KCS MEMORIES
By H. E. Huber

A few recollection of a teenage boy of the KCS branch line operation in Ft. Smith during the 1940's.

Each day the crew went on duty at 7 A.M. and did what switching that was needed, coupled onto their train around 8:30-9 A.M., left for Spiro, OK and was back in Ft. Smith approximately 11-11:30 A.M. I have a July 1942 employee’s timetable and it lists the train Numbers from Ft. Smith to Spiro as second class freight No. 141 and coming back as train No. 142. No. 141 was due to depart Ft. Smith at 8:05 A.M., arriving in Spiro at 8:55 A.M. From Spiro train No. 142 was carded as leaving at 9:30 A.M., arriving at Ft. Smith 10:20 A.M., but I don't ever recall any strict adherence to the timetable. By the way, in 1942 Spiro had continuous telegraph service weekdays, Sundays and Holidays. It had a yard, water, wye and track scales. The mileage Ft. Smith to Spiro was 16.6 miles.

Prior to 1943 the branch line was intact (the flood of 1943 completely washed out the branch line and thereafter, the main line was reached via the Frisco to Poteau, OK). You could always tell their arrival in Ft. Smith by hearing engineer Jack Foster blowing engine 85's whistle one long blast coming across the long trestle west of the Poteau River Bridge. The train then stopped for SF Junction, blowing two long whistles for the crossing. It then pulled up grade with head brakeman, Tommy Moore, riding the pilot of 85 in order for him to run ahead to open the switch to the number three track in the Ft. Smith yards. When the train stopped for SF Junction is when he went from the cab to the pilot.

At this time the Frisco's passenger train to and from Paris, TX used the KCS yards from SF Junction to get to the Union Depot on Rogers Ave. All switches were set and locked for the main line. The train would then proceed on track three until the caboose cleared the main line. The engine would be cut off, then continue through the crossovers just north of South I (eye) St. to get on the main line, back down and couple onto the caboose. While this was being done the Conductor, Dan Roberts and rear Brakeman Bill Brown were bleeding the air off the cars. The train was then pushed across the I St. crossing, and did some switching at the crossovers. Inbound cars for consignee on the lower end of the yards were left there, to be switched later. Cars for customers like C. C. Davis Wholesale Grocery and the LCL merchandise cars for the KCS freight depot were then pushed ahead of the engine to the tracks near the Union Station. I have seen them have 15 or 20 cars coming across all the street crossings with no air brakes at all except on the engine. Head brakeman Bill Brown would be on the roof of the lead car, Dan Roberts would be in the middle of the cut and Tommy Moore next to the engine, all three would be passing hand signals to Mr. Foster. Remember all this when there were no radios. To my knowledge, all the time I spent in the KCS yards, they never did have a street crossing accident. The KCS had a section crew domiciled at Ft. Smith during the 1940's; the section foreman's name was "Deb" McCullough. For moving about the yards and the branch to Spiro they had a motor car with a trailer to haul their shovels, picks, bars, etc. I don't know how well the section car ran on the rails to Spiro, but it had a gasoline engine that would not run properly, and I remember them pushing it more than they rode on it. In the yards they used a hand car velocipede pumper that they called "Old Jerry". The power it took to operate it was of the "Armstrong" variety.

The section crew, in addition to the Ft. Smith yards, had to take care of the branch line to Spiro plus the trackage of the KCS to the Federal Compress and Warehouse on the north side of Ft. Smith. To get to this customer, the KCS had to travel through the Frisco yards, cross the MoPac trackage, down through the furniture district, cross a flood plain of the Arkansas River, then up a grade to the compress, quite a large territory for one foreman and two section hands. Probably not many members of the KCSHS know the KCS had trackage on the north side of Ft. Smith.

Here again, when the train crew switched the "cotton compress" as they called it, cars had to be ahead of the engine. There were no tracks that they could run around the cars, once they got there. They were all 50' boxcars but this time they coupled the air so they would have brakes on all cars. The pattern was the same, Bill Brown on the roof of the lead car, Dan Roberts in the middle and Tommy Moore near the engine. The number of the cars usually was about 10 to 14 cars. Can you imagine pushing all these cars over all the street crossings, down through the Frisco yards with nothing but hand signals? Needless to say, it was a very slow operation. Coming back, the engine would be pulling the loaded cars, tender first. How do I know all this? Easy, they would let me go with them, riding the tender footboards of 85!

Over a half-century has passed but these memories of the KCS are very vivid in my mind and I assure you, they are very treasured memories!

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