Shawnee Branch Abandonment in Oklahoma

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp ... D&src=main

Unable to cut and paste a quote, but the abandonment runs ~57 miles between Seminole and McAlester.

And there goes a bit more of what should be a vital piece of railroad to this country - the Rock Island's former Choctaw route. Shame that no one picked up the route - it seems like the entire length from Tucumcari to Memphis would have been a wonderful fit with the Southern Pacific as a direct gateway to the Deep South. Otherwise, it also would have been helpful for the Santa Fe for the same reason from Amarillo to Memphis, for the BN-owned Frisco as a secondary main bypassing Springfield, or even for the M-K-T as opposed to the north-south line they got instead.