Well... now I'm going to kick off another thread comprised of photos taken back in the late 70's on one of my all-time favorite lines: The Frisco's Ft. Smith Sub.

Well start off with a couple views in the yard at Ft. Smith, Arkansas...

Check out the frogged radial tracks!

And now over the river to Van Buren. Man how I loved to watch them switch at Van Buren. First up is a pic of a set of Geeps reaching into the Pass Track to grab a cut of cars delivered earlier by the Mopac.

On another day we catch the power making a routine move as it went about the switching moves. Note the lean on 593? That thing was rockin' and rollin' back and forth big time on that old track! As I recall, hangin' on the 593 is "Big John" Seymore (right) and A. W. "Stringbean" McBride (left).

All for now... maybe some more later tonight.

I really love that 3rd pic, with classic geeps we really need to talk Marc into painting a set of those, and whats that? A Maverick, geez I haven't seen one of those in years

Anybody notice the crew is riding on footboards in the fourth photo? Not only do the automobiles in the background date the photos...but some of the FRA rules as well. That turntable #593 is riding ended up at Eureka Springs for the ES&NA operation of the old Eureka Springs line from the wye to the depot. I've got a couple of photos of it in Eureka Springs if anyone is interested.

"Anybody notice the crew is riding on footboards in the fourth photo?"

Good eye, young Grasshopper.

There was an overlap of rules from the time the FRA took up dealing with footboards and the riding thereof.

At first, riding the footboards was disallowed on a FORWARD movement. (Hence A.W. riding the rear footboard on a forward movement.)

Soon, riding footboards was off limits period. Shortly after, it was required that footboards be removed. Therefore, footboards begin to disappear (and disappeared fast) sometime in 1978, as I recall. Within a short while, they were pretty much all gone. Another one of those things that happened fast once the law was passed.

Wow. All this railroad knowledge being spewed at this forum means that we can all learn about railroad history and the evolution of safety appliances, or whatever... even down to the trivial level!

Downside is that all this newfound knowledge can make you a nit pickin' rivet counter, if you're not careful.

Hi Andre!
Do you intend to rebuild the Ft. Smith Sub one day?
Christian

Why would ne need to? A&M rebuilt the entire line back in 2003 from Ft Smith to Monett with continous welder rail-CRW. Though the spring after they completed all the work they suffered three really bad washouts between Chester and Winslow due to some heavy rain over a weekend. Needless to say that all had since been repaired.

Andre, I didn't realize until just now that right there at the VB station were the little flower garden is today used to be part of the passing track. Model railroads don't always reflect little details like that.

"Do you intend to rebuild the Ft. Smith Sub one day? "

No Christian, I do not intend to build the FS Sub.

It will always be one of my favorite lines, owing to the memories associated with it, but it is highly unlikely it will ever become an MSTS project of mine.

Wow! That's really cramming the turntable leads in there! I never saw that before.