Santa Fe Main Line East of Kansas City

I'm looking for any information on operations/signalling/dispatching on the former AT&SF main between Chicago-Fort Madison-Marcelline-Kansas City.

I have two ETT's from around 1950 showing double-track, timetable/train order operation, and one from the late 1980's; by that time the line was signalled in both directions on both tracks and TCS/CTC had long since displaced all the towers except for Joliet and the major junctions in and near Chicago.

Traffic was, of course, a lot different as well. My early ETT's showed only three scheduled time freights in each direction (though I 'm sure extras and fruit blocks accounted for more), and about 8-10 passenger moves, including motor-car locals west of Fort Madison.

So if anyone could provide a bit more history, particularly a rough date for the CTC installation, please fill us in.

I think I maybe able to help you out.

I have a 1992 ATSF Annual that has the time each train was scheduled to depart and arrive in each of the nine regions. One example being that train 103 would depart Chicago at 9:30am and arrive in Kansas City at 5:00am. There where no max tons for this train, had a 1.1 HPT and averaged 23.2 miles per hour. This is listed as a local manafest that performed local work along the way. This is the kind of stuff contained that was in effect from January, 1991 thru March, 1992.

I also have a copy of the system timetable dated October 29, 1989. Hopefully we can work something out to get you the area you're interested in.

Let me know if this helps out.