Re: [CBQ] Red Oak & Griswold

["jpslhedgpeth via groups.io" <jpslhedgpeth=aol.com@groups.io>]

Regarding Branch Line train service...Here's the real sstory.   Any resemblance between what the TT said and what was actuallly happening "on the ground" was purely CO INCIDENTAL AND ALMOST NEVER EVER HAPPENED.

Trains would leave it's terminal sometime the same day but with no attetion paid to the timetable or passengers.....You might get to some "terminal" ie Red Oak all set and ready with your camera and other gear and find out when you got to the depot you would find that the train left fromt some obscure freight yard ie  The "Lower Yard" at Red Oak....or at  "Monterey Street at St Joe at someime between 1:00am and 7:00am.e

St. Joe reference was experienced by Jim Christen and me on our "Q it) summer 1953.  We got the lunch counter "girl" to fix us a lunch and we left a call for 3;00am.  Arriving at Monterey St. we stood around awhile and then out of the late summer darkness came a headlight on dim creeping up out of the middle yard.

The crew was  "less than thrilled" with having passengers.   While switching and exchanging of trains, waycars and engines at  Giles Jim was out on the track taking pictures and the crew had lost track of us.  This experience led to my oft quoted statement taken from one of the crew members when he saw Jim, but couldn't see me.  His shouted  'WHERE'S THAT OTHER    *******HOLE AT.   will forever right in my "addled" brain with a barely expressable  "GUFFAW

Jim and I in summer 1953 had the joy of experiencing a close relationship and on the ground experience that last summer we finished up the summer trips which we spent the winter months perusing TT's and train accommodations as they had been in the 'Wanning days" of the Q branch line operation.

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com>
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Sent: Fri, Sep 30, 2022 10:22 am
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Red Oak & Griswold

Rupert:

The November 1966-April 1967 public timetable is the last one with the full page of Branch Line Train Service - See Agent for Details listings.  The next timetable is dated June 1, 1967, and all the branch line service is gone.  This coincides with the discontinuance of railway mail service nationwide, but of course by this time none of the branch line trains were still carrying mail.

Hol

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From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> on behalf of William Hirt <whirt@fastmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2022 8:16 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Red Oak & Griswold

 

Rupert,

To add to what others have written, the May-October 1958 public timetable shows mixed train service Monday-Friday. Service left Red Oak at 11:45 am and arrived 1:30 pm at Griswold. Return service was leaving Griswold at 2:05 pm and arrived Red Oak at 3:35 pm.

The next public timetable I have is November 1959-April 1960. The actual train schedule is gone, but the timetable says Mixed Train Service - Consult Agent for Details for the Red Oak-Griswold line.

In the public timetable for May-October 1961, it now states Branch Line Train Service - Consult Agent for Details.

The last public timetable I have that shows this service is May-October 1966.

I have some Official Guides stored away. I'll try to get them out this weekend and see if they add anymore detail.

Bill Hirt

On 9/28/2022 4:04 PM, Rupert Gamlen wrote:

I am trying to establish when passenger service on the line from Red Oak to Griswold in western Iowa stopped operating. An ETT for April 1954 shows that the track is classified as a spur track within yard limits with no trains shown. However, a local newspaper was showing a daily except Sunday service at least until August 1954.

Does anyone have a passenger timetable covering the period between these dates and/or for the period after it to help identify the end of passenger service.

Thanks

Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ

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