Check out this article from Forbes Online about a new truck plant being built southwest of Poteau, OK. It's going in the Poteau Industrial Park, which is along the abandoned Frisco line between Poteau & Wister, OK. About 6 miles of new track will need to be laid for the nearest railroad, Arkansas-Oklahoma, to access the plant from Wister. This is from the Poteau (OK) News: Process begins Rail Line Reconstruction By Danielle Gregory-News Reporter-- In conjunction with the new assembly line plant coming to Poteau there will be a rail spur built by A-OK Railroad. David Donoley, President of A-OK, said the process has been started and they are working as diligently as they can. "I love these kinds of projects. It's a great feeling to have a mayor that will walk in a thunderstorm to see what has to be done to bring industry to their town," stated Donoley. Donoley also said the existing rail bed is out there and he plans on doing whatever it takes to build it back. "We have already walked the rail bed to see what's out there," He added that A-OK will be improving the line all the way to Howe. When the project is complete and the manufacturing of the off road vehicles has begun AOK will be hooking on with Kansas City Southern, who Donoley said has always been a great partner to work with. A-OK provides freight operations over a 70-mile line of railroad owned by the State of Oklahoma from Howe to a connection with UP at McAlester. The trackage in question was part of the Frisco's line from MOnett, MO to Paris, TX, and was taken up in the mid-1980s between Poteau and Wister. A-OK is running on the remains of the Rock Island's Choctaw Route between Howe & McAlester, and interchanges with KCS at Howe and UP at McAlester. If you've seen freight cars in trains across the US with AOK reporting marks, they're leased by this line.
I'm a little surprised. The KCS main line passes through Poteau. And they're not at all an interested player in this picture? Boxcab E50
The closest available building in the area is in the industrial park south of town. Wortz used to have a bakery there, but most of the tracks are taken out. Frisco's original main line is graded over & built on in some spots, so an interchange at the former KCS/Frisco diamond on the northeast side of town is out of the question. As it is, KCS interchanges with AOK at Howe, east of Wister, so they should get the finished products there. They're already dropping off cars of sand for AOK to deliver to Red Oak for gas well drilling (which has been going gangbusters in these parts as the verious fields are being exploited), and the distance is not that far. I've been past that area many times, and except for the missing tracks, it's the best possible place to put a truck plant. And if A-OK can get funding, that part of the Frisco's Winding Stair line will be rebuilt.
Here is what I know. A-OK is rebuilding 5.5 miles of track from Wister to the former Emeralds Plastics building which will house Tiger on startup. A yard is also being constructed at the industrial complex for the loading of finished trucks. Also, A-OK will be loading the finished trucks on bi-levels in the new yard and take them for interchange with the KCS at Howe as well as picking up any inbound loads to support the plants requirements. Timeframe is not as clear. The company calls their startup schedule "aggressive" in one local article with actual start-up in September and the first out bound finished trucks leaving in the 1st quarter of 08. Seems pretty fast to me to get a truck assembly plant going, but part of the draw to the area was the fact that there is a technical school and state college so they expect to hire and train employees quickly. The following is all speculation on my part: Funding... City of Poteau and State of Oklahoma are the heavy hitters here. Both used big time tax incentives to lure the company in and rail service was a mandatory requirement for the plants location (One incentive is "accelerated former Indian Land Deprecation", I kid you not!) No matter how you slice it 5.5 miles of rail can't be cheap plus any additional costs of upgrading the line from Wister to Howe. There was a recent Oklahoma Law that set aside money for railroads but I don’t know if it passed or even applies here. Also, at least initially, I think most of the components would come from China in containers for assembly at Poteau with other support activities being added in the future on site through expansion. The target Market is Mexico and South America so KCS is a great fit. It’s not hard to imagine some of these autoracks making a long haul to Larenzo Cardines to offload the trucks for further shipment to South America. Again all this part is my speculation. All in all, it is great news for the City of Poteau, getting a huge economic boost here with the potential for more and A-OK will see a huge large traffic boost on the east end. It’s always good news to see industry move in and see rails restored.
red59apache- Welcome to TrainBoard! Sounds like you're hooked into some good resources for info. Please keep used posted on progress. If this gets started, it would be great to see some photos! Boxcab E50
Welcome to Trainboard! Say, aren't you a member of Yahoo's KCSnotes group, or at least Railspot? Your username sounds familiar.
Hi everyone, Thanks for the welcome. I am on both railspot and KCS notes, but I usually just read. I'm not a really a big poster only if I know something interesting. I live in the South Texas Corpus Christi area and most of my railfaning is done there. KCS is my road, if any have been to Sallisaw to the UP/KCS crossing, I spent many hrs growing up sitting behind that little building by the overpass watching KCS switch piggy backs, I was sad to see they took the yard out. So my passion is Eastern OK and Western Ark but I get plenty of KCS action in south Texas now. I have family ties in the Poteau area and have driven down pretty much every back road in eastern OK in search of old cars or a view of the rails or both! Red 59 chevy apache is my truck (my screen name changed on yahoo groups to my first and last name recently but it wasn't anything I did, don't know how that happened). When I get back into the country, I'll check things out in the area and see if there is any progress! Also, if you haven't seen it A-OK as a website. No real info there but it's clear they have a good sense of humor and have fun at work. www.aokrr.com. Micah
I had the opportunity to stop in Wilburton to catch what I could of the AOK, and had a nice chat with Dave Donoley, the boss. He had one of the B23-7s and a Super-7 in town, as well as the Midsouth GP10. He's a native of the area, and before becoming the brass hat of this line he worked for the Kiamichi RR in southeastern Oklahoma. Before I left to visit my granddaughter, he gave me an A-OK hat and coffee mug. He also allowed me free roam of the property to shoot pictures, which I did, and left nothing but footprints. Again, besides this railroad, AOK has a fleet of freight cars in lease service across the country- I've seen them as far away as Salem, OR.
It is a nice web site. And I do like their Rock Island colored engine, as shown on the home page. Too bad they didn't do Speed Lettering! Ha ha. :thumbs_up: However, someone needs to contact their webmaster. Take a look at those buttons, at left side of that page. Gallary is actually correctly spelled G-a-l-l-E-r-y. mg: Boxcab E50
