Manhattan, Kansas

[gt3corn]

Manhattan is a moderately sized city with plenty to offer. It is nestled in The Flint Hills and not flat like most Kansas towns. The capital Topeka is about 50 miles to the east, Salina is about 65 mile to the west. You can get here from Topeka by taking 24 to the west, go past Saint George until you start to see a lot of restaurants and stuff. Once you see a bridge it will have a sign that says ''Big Blue River'', a three span bridge will be to your left. Continue a little farther until you get to Levee Drive and make a U-turn get back on 24 eastbound, there will be a dirt parking area just before you hit the bridge. Go down there and park, the train track will be to your right. There is a area before the train bridge where the tracks intersect the trail, by standing on the trail you can get some pretty good photos and video. There is also a boating ramp you can walk to watch trains cross the bridge if you'd like. The single track mainline called the Union Pacific Salina Subdivision or The KP line
( Old Kansas Pacific) is owned the the Union Pacific, with mostly unit coal trains. You can expect to see unit grain, manifests, autorack, and a local, in some rare times UP transports military vehicles to and from Fort Riley. Sometimes you can see some pretty cool stuff, like I witnessed about a three week span of trains transporting HUGE red pipes. The line is used by any where from 1 to 15 trains a day, The norm is about from 3 to 7 though. Manhattan has plenty other railfanning sites though, like a hotel that is not even two car lengths from the tracks. Just stay on 24 and Tuttle Creek BLVD the tracks will parallel you and you will find many grade crossing opportunities.

[Warwhoop]

Sounds very interesting. Never been down that way but I do like traveling on the prairies so it might be a place to visit. The attached shot is of a loco from down your way - shot in Vernon, B.C. in early July of this year. While still in Central Kansas colours it's currently owned by the Okanagan Valley Railway (OKAN), headquartered in Vernon. My understanding was that OKAN had shut down but their website is still active so I'm not sure what the current status of the engine is.

[CGW101c]

Keith: Do the numbers on your photo caption show that loco as former IC 8707 or is it a coincidence? TZ

[Warwhoop]

I don't have any info showing 1006 as being a former IC unit but one of it's sister locomotives apparently was.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/loc....aspx?id=45474

Strangely enough, my picture shows 1006 in Central Kansas paint but on OKAN trackage while the pic above of OKAN 1038 shows it in OKAN colours but sitting in Chicago. Engines can be very transient beasts...

[UP Salina Sub]

Originally Posted by Warwhoop

Sounds very interesting. Never been down that way but I do like traveling on the prairies so it might be a place to visit. The attached shot is of a loco from down your way - shot in Vernon, B.C. in early July of this year. While still in Central Kansas colours it's currently owned by the Okanagan Valley Railway (OKAN), headquartered in Vernon. My understanding was that OKAN had shut down but their website is still active so I'm not sure what the current status of the engine is.

I remember the Central Kansas Railway quite well, they took over the former ATSF yards in Salina Kansas, and ran on UP trackage rights over here. the ex ATSF GP7's they used here were in a solid red paint scheme, although I did see some Kansas Southwestern units here too. The Kansas & Oklahoma railroad (owned by Watco)is the successor to the CKRY. The power used is the WAMX 3811, and WAMX 3812, a pair of GP38's

[UP Salina Sub]

Originally Posted by gt3corn

Manhattan is a moderately sized city with plenty to offer. It is nestled in The Flint Hills and not flat like most Kansas towns. The capital Topeka is about 50 miles to the east, Salina is about 65 mile to the west. You can get here from Topeka by taking 24 to the west, go past Saint George until you start to see a lot of restaurants and stuff. Once you see a bridge it will have a sign that says ''Big Blue River'', a three span bridge will be to your left. Continue a little farther until you get to Levee Drive and make a U-turn get back on 24 eastbound, there will be a dirt parking area just before you hit the bridge. Go down there and park, the train track will be to your right. There is a area before the train bridge where the tracks intersect the trail, by standing on the trail you can get some pretty good photos and video. There is also a boating ramp you can walk to watch trains cross the bridge if you'd like. The single track mainline called the Union Pacific Salina Subdivision or The KP line
( Old Kansas Pacific) is owned the the Union Pacific, with mostly unit coal trains. You can expect to see unit grain, manifests, autorack, and a local, in some rare times UP transports military vehicles to and from Fort Riley. Sometimes you can see some pretty cool stuff, like I witnessed about a three week span of trains transporting HUGE red pipes. The line is used by any where from 1 to 15 trains a day, The norm is about from 3 to 7 though. Manhattan has plenty other railfanning sites though, like a hotel that is not even two car lengths from the tracks. Just stay on 24 and Tuttle Creek BLVD the tracks will parallel you and you will find many grade crossing opportunities.

I remember those pipe trains too.The manifests we see here are the MKSSI, and MSIKC, both of which normally run later at night, you can see an empty auto rack on occasion, and lately I've seen westbound baretable trains. I've also seen trains of windmill blades. But it is mostly coal and grain trains.Typical power is mostly GE units, C44AC, C44ACCTE,and even some Gevo's. EMD power normally seen are SD70M's, SD9043MAC, and SD70ACe's. Sometimes NS,CSXT,BNSF, and even some Ferromex units can make appearances in the consists.