Oil train leaving the Cushing, OK train station

I will wager a guess that you are acquainted with the work of Terry LaFrance.  He has a notable collection of railroad photography and video from this region, including Cushing.

When we lived in Stillwater in the mid-80s, I think that concrete coaling tower in the background was still standing.  However, most of the rails were gone and the remaining rails were grass covered in disuse, and of course, the depot was gone too, as I recall.

Andre:

If you go to Google Earth and position your people icon on Moses St. and then go across where the tracks were.  Depot is still there, and there is a photo that looks to have an Ogle coaling tower off in the distance, but I can't find it on the Google Earth image. 

Regards,

Jerry

Now that you mention it, the old coal tower that I could see from the road bridge was closer than that.  Crap, it may not have been Cushing even!!  Memories get clouded, 'ya know.

Using Google Earth and looking at Cushing, NOTHING looked "right" to me.  So, I've sent an email to a flatlander Okie friend of mine that is much more familiar with the historical railroading in that region than I am.  Here's a paste of it:

"Hi Tony!

I “think” I recall driving through Cushing, OK way back when we lived at Stillwater (mid-1980s), and as you left town headed west (I think?), there was an overpass over some old barely used tracks, and if you looked south (I think?) there was an old concrete coaling tower still standing. I think there was a last gasp short line or something that was trying to survive, and they used an orange and black former Monongahela high hood Geep of some sort.

Am I remembering correctly?"

Hopefully I'll hear back from him sometime today. I would like to relearn what I think I'm remembering.   Hoping he can help!

Aging sucks.

Great picture Swafford, thanks.

I enlarged the picture a bit on my computer.  It's a great photo for modeling.  I was trying to figure the time frame and because if the paint scheme and the fact the FT's were in an A-B-B-B configuration I thought the 40's.  Then I looked at the post again and saw it was June 1944.

The station shows that although Santa Fe used a standard design, they were customized a bit at various locations.

I don't know if the coal tower would be an OGLE,  just about all Santa Fe's coaling facilities were Roberts and Schaefer

I just noticed the date June 1944.  That's a fine wartime photo.  

Hi Andre:

Here is a link to a  pic that is on Google Earth at the location of the station.  I can't get it to embed on this site. 

http://www.panoramio.com/photo...ferrer=kh.google.com

Here is another photo of the station.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo...ferrer=kh.google.com

I tried getting topographic maps off of Historic Aerials, but nothing came up.  Satellite imagery only goes back to 1995.   This looks like it was an interesting place, with a junction at this location.  Do you know when this trackage was pulled up.   I'd fathom a guess at around 1982. 

Marker wrote:

I don't know if the coal tower would be an OGLE,  just about all Santa Fe's coaling facilities were Roberts and Schaefer

Marker:

Until you brought up Roberts and Schaefer. I didn't even know that anybody else did round type steel coaling towers similar to Ogle.  So, in the quest to learn more about something I did not know about, I went looking for more information.  

Here is a link to Roberts and Schaefer literature:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rai...Tower%20Diagram.html

Thanks for pointing this out and providing a learning moment.  

It would be nice to see some photos of this coaling tower.  It looks like it may have lasted quite some time before it was torn down if you look at the literature on the first photo.  I suspect there is some sort of ag dealer where the coaling tower used to be.

Photos like the one above make me want to know more about this line, how many trains per day is supported in the 1940s and 1950s, and what led to its demise. 

I love seeing photos like this of the Santa Fe.  It is a nice contrast to the streamliner image we are constantly bombarded with when discussing Santa Fe.  They had substantial secondary lines, that were no doubt very interesting. 

Regards,

Jerry

Thanks for pointing this out and providing a learning moment.

Jerry - That's one of the best things about this hobby.

Here is a photo I found.

Hmmm, the plot thickens.   Turns out that the coaling tower was not a round steel structure, it was concrete:

Here is the writeup from atsf.railfan.net/chutes:

The coaling tower at Cushing was one of at least four chutes built in the area in 1917 by the United States Railroad Administration (the others were at Stillwater, Skedee, and Shawnee, OK). It is possible that these chutes were never used, as this area is in close proximity to Oklahoma oil fields, and steam power here was almost entirely oil-fired. The Cushing chute was nearly identical to the now-demolished tower at Skedee, OK (see below). By 1996, when John Mallory took the photo at left, all trackage in Cushing had been removed, and the tower was standing forlornly in the middle of an open field near the equally abandoned depot. Another picture of the chute can be seen in the section on Cushing in Evan Stair's The Santa Fe in Oklahoma web site.

Regards,

Jerry

PS - You and I must have been looking at the same site simultaneously. 

Just maybe, trains may return:

http://www.trainorders.com/dis...n/read.php?1,3560824

Here is information on the abandonments of trackage north and south of Cushing:

http://www.abandonedrails.com/Cushing_to_Shawnee

http://www.abandonedrails.com/Cushing_District

Regards,

Jerry

Many years ago I was talking to a retired ATSF man that was on the B&B gang.  He said that he was on the crew that was removing all of ATSF's old concrete coal towers.  They used TNT to blow the legs from under the towers so that the towers would fall away from the main tracks.  But the ATSF stopped them after the coal tower in Boise City, Oklahoma in the panhandle.  When they set off the TNT the tower fall the wrong way across the mainline tracks which stopped trains for a few days till they got the concrete tower off of the tracks.  The man said that the next coal tower on the list was the one at Great Bend, Kansas.  That coal tower is still standing.  The coal tower at Shawnee, Oklahoma was removed years later by the city or county due to a teen falling to his death.

With the Saudi's regaining control of the US export market and, to a degree, our oil production, I don't think the WATCo plan to restore rail service to Cushing will go forward.

I have some friends that are very well established in the oil drilling business, some of them in management.  Here in OK, profitability is lost when oil drops to around the $70 per barrel mark.  In Oklahoma, we are currently experiencing a significant downturn (optimistic way of saying "depression") in the oil field business on account of the Saudi oil control tactics. Overall, the state of OK is bracing for the loss of about $240+ million dollars in lost revenue due to the oil business retraction.

The low oil prices come with a domestic price in certain segments of industry, the oil field industry being the hardest hit.

So, basically, choose one of the two:

* Cheaper gasoline.

* Profitable US oil industry.

Can't have both.

Andre

Yep. It's here as well.. Alberta is feeling the pinch  big time.