Elizabeth and I woke up at the Best Western Memorial Inn, partook in the hotel breakfast and checked e-mail before I finished the rest of yesterday's story before we left. Elizabeth drove us to Shawnee for the first station of the day.
Santa Fe one dome tank car 189512 on display in Shawnee.
Santa Fe caboose 999097 built by American Car and Foundry in 1930.
Santa Fe Shawnee station built in 1902. We switched drivers and I drove most of the way to Seminole.
Santa Fe caboose 999148 built by American Car and Foundry in 1930.
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Seminole freighthouse.
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Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Seminole station. I drove us to Holdenville.
Rock Island transfer caboose 74848 built by the Missouri Pacific as 13062 and painted as Rock Island.
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Holdenville station built in 1895. Note the more modern emblem in the second photograph.
The old crossing of the Rock Island. From here I drove us to McAlester to Trolley's Restuarant.
Texas Electric freight motor 503 built by American Car Company in 1913. The Texas Electric Railway was chartered on July 15, 1916 to consolidate the Texas Traction Company and the Southern Traction Company, effective January 1, 1917. The merged company operated three routes out of Dallas, one to Sherman and Denison, one to Ennis and Corsicana, and one to Hillsboro and Waco. With a length of 226 miles, the Texas Electric was the longest interurban between the Mississippi River and California. The company was a local Dallas undertaking promoted by J. F. Strickland. Although built to high standards, the company used streetcar tracks to reach its terminal in downtown Dallas. The Texas Electric was primarily a passenger carrier, although it also handled mail and express. Local streetcar service was also provided in several towns served by the interurban. In 1928 the company began to develop a carload freight business, but was hampered by its inability to handle freight cars through Dallas. By 1942 the Texas Electric was the last independent interurban line operating in Texas. In 1941 the light-traffic Corsicana branch was abandoned. The rest of the system operated through World War II, but patronage declined thereafter due to the increased use of private automobiles and trucks, and the Texas Electric was abandoned on December 31, 1948.
Scene in McAlester.
Pittsburg County Railway interurban car 32, which was a small operation which eventually served McAlester, Haileyville and Hartsthorne on a 17-mile system that dated back to a streetcar line of McAlester, which later became known as the Choctaw Railway & Lighting Company.
Southwest Missouri 49 built in the company shops in 1908. The Southwest Missouri Railroad Company was a rail carrier in the tri-state mining region of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. An outgrowth of passenger streetcar lines with 94 miles of track, it became a smaller but fully-fledged electric freight railway by the time it ceased operations effective May 31, 1939.
Union Pacific caboose 25587 built by International Car in 1964.
The old Trolley's Restaurant. We left but Elizabeth spotted something as we drove into town.
Arkansas Oklahoma Railroad B40-8W 581 and 587, built by General Electric in 1992.
Arkansas Oklahoma Railroad B23-S7 4093, built by General Electric in 1972. From here I drove to Checotah.
Missouri, Kansas and Texas Checotah station.
Missouri, Kansas and Texas caboose 205 built by the railroad in 1949.
Fairmont Speeder unknown railroad. Elizabeth then drove us to Sallisaw to spend the rest of the day (and tomorrow) with David and Rachael Cantlin, friends of Elizabeth's who used to live in Tacoma. They re-located to Sallisaw in 2021 to be closer to their daughter. I wrote this story sitting on the deck that overlooks the Kansas City Southern mainline.
Kansas City Southern 4715 south through the window. We went to dinner with David and Rachael to the Blue Ribbon Diner. We returned to our car and drove out twelve miles to their daughter and son-in-law James and Rebekah's house where we would be spending two nights here.
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