Page 22 - Transportation - Osage County Herald

The Osage County Herald-Chronicle
22
A train passes along
the twin lanes of the
Burlington NorthernSanta Fe railroad in
Melvern, underneath
the old railroad
bridge, which was
closed to vehicle
traffic in recent
years, remaining
open to pedestrians.
The railroad through
Melvern, Quenemo
and Olivet is along a
mainline, connecting
Chicago and Kansas
City with Los Angeles
and the west coast.
A mid-1900s map of
the railroads in Osage
County, which crisscrossed through the
past and present cities
around the turn of the
century. Many lines
were removed shortly
after the turn of the
century. The Missouri
Pacific (MoPac) lines
were removed between
1986 and 1994. Only
the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe (AT&SF) lines
remain as part of the
Burlington NorthernSanta Fe (BNSF)
railway.
File Photo
Trails to Rails
Continued from 21
Burlingame joined the
mining scene in 1879, and
was spurred by the Manhattan, Alma and Burlingame railroad, named for
the towns it traversed. The
57-mile line would later be
absorbed by the ATSF as it
grew west, stretching on to
Texas and California.
An additional line from
Osage City to Quenemo was
laid by the Ottawa, Osage
City and Council Grove
(OOC&CG) railroad in 1886,
which was later taken over
by the ATSF and operated
through 1931. A third ATSF
line stretched from Emporia to Kansas City through
Melvern and Olivet. It was
completed in 1884 and is
among the most vital rail
lines in the country today.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac) also laid lines
in the county, stretching
east-west through Osage
City and Pomona, and northsouth through Quenemo and
Overbrook, all three opened
in 1886 and 1887. Over-
brook’s founders gave the
builders of the Kansas, Nebraska & Dakota railroad
a half interest in the town
to insure that the railroad
would reach their city. At
that time, all of Osage County’s nine present-day cities,
and several that have since
disappeared, were connected by the rail.
The rails began to pull
back 40 to 50 years later due
to the onset of improved
roads and the redundancy
of lines and decreased commerce in the area brought on
by the closing of the mines.
The first MoPac line to
close was south of LoMax
station at Quenemo in 1933.
The Overbrook line that was
responsible for the founding of the town was closed
a century after it was built
as grain became cheaper to
move by truck than rail. The
line from Overbrook to Topeka was closed in 1987, and
the line Overbrook to LoMax
Station closed in 1994.
The last of the MoPac
lines, the former OOC&CG
line, ran east and west
through the center of the
county. The line from Osage
City to Council Grove closed
in 1993, and the rest of the
line, from Osage City to Ottawa, closed a year later.
In a true circle of events,
both of the more recently closed legs of the MoPac
railroad in Osage County
have reverted back to trails
as part of the Rails to Trails
program.
The ATSF lines, or Santa
Fe, remain charter lines of
railroad and are among the
primary lines on the 32,166
miles of Burlington Northern-Santa Fe (BSNF) railways.
They are the only functioning and only remaining lines
in the county.
The line in the southern
part of the county that runs
through Olivet, Melvern and
Quenemo now sees around
60 to 70 trains a day, primarily carrying intermodal goods and components.
The line runs parallel tracks
through the county.
“That track is part of the
main line between Chicago, Kansas City and Los Angeles,” said Steve Forsberg,
general director public affairs for BNSF.
The line through Osage
City, Burlingame, Scranton and Carbondale, known
as the Topeka sub, sees far
less traffic – around 7 to 12
trains every 24 hours. Traffic along the Topeka sub includes 2-5 intermodal trains
and 3-6 mixed freight trains.
The Topeka sub also includes Amtrak service.
“They run one or two
trains a day,” Forsberg said.
“It’s usually the middle of
the night.”
The Amtrak line could
also contribute to improvements along the route.
Through the Kansas Department of Transportation, the
subsidized train line has begun the process of applying for aid to improve speed
limits on the line between
Barclay (south of Osage City)
and Emporia. The purpose
of the funds is to improve
the average speed of the
lines and increase passenger
travel, which has steadily decreased with the improvement of the nation’s highway system.
From rails to roads
Osage County’s first mode
of transportation was along
its trails. The first roads
were only minor improve-
ments of those routes. Early trails ran along the paths
of least resistance between
the county’s first populated
areas.
Through the 1860s and
70s, only a handful of wagon roads existed, many of
which were only defined
in well-used areas between
their destinations. The most
notable remained the Santa Fe Road, which cut a clear
path across the northern
half of the county, traces of
which are still visible today.
Another main route was Ottumwa Road, which went
through present-day Melvern
between Kansas City and Ottumwa in Coffey County.
The road between Burlingame and Ottumwa was
less defined, and additional roads existed between the
early settlements. The central part of the county also
contained a few Indian roads
around the Sac and Fox reservation, now the location
of the cities of Lyndon and
Quenemo.
The present layout of the
county was set by county ordinances around 1873,
when most of the mile sections were defined. By the
mid 1880s, nearly all of the
present-day roads had been
laid out.
Early roads, however, were
crude, and most were impassable in poor weather.
It would be almost 50 years
before the county roads saw
significant improvement.
Even by 1920, many of the
cities had few or no paved
roads.
The first appearance of a
highway in the county came
around 1930. Planning began as early as 1924, and
in 1929, the Kansas Highway Commission declared
that 50 miles of all-weather roads would be built in
Osage County. At that time,
only a small stretch of U.S.
75 near Carbondale was
paved. Soon highways U.S.
75 and U.S. 50N (now U.S.
56) would be laid out, both
becoming popular thoroughfares in the area.
Prior to its inclusion in the
1929 highway project, U.S.
75 saw more than 700 cars
a day. When U.S. 50N was
paved in 1933, it saw 450
cars a day between Osage
City and Admire, about 60
percent of the traffic it receives today.
See Rails to Roads | 23
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224 E. Santa Fe • Burlingame
Complete Automotive Service
(785) 654-3723
Terry Hanna - Owner
Mon-Fri 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
204 West 17th Street
Lyndon, Kansas 66451
Full Service Auto Repairs
Complete Alignment Service
New Tire Sales & Repair
Air Conditioning
Engine Diagnostics
Tune-ups
Transmission Services
Phone: (785) 828-3699
Fax: (785) 828-3619
Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.
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