Once every month (work schedule permitting), I make the trip from my home in Muskogee to the city of Claremore, OK. Besides being the home of Will Rogers and singer Patti Page, it sits on the junction of the BNSF's Cherokee Subdivision (ex-Frisco) and Union Pacific (ex-MoPac), and sees quite a bit of traffic. There are also at least two well-known model railroads in the vicinity- the Kansas City Terminal of Jim Senese, and the Claremore & Southern built by the late George Maulsby and kept running by a dedicated group of model railroaders in northeastern Oklahoma. As is mentioned in their website, the C&S is an HO scale model railroad which resides in a building on the Maulsby property. It is based on the Frisco's Cherokee Subdivision circa 1955 from Tulsa (Osage Yard on the railroad) to Afton. No steam, but lots of GP7s, F-units, and a couple of Baldwin switchers. It is operated by Railcommand, and is controlled via CTC on a computer in the dispatcher's office. There is a timetable of sorts, and car cards are used to forward cars on the signaled main line. Besides the C&S, the Sand Springs Railway and the Tulsa-Sapulpa Union RR are represented as well, each with their own distinctive switchers (although C&S power has been know to be used from time to time). Also, the Missouri Pacific is modeled as a "dark" railroad from Muskogee thru Claremore to Caleton, where it crosses the C&S and heads into staging. There IS one Frisco locomotive on the layout- a black & yellow GP7 which is used as the Osage Yard trimmer. Three people work Osage (drill, trimmer and yardmaster), two operate the TSU, and one runs the Sand Springs, while one person keeps things running (or tries to) at Claremore. At least one person runs the MP local as well as Muskogee switching. Another 8 folks are kept busy running switchers and through freights, and there is at least one roadmaster who serves as a troubleshooter during the roughly 3-hour session. OK, so much for the intro- now for pictures. The east end of Osage Yard. Except for reefer blocks, coal trains, and varnish, all through trains set out & pick up blocks of cars, and all turns begin from and terminate here. The Sand Springs and TSU also pick up their interchange cars as well. We see the yard switcher in the foreground, with the trimmer operator busy with the Frisco Geep working the other end. The engine and car shops are behind him to the left. The engine shops, with the coach yard, car shops & freight hose close by. The main line heads on "west" to Oklahoma City & Ft. Worth (well, in actuality, it goes into staging). Sapulpa and the Mid-Continent Oil refinery. Note the TSU SW1, and the C&S power loaned to this onetime interurban railway-turned-freight-hauler. Besides the refinery, several other shippers are served by TSU, most notably Liberty Glass.
Any chance next trip you could grab a few closer roster views of the motive power and any associated rolling stock? The paint schemes look interesting.
Here's a pic of Tulsa-Sapulpa Union SW1 109 awaiting its next assignment: Liberty Glass, also in Sapulpa: OK, so much for the west end- let's head east. Looking east at the approach to Osage, we see the passenger station to the right, as well as the yard drill doing its work. Main tracks flank the approaches and drill track. To the right in the distance is the junction for the Sand Springs Railway. Downtown Sand Springs, where the railroad is borrowing a C&S Baldwin VO1000 for the day's work. Two switch jobs daily serve area shippers.
Heading eastward from Tulsa-oops, sorry, I meant Osage- we cross the Verdigris River and will eventually come up on the siding of the same name. The folks who build & maintain this railroad haven't gotten around to modeling the river water yet- it really isn't that dry around here..... The track at the very bottom of the picture is the MP line, which parallels the C&S for quite a distance. Here the MP is crossing the river near Muskogee, which is a source of quite a bit of business for the Mop, which keeps a switcher based here. Downtown Muskogee, as seen from the bridge over the MP. ......and they don't tolerate no speeding 'round here! On the west side of town, MP serves a cement plant & coal mine (truck-fed). The MP main ducks behind the backdrop to form a loop, which represents Ft. Smith.
The MP yard in downtown Muskogee, including team track, passenger station, and motive power for the local switcher, which works Muskogee, runs to Claremore to swap cars with the C&S and a Mop local freight, and returns to Muskogee. Grain elevator at the east of town. From here, the MP ducks under the highway bridge ahead and heads to Claremore. Above Muskogee, the C&S main also heads toward Claremore as well. Claremore, midway between Osage Yard and Afton. MP and C&S swap cars here, and along with the local business it can get quite busy. If the Claremore switch crew is not on their toes, the entire railroad can be tied up quickly. In the distance, the tower guards the MP/C&S crossing- the C&S heads on toward Caleton, while the MP runs toward Oologah and Coffeyville. C&S VO1000 107, the Claremore switcher. On occasion a Santa Fe GP7 (in full "zebra" scheme) can be found holding down the Claremore switching duties.
Acting on a heads-up from the Claremore operator, we jump ahead to Caleton and find two C&S trains passing each other- one a westbound reefer block with two F7s dressed in the gray-over-blue paint scheme (worn by half of the F-units, switchers, and some of the GP7s- the remainder are in dip-blue), another headed by two GP7s with Frisco empties heading back to the coal mines in southeastern Kansas. Cattle pens, a slaughterhouse, metal fabrication plant, and a grain elevator comprise most of the carloadings handled by the Caleton Turns (Claremore and Afton are also served by individual turn jobs originating at Osage). We're now approaching Afton, where the Kansas City and Springfield lines split. The massive grain elevator at Afton. We see the Afton Turn to the far left at work. Behind me, the lines loop around and go into staging. Next installment (which will be in a couple of weeks), I'll get some roster shots of the C&S motive power and rolling stock.
They used to have one online until the website got redesigned. Basically, it's built so one can walk around the layout. I'll see if I can score a picture of the plan and scan it for uploading here. All trackage is code 83, with code 100 in the staging yard (two levels- lower is 12 tracks, upper is 3). And here is a link to the club's website.
