Van Buren

I was Asst Roadmaster in Van Buren in 1980.  Wasn't much going on in Ft Smith.  Ran a local over there once a day and it would run down to Paris a couple times a week.  All the clerks, agents and management (trainmasters, roadmaster, road foreman of engines) was in Van Buren.  All the engine facilities, what there were, were in Van Buren.  In the 6 months I was there only went over there a couple times.  Most of the engines were GP7, GP9, and GP18 with an occasional GP ICG horsepower hours payback unit.  Most of the GP38-2's were on mainline locals and smaller road power.

I like it

I like the track plan Joe. Nothing is crammed in, lots of space for scenery, yet you have multiple switching opportunities, and multiple industries with varied car types. Looks like a couple of passing sidings ( the one thing I forgot, and miss, on my railroad ) , and multiple switchbacks to keep it really interesting. I think you have a winner here !

Michael

@Dave

Thanks for the info Dave.  Especially interesting that an ICG locomotive was assigned occasionally which will add an interesting option to operating sessions.  “For the ICG locomotives, do you recall what model of GP units were common?  Did these ICG units usually operate solo or were they consisted with an M.P. locomotive?”

Next project is turning an undecorated GP7 into an M.P. Unit so sounds like this will fit perfectly with the layout.

If you don’t mind, may “tap your brain” from time to time.  

Joe

@Michael

Thanks for the feedback Michael!  

April still seems like a long time to wait but curving the “layout withdrawal” symptoms by working on structures, rolling stock and such!

Joe

Not sure if this would be

Not sure if this would be worth while or not but a short runaround by the Gerber plant would allow the train to not reuse any trackage previously worked and preserve the miles distant illusion and linear aspect of the line.

@Rob

Thanks Rob.  May consider that.

Joe

FWIW: The was a run-around at

FWIW: The was a run-around at Gerber at Fort Smith on the MOP side.

@Rob and FWIW

Like the idea of a Gerber runaround.   It existed per M.P. documentation. 

Joe

Ft. Smith

Joe

i was in Van Buren/Ft Smith for 5-6 weeks in the Fall 1975 putting in TCS 4.1 which was a huge system wide cutover to Mopac's computer system.  The local going down to Paris was called the 'AC Local' which got its name from the Arkansas Central Railroad that originally built the line in 1898 to 1900.  Local originated in Van Buren crossed the Helen Gould bridge, dropped cars off at Ft. Smith and went to Paris and back.  The movement of cars from VB to FTS was a daily job but I think the Paris turn was triweekly.   I remember Gerber was a big customer and thought there may have been a furniture manufacturer still around but most had closed by this date and I maybe incorrect.  Interchange with the Frisco was in Ft. Smith.  The Mopac had a medium size Customer Service Center in the old MP freight house down from the Frisco passenger station.   Ft. Smith had an assigned switcher (GP7) that was generally parked by the former house of ill repute which I believe now is the visitors center on your layout design.

Charlie

Ft Smith

Charlie is the foremost authority on the MoP, so if anything he says conflicts with what I've said, go with what he said.

I think by the time I was there in 1980 they had closed the CSC and moved it to Little Rock or Coffeyville.  I do know they used 115 and 112 lb rail on the mains, 90 lb in the yards.  They did have some 75 lb rail in industrial tracks (had to go to a derailment on a 100 ton covered hopper on 75 lb rail).  Nobody made or stocked 75 lb or 90 lb rail by then, so repairs on the active tracks were made by scavenging material from the retired tracks.

Pix

Here are some pix I took in late 1980 in Van Buren.

You asked about ICG units here a few:  The 4th St overpass is in the background.

  ​And you asked if they were ever paired with MP units, here ya go, the Allens Bldg on Mary Allen and 13th St is in the background:

 ​Here are some shots around the engine tie up tracks at the north (timetable), west (compass) end of the yard.  I was mistaken they did use GP15's around Van Buren and Ft Smith, there are two in the picture.:

  ​And as an extra special kicker, here's another unit you can work in there, when the Rock went belly up the MP bought a bunch of Rock baby blue GP38-2's.  Here are a pair working a through freight, but they were also used on locals and lesser trains, I had one on a work train distributing ties.  The silver building is the yard office at Van Buren, with the usual Mop buzzsaw on the end.  The train masters office is on this end, the roadmaster and road foreman of engines in the middle and the crew room on the south end.  We are looking southeast, the train is southward on the Van Buren Sub arriving Van Buren.  The parking lot is the MP lot, so that's what the train crews were driving in 1980.

Trivia :   In the 1980's there was a TV miniseries "North and South" with Patrick Swayze and Lesley Anne Down that was filmed on Main St in Van Buren.  They brought in tons of dirt to "unpave" the street.

@Dave and Charlie.

Thanks for the info and pictures!

Do any of you guys know what was produced at the “Spaulding H.G.” Industry?  This was next to the Gerber plant.

Joe

Spaulding

Joe

honestly it been too many years so I don't remember.  I did look through a MP-IM 1904 shippers guide this morning and Spaulding wasn't listed.  A google search shows a H G Spaulding on a Ft Smith commercial committee so he was certainly involved in the city's activities early on.   You might send an inquiry to the Ft Smith library or the trolley museum there am sure you'll get an answer.  You should pick up a P2K MP low nose GP-18 with the Alco trucks. As Dave H mentioned this was pretty common power there. 

Dave, thanks for the pictures

Dave, thanks for the pictures with a wealth of information. It was great that you had the fore thought to take pictures when out on the property. I saw a lot but only occasionally, took pictures figuring on using my brain to remember details. However, as time goes on I find those "details" fading.

Charlie, as usual thanks for your insight and memories you are a "Historical" source for the Mopac folks.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both.

Barry, an "old head" enjoying retirement but sometimes missing the rails. 

Parking lot

Maybe a little early on for scenery details but There are 2 Full size “K5” Chevy blazers/GMC Jimmy’s in the pic and maybe a suburban . Trident makes a decent HO scale K5. They were basically the same truck from 1973-1991 or so. (My screen name is from a “beautiful” K5 I had in the past). 

Also - nice track plan!

Jeff

Suburban

Parked right next to the yard office is a white Suburban with an orange gumball on top, that would be the trainmaster’s hi-rail.

VB yard?

Dave, I'm not sure where that yard office would be.  If the parking lot is the same as used today, there is a red  brick building there now.  Shield instead of a buzzsaw on it.

Regarding the St. Gobain proppants plant, it was Norton Proppants ten years go when I was doing some driving around and photographing. I believe that part of the plant was there in 1980, the USGS  quadrangles were updated early 80s. The Gerber plant had been doubled in size since last update.

I got the bug to model Fort Smith in 97-98 when I was making trips to architects' office in the First National Bank building, which is on Joe's plan.

Yard office

The old yard office was to the south/east of the current yard office.

I remember those ICG Paducah Geeps

I lived in Ft. Smith from mid-1979 until early 1982, and as soon as I could afford one I bought a camera and went around town shooting RR action. I remember seeing an ICG Paducah Geep in Van Buren, parked not too far from a former Rock Island '38-2. At the time, I wasn't quite sure why the ICG units were in that area until I asked some of the local railfans about it later.

Ft. Smith is a treasure trove of locations to model for MP and Frisco, and KCS to a limited extent. You chose an awesome location to model for your layout. All you need now besides the early Geeps is a GP15-1 or two in Jenks Blue, and you're set.

KCS

The KCS local in Ft Smith used one of those cabooses converted from a 40 ft boxcar.  It had small bay windows and felt like you could play basketball inside of it, it was HUGE (compared to other cabooses).

oddball Paducahs