis. If my volume assumptions are correct, the twofold reason is simple: intermodal and coal. The Thayer Sub(s) handle a large volume of both, the coal coming from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming thru Kansas City, bound for Memphis and points beyond, many on the other Southeastern Class 1s. BNSF’s large volume of intermodal (mostly double-stacks) traffic from the Pacific coast leaves the “Transcon,” the old Santa Fe, at Avard, Okla., and goes on the ex-Frisco via Tulsa and Springfield to Memphis, site of a large intermodal facility at Tennessee Yard, and/or beyond to Birmingham (and some to interchange there). The Cuba Sub to St. Louis, once home to Frisco’s best varnish (Texas Special and Meteor), sees comparatively little traffic these days.

Our circle trip’s 2nd day began at Memphis’s Central Station, where at 8:20, well before departure, I climbed down for an early-morning sunlit view of our back end. To be candid, the high humidity and my sore knees kept me from bothering with walking south to better my head-end view from the evening before. (Had we had an Amtrak “heritage” unit, I probably would’ve toughed it out.)

A headlight soon appeared to the south on the CN (IC) passenger main, unusual since virtually nothing uses this track at this point except Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans,” already gone south. (Local customers on the route are served from Woodstock, to the north, I believe.) Turns out it was a three-unit set heading into the depot for this day’s Train Day display: CN 2007 (ex-UP), IC 1000, its first SD70; and R.J. Corman high-nose GP9 9009. (Corman switches for UP at Gavin in West Memphis, Ark., and has the Tennessee Terminal, a 47-mile short line from Memphis to Olive Branch, Miss. Corman’s “Memphis Line” is far from Memphis, using an old L&N name for that short line out of Guthrie, Ky.)

BNSF had informed us that they did not want us on the main line until 9 a.m., so we pulled forward at 8:50, crossing the UP and BNSF mains to CN Jct. and backing around the east wye onto the BNSF from 9:02 to 9:06. Meanwhile, a westbound UP freight (pipe on flatcars visible in photo), led by 4576/4016 (an old Big Boy number!), crossed the CN, headed for Arkansas. We crossed the river bridge beginning a 9:13, going over to Bridge Jct. and holding from 9:15–9:24 for the UP man to clear. You’ll note that the earlier sunlight had succumbed to overcast, and we would run through rain before midday and the afternoon once again turned partly cloudy, before clouding up again for good approaching Springfield. It was a good day to be on a train.

We crossed the UP at 9:25 and stopped briefly out at Harvard again, 9:38-9:40, where I shot 2042, one of the ex-EMD leaser GP38s still in blue but lettered BNSF, even though a container well hid its trucks, and then beyond over at UP’s facility, a GE/EMD pair, 7235/4383.

At 9:52 we passed River Jct., which we’d come off of the evening before, bound up the Thayer (South) Sub, which many of us had ridden in 1994 on the epic 4-day steam trip behind Frisco 4-8-2 1522 from St. Louis to Springfield, Memphis, and Birmingham en route to the NRHS national convention in Atlanta. The Thayer Sub siding here is Madlock, but the community on the River Sub just north of the junction is Turrell. Waiting on the wye connection to follow us north (northwest by compass) was a freshly emptied coal train led by 5764/6278 with a single-unit DPU visible way in the distance on the River Sub. This coal train was the first of what turned out to be 22 BNSF trains we would encounter today on this busy piece of railroad.

We soon encountered rain, visible along paralleling highway U.S. 63, about 10 a.m., chasing us inside from Caritas’s rear platform.

An hour or so later, we reached Jonesboro, at 67,000 the only sizeable community between our end points this day. At 10:55 we were routed onto the passing track there, sometimes out of sight of the main on the right-of-way of predecessor Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern. (Those of you who remember 1960s shortline steam might recall the two 2-8-0s of the Mississippian Railway, which connected to the Frisco at Amory; those Consols were built for the JLC&E.) On the main waiting for us to clear was an eastbound local, with 5 cars and BN caboose 12385 behind Santa Fe-painted GP38 2845. Jonesboro is also on two UP main routes, one each MoPac and Cotton Belt, and by the old SSW yard office, on tracks parallel to our route, was a pair of blue GMTX leaser GP38s. We cleared Jonesboro at 11:07, and 21 miles and 23 minutes later crossed UP’s ex-MoPac main, also the Amtrak “Texas Eagle” route, at Hoxie. Visible far off to the south in my photo as we crossed the diamonds is a headlight of a northbound UP freight. UP runs as directional trackage in these parts, on MP north and SSW south.

At Hogan, Milepost 386 (from Kansas City), we overtook BNSF 5071 North, a mixed-merchandise freight I believe to be an MEMKCK (Memphis–Kansas City), waiting for us in the siding, with 1 NS and 3 more BNSF GEs trailing the 5071. We would overtake this same train the next day at Fort Scott, Kans., 289 miles and 23½ hours hence! This was also the first of 21 freights occupying 20 of the 21 sidings between Hoxie and Springfield! That figure includes Thayer as 3 sidings, owing to two main tracks extending 5 miles through that division point.

Five miles further, at Imboden, the next siding, we spent 20 minutes meeting two southbounds: a coal load with 6659/8174 up front (not pictured) and DPUs 8944/6232/9604 on the rear (pictured), then a double-stack with four GEs up front, the rear unit being 8174, and no DPU.

We left Imboden at 12:22and at Williford, the next siding 11 miles later, met the 6311 South, a coal load symboled BKMMHS with 5972 as second unit and two-unit DPU 6030/6098 on the rear, of which we took no photos. (A rail employee passenger obtained a lineup sheet from one of our departing crewmen at Thayer, from which we are trying to translate train symbols, not knowing most of the coal-mine ones.) At Baker, the next siding 4 miles further north, a 3-unit double-stacker waited for us. At King, 11 miles on north, was another stack train, the 6733 South, a Clovis (N.Mex.)–Memphis symbol (CLOMEM); we took no photos of either of these stackers. They put our train count (overtook or met) at 8 for the day as we crossed from Arkansas into Missouri and pulled into Thayer for a crew change at 1:33 p.m. This small town of 2,200 was laid out in 1882 as a railroad division point, which it continues to be. We sat 10 minutes at our stop, facing our 9th train, a coal load (ATMDAM) with 6249/6310 on the front and DPU 9037/5784/9152 on the rear.

After we left the Thayer crew change and rolled thru what amounts to the yard, we passed this SDMAC, 9982, apparently either a bad-order setout or a “protect” unit for one of the many coal trains thru here. Next we passed the three-unit DPU at the rear end of the coal load 6249 South. We seemed to be plagued this day by the rear unit of most DPUs being pointed forward.

Thayer yard office is at MP 339.8, and just to the west is CP3378, a crossover, north of which sat 5845/9386 South, another BKMMHS coal load, with DPUs 5545/9155.

At Koshknong siding, 4 miles beyond the multiple tracks thru Thayer, we overtook a northbound vehicle train, 7479 North, waiting for us to pass, at 2 p.m. Note the new turnout at “Kosh North.”

Between “Kosh” and Winn, the next siding at MP 321, I photographed some of the wonderfully engineered and maintained Thayer Sub right of way. Note the deep ballast and concrete ties, which allowed us 60 mph and gave us a smooth ride. That’s an advantage privately held BNSF has over competitors — it can plow as much money as it wants back into its physical plant without much worrying about what Wall Street thinks. Note also the old lineside electric line with its triangular metal “poles,” which I remember from the 1994 steam-powered ride. Of course back then the signals here were all searchlights, and many of the passing sidings didn’t yet exist. The pictured detector is at MP 325.3, which we passed at 2:10. All in all, although it was “old mileage,” the Thayer Sub was the most memorable segment of this trip, with all the trains, the wonderful physical plant, and the expedient dispatching (and yeah, part of that was probably, “Get this passenger train off my railroad.”.

Waiting on us, and maybe 7479 North too, at Winn at 2:15 was a coal load, BTMMHK (BTM being Black Thunder Mine, Wyo., I think), with 8460/9516 up front and a Grinstein green trio of SDMACs, 9698/9790/9419, as DPU. Judging from the wide track-centers, Winn seems to be a “recent” siding.

West Plains siding, only 3.7 miles timetable north of Winn, held a 4-unit southbound stack train that I didn’t photograph, but 7 miles further on, at Olden siding, the sun was out, the north switch curve was nice, and we waited for 7 minutes for this freight, 5789/8213/4329 South, with a string of trilevels up front, to get out of our way. I photographed some of the cars as the train passed, and we were under way again at 2:52. For anyone interested in chasing this line by car, U.S. 63 (Memphis–Willow Springs) and U.S. 60 (Willow Springs–Springfield, much of them 4-lane, closely parallel the line, even tho from the train it seemed we were out in the boondocks.

Willow Springs, at MP 294, was the only siding to lack a train, as we passed at 3:10 p.m. Sargent siding, 8 miles further north, held 7657 South, a mixed-freight merchandiser, but I took no pictures. We passed it at 3:22, or significantly on a 24-hour clock, “1522.” Cabool siding, MP 278, had a southbound coal load with two units up front and a three-unit DPU, but again, no photos. Six miles further was the town of Mountain Grove, where we encountered our only real “delay,” but no complaints, as we had to wait for a local freight to finish switching a customer west of the passing siding before it pulled alongside of us, to do more switching but in the clear for us. We entered Mountain Grove siding at 3:42pm, stopped 4 minutes later, and departed at 4:16. How that local ever wedged itself back into the “parade” I do not know; its origin/destination was not discussed. He had the 2638/3197, the latter in Santa Fe blue, but apparently no caboose.

At Norwood, 8 miles north of Mountain Grove, another coal load sat waiting for us, with 6222/6074 up front and three units as DPU, 6424/unknown/8856; running thru the siding, we passed him, our18th train of the day, at 4:30.

At Locke, I took only a slide of the front of 6634/9912 South, another coal load with a three-unit DPU, 8255/CITX 14xx/8780, which we cleared at MP 252 at 4:44. Between Locke and Cedar Gap, 8 miles, since the sun came out a bit more, I shot some of the rock cuts we passed thru, running on top of a ridge with quite a drop to the south. The first, deep cut, is under a county road bridge.

We met a southbound merchandiser at Cedar Gap, MP 243.7, at 5 p.m. with a nice mixed diesel consist of BNSF 7723/CSX 3185/NS 2644, off-line units being the exception both this day and on Friday.

At Diggins, MP 233.2, we ran thru the siding as we met a stack train with 8287/7232 and no DPU, at 5:15. That’s U.S. 60, now alongside us, at the right. Note the sky is darkening once again. Springfield itself, 30 miles ahead, was dark and misty all evening and all night. We would meet one more train, our 22nd of the day, at Rogersville, 17 miles out of Springfield, at 5:45, BNSF 9302 South with two more units and a mixed feight consist, but after the Diggins meet, I put the camera away.

We proceeded thru eastern Springfield, turning north for about 3 miles to enter the Cuba Sub from St. Louis at a junction called Teed a 6:12, and went right on west into the yard, tying up on “the business car track” at an area now cleared out of building including the old Frisco diesel shop, at 6:33. Water and truck access for septic clean-out were available here, north across the remaining yard tracks from the yard office, virtually the only building we could see. We were too far west of the old shop area, where a number of units were parked, to photograph from the train, and the mist and dark skies weren’t conducive to walking back within photo range. Tomorrow would bring the new mileage.

 
 

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