Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, Paris: roads, owning, central)

[SilverDoc]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

MRG, help me out here.

Hint: You were talking the other day of seeing two engines pulling only three box cars.........

[SilverDoc]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

That is the one.

I think I posted a photo sometime ago on this thread but it was from the web.

I never even thought to bring a camera when that event happened.

At the time, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, out there along 39th, etc.

Sigh....those were the days! NOW look at it!!

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by SilverDoc

Hint: You were talking the other day of seeing two engines pulling only three box cars.........

I will keep looking.

In the fifties, my girl friend and I would drive out to Fort Osage quite frequently taking a different route each time: Atherton Road, Blue Mills Road or Buckner-Tarsney.

Somewhere along Blue Mills Road way out in the middle of nowhere was a tavern. I don't recall the name but it was extremely close to the road and in a narrow rather ramshackle building. I heard at school that things could get a little rough there on Saturday nights.

I thought that photo might have been it--but last year I drove out to Ft Osage on Blue Mills and could not find it, so it may be long gone.

[SilverDoc]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

I will keep looking.

In the fifties, my girl friend and I would drive out to Fort Osage quite frequently taking a different route each time: Atherton Road, Blue Mills Road or Buckner-Tarsney.

Somewhere along Blue Mills Road way out in the middle of nowhere was a tavern. I don't recall the name but it was extremely close to the road and in a narrow rather ramshackle building. I heard at school that things could get a little rough there on Saturday nights.

I thought that photo might have been it--but last year I drove out to Ft Osage on Blue Mills and could not find it, so it may be long gone.

The building in the photo has been gone for several years. A spur line runs directly behind it (south) and crosses the road at an angle a couple hundred feet east of this building. This same spur line runs back west toward the square, passes the old mattress factory, crosses Noland and Walnut and continues on west under the Main St. bridge, pictured below

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Have we talked about the Alton RR yet?

It ran eastward from Crysler, the OverPass @ Turner Ave, past the Socony Mobile Oil Co Bulk Plant
Country Sheriff Patrol

onto 23rd St. behind the left field of Crysler Stadium
SE to cross Noland @ 31st, then behind Truman HS is today
S. of Drumm Farm
Crossing LS Rd, then 291

SE to cross I-70, S/SE to Lake Tapawingo
S. of Blue Springs HS
SE crossing Hiway 7, then E. to US 40

Then out to Grain Valley, Oak Grove, Bates City, Odessa, Mayview, Higginsville and Marshall, where it splits N. & S.

Westbound, it ran in NW direction, running adjacent to the football field at VH HS and onto Kentucky where it becomes part of the mass of lines into Northeast, impossible to track by map

As a kid I did not realize what RR lines ran where. There would be one here, one there, a crossing here, a crossing there, OP here and there. Not until looking at a map could I tell where these things go by and often surprising that one line is the same on opposite sites of town. WE had one line east of our house that I traced into St. Louis. Too bad the RR aren't as important as once was, even though we all are grateful to seldom have to wait for one to pass anymore!

The Chicago & Alton Depot sat for many years along South Ave west of Crysler. After passenger service died in the 1960s it sat rather forlornly and fell into a pitiful condition. Rather than see it destroyed a group of citizens raised funds to have it moved to its new home behind the National Frontier Trails Center on the grounds of the old Waggoner-Gates Mill. It sits adjacent to the old Missouri Pacific Line that is now the spur that runs out the Truman & 291. The Depot has been beautifully restored by the same group of volunteers (The Friends of the Chicago & Alton Depot). Many in that group also serve as volunteer tour guides. It is well worth a visit. My Beloved and I were there a few weeks ago for the annual Chocolate reception.

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

On that same line but further east and then south almost to 39th Street at the Selsa Station, where the town of Glendale once existed, was where Jesse James and gang robbed the "Glendale Train"--supposedly more than once. I attended a Jesse James reenactment at the Selsa Station in 1961 when the last "Chicago & Alton" passenger train came through Independence. Masked gunmen on horseback boarded the train, etc. The Selsa Station burned down a short time later, probably as a result of vandalism.
"

Those robberies are the reason the station's name was changed. The Glendale name was made infamous in a song about Jesse, and the RR were afraid people wouldn't ride a train passing that place.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by SilverDoc

Betcha can't guess where this was taken!:

This very artsy shot was taken on a N-S street, looking either east at sunrise or west at sunset. It is in a rather level area, and there appears to be a stone wall or structure down the drive a bit.

Might it be the entrance to your secret underground bunker?

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The Chicago & Alton Depot sat for many years along South Ave west of Crysler. After passenger service died in the 1960s it sat rather forlornly and fell into a pitiful condition. Rather than see it destroyed a group of citizens raised funds to have it moved to its new home behind the National Frontier Trails Center on the grounds of the old Waggoner-Gates Mill. It sits adjacent to the old Missouri Pacific Line that is now the spur that runs out the Truman & 291. The Depot has been beautifully restored by the same group of volunteers (The Friends of the Chicago & Alton Depot). Many in that group also serve as volunteer tour guides. It is well worth a visit. My Beloved and I were there a few weeks ago for the annual Chocolate reception.


Those robberies are the reason the station's name was changed. The Glendale name was made infamous in a song about Jesse, and the RR were afraid people wouldn't ride a train passing that place.

There is a town of Glendale, Missouri, incorporated around 1912 and located on the old Missouri Pacific Line in the Saint Louis area that is mistaken by many as the site of the famous Jesse James Glendale train robbery or robberies.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by SilverDoc

The building in the photo has been gone for several years. A spur line runs directly behind it (south) and crosses the road at an angle a couple hundred feet east of this building. This same spur line runs back west toward the square, passes the old mattress factory, crosses Noland and Walnut and continues on west under the Main St. bridge, pictured below

What was in the building and where was it at? I would think the track is in much better shape going under the Main Street bridge now than it was as shown in the photo.

In the late forties and early fifties my mother always patronized the Main Street Dry Cleaners, which was on the west side of Main Street right next to that bridge.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

I worked in Fairmount around 61-62 and remember those tracks in the business area. A line crossed Highway 24 at street level at about where the old Chevy dealer use to be.

Doc .. the rest of us had a discussion on those tracks (may be back before you blessed us with your presence/wisdom/memory, et al !) As usual, MAD had the answer. The tracks emanated from the NE conglomeration at Kentucky/Wilson and then headed in the area you described. Without finding the posts here (too lazy at a restaurant now), he said one track ended at the lumber yard vicinity and another branched north around the old roller rink, and snaked its way across US 24, past Sugar Creek baseball.pool on up to the refinery.

He also determined that the rail at one time snaked eastward across Forest, thru what was probably the Kelsey's Restaurant owner's homestead on thru Sally's old neighborhood to on or about Bryant School. Actually that bridge just south of 24 on River Blvd. is likely where that line went thru. Not sure where it ended without checking the posts, but it was pretty interesting how it all fit together way back when.

[SilverDoc]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Doc .. the rest of us had a discussion on those tracks (may be back before you blessed us with your presence/wisdom/memory, et al !) As usual, MAD had the answer. The tracks emanated from the NE conglomeration at Kentucky/Wilson and then headed in the area you described. Without finding the posts here (too lazy at a restaurant now), he said one track ended at the lumber yard vicinity and another branched north around the old roller rink, and snaked its way across US 24, past Sugar Creek baseball.pool on up to the refinery.

He also determined that the rail at one time snaked eastward across Forest, thru what was probably the Kelsey's Restaurant owner's homestead on thru Sally's old neighborhood to on or about Bryant School. Actually that bridge just south of 24 on River Blvd. is likely where that line went thru. Not sure where it ended without checking the posts, but it was pretty interesting how it all fit together way back when.

Those tracks eventually ended at the Air line Depot terminal of Kansas City Southern branch line, (between Kansas City and Indep.) at the northeast corner of Maple and Osage.