The three attached photos are bidding later today on eBay. They depict the cleanup of a derailment near Roseland, Neb., on Sept. 16, 1917. The photos are interesting enough in and of themselves, as they represent a typical mixed train of the era, with
one of the CW class combination baggage-coach-waycars on the rear end. Motive power was in all likelihood a Mogul or Ten-Wheeler. But the route of the train, which is daily-except-Sunday mixed No. 162, is quite interesting. The train originated at Alma,
on the Denver-St. Joseph main across southern Nebraska that branched off the Denver-Chicago mainline at Oxford and ran all the way across the southern edge of Nebraska to Rulo. But No. 162 did not traverse that route; instead it left Alma at 5:50 a.m. and
headed north to the Denver-Chicago main at Minden, though it didn't quite reach Minden itself, instead turning east and passing through Roseland enroute to a crossing of the Denver-Chicago main at Sutton -- at least on a good day when it didn't derail. Heading
northeast now, it reached McCool Junction, where it turned north, crossed the Lincoln-Alliance main at York and continued on up to Stromsburg, on the UP's Stromsburg Branch. In the unlikely event that No. 162 made the 153-mile journey on schedule time, it
reached Stromsburg at 2:45 p.m. in an elapsed time of just under 9 hours. No. 162's westbound counterpart was No. 161, which departed Stromsburg at 10:20 a.m. and reached Alma at 7:00 p.m.
The entire route of this pair of trains was constructed in 1886-87 by the Kansas City & Omaha Railroad, along with a line from McCool Junction south to Fairbury. Short stretches of St. Joseph & Grand Island trackage rights were employed between Fairfield
and Alma Junction and between KC&O Junction and Fairbury. The KC&O was operated by the StJ&GI, which was controlled by the UP, and the road entered receivership along with the entire UP system on Oct. 13, 1893. Reorganized over the next three years, it emerged
as the independent Kansas City & Omaha Railway and was operated by the StJ&GI until July 1, 1902, when the CB&Q leased the KC&O, having purchased stock control of the company in April 1900. The property of the KC&O was deeded to the Burlington on Feb. 15,
1908, and the line became just another Q branchline -- actually two lines, the one from Stromsburg to Alma and the one from Stromsburg to Fairbury, McCool Junction being the division point of those two routes.
In 1917, in addition to mixed trains 161-162, the Stromsburg-Alma line hosted a pair of daily-except-Sunday freights, 165-166, between Stromsburg and Fairfield, and another pair of three-times-weekly freights, 169-170, between Sutton and Alma. A pair of
unnumbered mixed trains operated daily-except-Sunday over the other leg of the former KC&O, from Fairmont, just east of Sutton, down to Fairbury and six miles beyond to Endicott on the Denver-St. Joe main.
All in all, a typical Burlington branchline operation with an interesting history.
Hol