Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

53 Years of Railroad Photography
1960-2013

Mike's Main Railroad Web Site

April 11, 2013

On my way to Ft. Smith, I ran into this northbound empty unit coal train at Stilwell, OK.
I then headed to a service station for some gasoline and shot the DPUs from the service center.

As I approached the station, I discovered that the local was on the passing track waiting for a signal. I first shot it at the station, it got the signal, and I shot it on the fill.

After dealing with some business, I had lunch with long time friend David McDonald. After lunch we headed to his home and the warehouse where our club layout once had been housed.

Before moving to Memphis, I was a member of the Westark Model Railroad Club. I built the CTC panel which controlled the layout. It had detector circuits which lit lights on the occupied blocks. This panel was in a room under the main control platform where the engineers could see the entire layout. We had a telephone circuit which allowed me in the dispatchers office to talk to the train crews and the yardmasters. In the first image, the 3 sections are aligned as they appeared in the office. Below that you see each panel enlarged. The power to a section of the track was controlled by rotary switches under each of these panels.

Here is our Extra Board. I am marked up to run train #78.

David and I spent the whole afternoon taking apart the CTC board. The 3 panels shown in these photos are now located in my train room in Tahlequah.

April 18, 2013

On my way to Springdale and the monthly meeting of the Boston Mountain Chapter of NRHS, I stopped at the site of the former KCS depot in Siloam Springs, AR to finish my supper and hopefully photograph a passing train. After about 5 minutes I heard the horn of a southbound train, this loaded unit coal train.

My next stop was the new shop area of the Arkansas & Missouri where I found this former CN M420.

Here is another former CN M420 at the A&M shop.

This slug was parked outside of the shop.

C420 #50 was sitting on the siding which runs on the west side of the new shop building.

I started to leave the shop area when I heard one of the two original A&M C-420s, #54, and it appeared with their dome car and parlor car.

In this file of parts are 4 dynamic brake housings.

April 20, 2013

On Saturday morning, a group of us from the Boston Mountain Chapter of NRHS met with a group of Joplin residents who gave us a tour of their city and its railroad sites, explaining the significance of each. The scan of a postcard was taken from one page of the 7 pages of documents provided, Joplin Documents.
We met at the site of the Joplin Union Depot which was designed by Louis Curtiss and built in 1910-1911. Here are some views outside and inside of this once great structure.
When built, this station served the Missouri and North Arkansas, Missouri Kansas & Texas, Santa Fe, and Kansas City Southern.
This is the ticket window area inside of the station. Note the circle above the window where a clock once was a major feature. The station is covered inside and out with painted comments by vandals.
This is the Fred Haarvey cafe area with the dining room through the door at the far end of this room.
A view from in front of thee ticket window of the windows of the second floor looking into the lobby.
The stairway to the second floor had this ornate railing.
Here are a couple of shots out the front windows from the second floor.

Now for a shot of a train in the station.

We then headed to the Joplin Frisco Station where the following pictures hung in this area of the former Harvey House cafe.
Below are the floor plans of the Frisco station when it was built.

This 8 story building had the Frisco station located in the basement and first floor. Passenger train service by the Frisco ended in Oct. 1960. The Aug. 1960 public Timetable lists service to Joplin whereas the next issue, Nov. 1960, does not.

The actual date of discontinuance was Oct. 15, 1960.

At one time Joplin was serviced by buses of Frisco Tranportation Co. to Neosho to make connection with St. Louis to Oklahoma trains 3, 4, 9, and 10. There was also Frisco passenger train service to Ft. Scott, KS as indicated by my extensive collection of Frisco Public Timetables.
Historic photos of the track area when in use by trains.
The next shots were taken in the basement level where the tracks of the station were once located.
The tracks used to pass under the Pennsylvania Street viaduct seen in the distance.
Our next stop was the former Missouri Pacofic roundhouse in Joplin.

The switch frog seen here has raised areas on each of the converging rails to act in place of guard rails on the other rails of the switch.

Here are a couple more of the so called self-guarded frogs.

This former Santa Fe caboose is parked at the Main Street crossing.

I stopped in Decatur to get a shot of the front of the station/museum.

I spotted a northbound KCS freight at Gentry and turned around and caught the train just south of Decatur. It turned out that both units were KCS de Mexico.

South of Watts I ran into another KCS freight. I turned around and shot it between the 2 bridges over Ballard Creek south of Watts.

April 25, 2013

My wife, Jan, had a doctor's appointment in Tulsa. After some lunch, I dropped her off at the Tulsa Public Library Genealogy Center and headed trackside at Elgin and the tracks east of Union Depot. This eastbound general freight was the first train of a very good afternoon of railfanning.

The next train was a westbound general freight. To the left of the lead unit is the junction with the SKO, former ATSF line. The train is seen passing under I-244.

This was followed by this westbound general freight. Note the Watco line to the left in the second shot.
In the freight was this BN scale test car.
The westbound freight met an eastbound freight which was mostly blocked from view.

As I returned from a trip to West Tulsa and Cherokee Yard where I did not shoot a thing, I discovered this westbound stack train as I turned off Elgin into the parking lot where I had been earlier, just further east.

Then came this eastbound general freight.

The next action was the local switcher making a delivery to the UP connection at Union Depot. We first see the switchman lining the crossover for the BNSF to enter the UP (former MKT) connection.
and then heading out the UP line toward Muskogee,
The train stops when it clears the switch back into the Union Depot interchange track for the UP.
and then backed into that interchange track
the power with a few cars pulls forward to clear the switch,
the switcher is then seen heading east to its next assignment.

My last train was this eastbound general freight. Not bad, 8 trains in about 4 hours. The best catch of the day was the set out by the switcher of the UP interchange for the Muskogee line.

This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren.
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