PRESS RELEASE FROM: St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Spring River Subdivision, Public Relations Office TO: All interested parties Subject: Construction updates FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The SLSF Spring River Sub has announced the arrival of two new locomotives to the fleet- GP40-2 768 and GP15-1 107. The 768 will see service on Trains 32, 33, 34 and QLA, while the 107 will be used in local and switching service. On the Spring River Railroad (a subsidiary of ONECorp), the relaying of the entire mainline as well as several spurs and passing sidings has been completed. This has allowed SPRY trains to once again run the main line between Joplin, MO and Bentonville, AR, using locomotives from affiliate lines Oklahoma & North Eastern and Joplin District Terminal. Still awaiting rebuilding is the interchange with the Frisco's Spring River Sub at Seneca Jct. Included in the track relaying was conversion from code 100 to code 83 (with some code 70 spurs), plus a "daylighting" of Newton Ridge tunnel (which, in compliance with local environmental concerns, will be "un-daylighted"- that is, replaced as close to original as possible). When time allows, a special excursion train from ONECorp will run a Grand Opening Special from Joplin to Bentonville to celebrate the rebuilding of the line.
Congrats on the improvements. Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.pegnsean.net/~revnjeff
A not-quite-to-scale schematic of the Frisco's Spring River Sub, as well as the Spring River Railway (reporting marks SPRY) can be found here - find the Frisco diesel icon, and click on it for info. If and when I can get some pics done, I'll get 'em posted.
Man, I can't wait to get to work on my new module, a four foot corner to put in the N-Trak layout. I just thought this, N-Trak is the true free-lancers way of doing things. You never know what is going to run down the track!
I'm pleased to announce that the first train from Bentonville to Seneca ran last week on the Spring River Railway. Using RS3 100 from sister road Oklahoma & North Eastern, the train headed north over newly rehabbed track at a steady 25 MPH, arriving at Seneca to switch out cars & work local shippers before returning to Bentonville. Motive power for SPRY will be three GP38-2s, as well as the Alcos from O&NE. The track, Atlas code 83, has been painted, weathered & ballasted (and some ground foam sprinkled here & there) to simulate track good for 25 MPH speeds (with 10 MPH in the tunnels at Newton Ridge, Anderson Hill and Lost Creek, north of Seneca). Next up is the construction of the Joplin staging track north of Seneca, which will mean installing subroadbed & track beneath a finished layout. Anybody got some moles who can use track tools? I have several Pikestuff building kits "in the pipeline" which will be built for SPRY industries when they arrive. Another kit will be the Walthers ADM grain elevator, which will be used for the FYC Farms feed mill (for the many chicken farms in the area). The recent Walthers ad in March 2003's Model Railroader has intrigued me- I could use the woodchip car loader for my E&C Carshops chip cars, as well as the 70-ton open hoppers pressed into service to haul woodchips.
