FORT SMITH-POTEAU LINE
By H. E. Huber

I can recall, as a train watching teenage boy in Fort Smith especially of the KCS, the summer of 1943 the Ft. Smith-Poteau portion of the Frisco was quite a busy stretch of railroad. Wartime traffic had increased for all lines in Ft. Smith. In May the devastating flood on the Arkansas River washed out the Spiro branch and did some damage to the KCS mainline bridge at Redlands causing trains to be detoured from Poteau via the Frisco to Ft. Smith, thence over the Missouri Pacific to Sallisaw.

The Frisco had heavy traffic at this time. In addition to the regular freight and passenger trains Ft. Smith to Paris, Texas, there were solid oil trains off the KCS at Poteau going north, empties coming back, caboose hops both north and south, the Mansfield local to Jenson, Ark., the Midland Valley from Rock Island, OK into Ft. Smith six days a week.

With the washout of the Spiro branch, the Ft. Smith crew with engine 85 started going to Poteau, down each morning and back with the same crew. Then when the MoPac got where they could run trains over the flood-damaged roadbed from Greenwood Junction, Okla. to Ft. Smith, the KCS started the detour move. Power for the move consisted mostly of E3's, E4's and the 800s. No 700s or 900s were used because they were too heavy for the bridges on the detour route.

As I recall, the flood stage at Ft. Smith was around 22 ft. and the river crested at around 45 ft. If you are ever around Ft. Smith you should drive west from Arkoma on the old US Hwy. now Oklahoma State 9A, over the narrow bridge over the Poteau River. Water was at least 7 to 8 ft. above the roadway on the bridge and within 3 to 4 ft. from the lowest top girders. Visualize this much water in the Braden-Peno bottoms and you can see why the KCS did not rebuild the Spiro branch.

Re: File: KCS.101