jan 1, 1866 - Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad line

Description:

In 1866 the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad line ran across the Kaw River through the Turkey Creek Valley at Rosedale to Olathe for 21 miles and by 1868 reached Fort Scott. It eventually went southeast toward Springfield, Memphis, New Orleans and Birmingham. Another branch ran west eventually all the way to San Francisco where it became the Frisco Railroad. Later this line was consolidated as the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Other Notable Railroads in Wyandotte County:
The Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRIP and later The Rock) evolved from the Rock Island La Salle RR predecessor beginning in 1851. The Rock was a granger line that had lots of rails in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. There was a spiritual in the 1920s first recorded in 1934 dedicated to the Rock Island Line. It was the first railroad to go from Chicago to the Mississippi River. The Rock was located in Armourdale along Kansas Avenue in Wyandotte City and Kansas City until it folded in 1980. It had been forced into bankruptcy after strong competition from AT&SF, Missouri Pacific, the Kansas and Texas, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, along with a series of poor business decisions beginning in the 1960s.
Beginning in 1865 the Chicago and North Western Railroad (C&NW) ran from Chicago to Leavenworth to Wyandott, Kansas City and then to Minneapolis. Its switch yards were located in Kansas City, Missouri just across an iron bridge over the Kaw at the Wyandott City levee. It was one of the most notable granger railroads maintaining hundreds of miles of secondary trackage to serve small grain elevators in the Midwest. The CN&W was purchased by the Union Pacific in 1995.
In 1885 the Kansas City, Wyandotte and Northwestern Railroad line ran from Kansas City to St. Joseph, Beatrice and Virginia City, Nebraska before making the Black Hills its focal point. Its lines were eventually consolidated as part of the Missouri Pacific.

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