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THE CENTRAL DIVISIONS
St. Louis-San Francisco Rwy. milepost
410.4 and Missouri Pacific RR. milepost 498.4 constitute a “diamond” on
the banks of the Arkansas River in Van Buren, Arkansas. Van Buren lies
on the north side of the river and Fort Smith lies on the south side.
The Oklahoma border is just to the west.
For the Frisco, Fort Smith,
Arkansas is the namesake for the Subdivision that runs from Monett,
Missouri to Paris, Texas, part of the railroad’s Central Division. This
was the original main line of the Frisco, connecting St. Louis and
points east to Texas. The Frisco interchanged with the Santa Fe in Paris
until a later line through Tulsa, Oklahoma became the primary route to
the Texas market and connections.
Van Buren is the eastern end of the
Wagoner Subdivision and the western end of the Van Buren Subdivision of
the MoPac’s Central Division. This line runs from the major facility in
North Little Rock, AR through Oklahoma and Kansas to Kansas City with
connections to the west.
Fort Smith, Arkansas’s second
largest city, is a surprisingly industrialized community with companies
processing and producing a wide variety of food and manufactured
products. Both Fort Smith and Van Buren boast growing industrial parks
as well as established businesses along the main lines. A third Class I
railroad, the Kansas City Southern, also serves some of the local
businesses, inherited from the former Fort Smith & Western.
The KCS negotiated several years
ago to use Frisco trackage to enter Fort Smith, rather than maintain an
older bridge over the Poteau River and track in the floodplain. A local
runs from Heavener, Oklahoma on the KCS main line. After the Frisco line
leaves Arkansas it crosses the CRI&P line from Little Rock to El Reno,
OK. There will be some Rock Island interchange, ignoring the late ‘70s
demise of the “grand old line.”
The “Central Divisions” layout
represents Fort Smith and Van Buren in 1980, the final year of Frisco
independence. (The merger with the Burlington Northern may have been
working its way through the ICC, but by virtue of Modeler’s License” it
is ignored.) The Missouri Pacific, with its multiple subsidiaries, was
in negotiation with the Union Pacific to merge, but that is also
ignored. On the “Central Divisions” you will find the green of the BN
and the yellow of the UP only on a few visiting freight cars. “Remember
the Frisco” and “Long Live Jenks Blue.”
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