FL9

Today the BNSF mainline south from Arkansas City, KS to Purcell, OK is a roller coaster in both directions, and it was no diferent back in the early 1980’s when it was the Oklahoma District of the Santa Fe’s Middle Division.  Westbound (compass south) trains got their first test after leaving the yard and crossing the Arkansas River when they tackled a 0.6% grade several miles up to the Oklahoma state border before dropping slightly downgrade towards Newkirk and Ponca City.  If they could make that first hill at a reasonable speed, the rest of the trip would be manageable.  Here we see that in practice as a southbound freight powered by two GP20’s, a GP38-2 and an F45 are about a mile north of the state line making 10 to 15 mph in Run 8 on August 17th, 1983.

The five miles of 1.0% grade westbound between Perry and Asp could be fun if you did not get a run at it, and the next big pull up the six miles of 0.7% grade starting at Seward south of Guthrie was on the aptly named “Waterloo Hill.”  Like Napoleon, more than one train met its Waterloo on this hill and had to be pulled or shoved to the crest a few miles north of Edmond.  On August 21st in 1984 we see the 325 train from Kansas City to Dallas powered by three rebuilt GP7’s and a GP38-2 halfway done with its battle to climb the grade.

Soon this train will have won today’s contest with Waterloo Hill, but there are still more to conquer on the way to “Big D.”