CF&E Action/Short Line Action.

[FCIN]

A few photos from my rail fan trip this past weekend. First we have one of the former MRS MP15dc's now operated by FTRL at the Anheuser-Busch plant in St. Louis. Former MRS 257 still wearing her MRS colors, but you can see how FTRL painted the sides with a matching green in order to re-letter it.     Interesting experience there when a female security guard tried to tell me that it was illegal to take photographs from a public street; but that's a story in itself. Was actually hoping to catch FTRL units in their own paint scheme, but no such luck. FTRL looks to be operating 3 of the former MRS MP15dc's; the other MRS units have been sold to various industrial operations in the St. Louis area.

Next stop was Mexico, MO, to spend the night and where I was able to photograph the complete roster of the Ozark Valley Railroad (former ATSF GP9U's with their Topeka cabs) - 1306, 1321 (still in primer) and 1362             OVRR operates the former Mexico - Fulton, MO branch of the GM&O, ICG, Missouri Western, Gateway Western and now KCS. OVRR appears to have only two active customers in Mexico (Mexico Plastics and Cerro Copper) and is only operating on an as needed basis. They want to restore service to Fulton, which hasn't seen a train operate over it in years, but for now only a part of that line is being used for car storage. Hopefully, they'll be able to get a few customers in Fulton to resume rail service and keep this branch from getting removed completely. Time will tell.

OVRR has a rather interesting situation in Mexico, as they must first enter the NS main line then cross over to the KCS line to access the small KCS yard. The NS and KCS lines run parallel to each other about 100 feet apart from Mexico to Centralia, MO. KCS only operates about 4 trains a day on this line which gives them access to the St. Louis area by running from Kansas City through Louisiana, MO, to Roodhouse, IL, and then southward to East St. Louis. Any one that's ever seen the Kalmbach book Classic Railroads You Can Model will remember the article "GM&O Doodle Bug Line" that talks about this railroad line in its GM&O days. That book also contains the article "Wabash (N&W) Mixed Train Branch Line" that covers what is now the Columbia Terminal Railroad.