A freind of mine is building a massive basement layout of the Rock Island in KS bewteen Wichita & Herington about the time the rr folded in 1980. At one end will be the Cline yd @ Wichita followed by Herington yd on the other end. Question: what type of yd engs would Rock have been using @ this time in smaller flat yds on the system? My guess is the older NW,SWs would still be in use but I saw a photo taken in Wichita in 1979 showing a GP38 switching the Cargill bean plant.
oh man, I drove by that yard all the time. I’ll have to see if I can find some photos. I don’t remember the yard engines too well. The Frisco Yard just to the north had a single SW9 in the red scheme… I do know the road engines were all 4 axle Uboat and GP type. They were painted in bunches of different schemes I mostly remember the Red & Yellow and Maroon schemes.
For others that might be interested, the photo below shows the Missouri Pacific Yard, the Rock Island yards were parallel on the other side of the grain elevator. They had a two track double ended exchange between the two just to north (out of the picture to the right). An LDE scene I’ve always wanted to model.
I’m living in Wichita right now and I will ask some of the resident “experts”. Among the group I’m sure they’ll have several answers if not pictures.
Rick
For prototype information used on a layout, during the final two yrs of RI in Wichita, does anyone know if Cline yd was reduced to just a 1st shift job M-F? This does not sound correct as some industries needed wknd switching. My guess is a 1st shift that worked wknds.