<DDISPATCHE R THE OFFICIAL. NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL OKLAHOMA RAIL CLUB LTD VOLUME XXVI JULY 1996 NUMBER 7 President: Tom Elmore Next Club Meeting * August Meeting will be at the Kirkpatrick Center in train Vice-President: David Carter David Carter, Vice-Presi­ area. Soonerland will be open and dent, is planning a trip (July 13) layout will be operating. Secretary: to visit the Ft. Smith, Ark. * Work session scheduled Drake Rice Trolley Club (where we can ride for June 8, 8 am to Noon at Treasurer: their trolley), then cross the river school yard. Debbie Neely to ride the train at Van Buren. * Club has written Union NRHS Director: Please contact David Carter and Pacific Railroad about possible Howard Thornton let him know about your interest excursion in 1997. Membership Chairman: in the trip, 376-5633. • * Club working with State Susan Baucom Film Commission on possible CORC Board Highlights assistance in future movie to be Members At Large: Steve Davis By Drake Rice filmed in Oklahoma. David Dollar * July Meeting will be trip * Set next Board meeting Bob Hussey to Ft.Smith to visit trolley mu­ for June 24 at 7:00pm, Oklahoma Past President: seum and ride trolley and then Station Bar-B-Q. m Bob Cook take a two hour rail trip at Van Train Show Chairman: Buren. Meet at Myriad on Ed Birch, Jr. Saturday, July 13. Make reserva­ Roadmaster: tions now by calling David Drake Rice Carter, Vice President. Editor: Roy Thornton TABLE OF CONTENTS The President's Column 2 Work Session Held May 18 4 Deadline for Orphan Train Reunion Scheduled 5 articles submited Food for Thought 5 to this publica­ Museum Highlights Railroads, Route 66 6 National Railway Historical Society Schedule 7 tion is the 5th of Railroad Museums and Displays around Texas 7 each month. A Trip Over the Rockies 9 Mail to "Editor" Timetable 12 Bob Hussey and Neal Baucom assess the Rock Island Caboose tool box. Carl Loveday hands decking material up to "the guys on top ". Bob Hussey, Neal Baucom and Bob Cook replace rotted decking on the Rock Island Bob Cook and John Ansell laying in the car- caboose. siding decking on the CRI&P caboose roof. the DISPATCHER PAGE 3 July 1996 Tom Elmore and Film Director, Robert Walden, at the Shawnee depot. Work Session Held May 18 power tools which will help with the repair Reported by Drake Rice work. At the next session, the east half roof of the R.I. Caboose will be repaired which will Second work session was held at the include replacement of bad support boards of school grounds on Saturday May 18 with Carl the roof decking, installation of felt paper, and Loveday, John Ansell, Neal Baucom, Bob then new roofing put in place, also, the installa­ Hussey Jr., Tom Elmore and Drake Rice. tion of the new replacement windows. Future work will see the removal of bad side wall Wood roof decking was replaced on west boards and repainting of the caboose. half of Rock Island Caboose, included support beams, and new felt put down, thus closing the All club members are encouraged to help hole in the roof. with the restoration project. If you have any questions, please call Drake Rice, CORC Club Inside, work on replacing broken windows Secretary. • was underway along with some cleaning and reorganizing of club tools and materials. Please call Drake if you can help. Six or eight men can't possibly do Outside, weeds were mowed down, small all the repairs, and they need help trees removed and trash picked up. But as in many forms. Can you paint, hammer a nail, sweep a floor, cut always, plenty work needed to be done. away weeds? Any help you can give will be appreciated, and who The School warehouse has made repairs knows, maybe your lungs would on the power line to work area to allow use of appreciate the fresh air. the DISPATCHER PAGE 4 July 1996 1997 CORC Historical Calendars train riders. By Roy Thornton To submit biographical information, contact Orphan Train Riders Reunion, Ida Once again, CORC is requesting that the Mae Wilhoit, 3523 S New Haven Ave, Tulsa, public, members, and all railfans to consider OK 74135-4514, or call (918) 743-2110. • submitting their favorite railroad photos to Roy Thornton, 2921 Bella Vista, Midwest City, OK FOOD FOR THOUGHT 73110. All photos will be returned after calendar From CORC V.P., David Carter publication if a stamped self-addressed envelope Reprinted from Oklahoma Jaycee Manual is sent with the photo. Photos, selected for use in the calendar, will be returned, post paid, with WAYS TO KILL A CHAPTER four calendars as payment for inclusion of the 1. Don't attend meetings but if you do, photo. arrive late. As always, the theme of the black and 2. Be sure to leave before the meeting is white calendars will be railroading in Oklahoma. closed. Photos of rolling stock, yards, stations, land­ 3. Never have anything to say at the marks, structures, and right of way scenery will meeting — wait until you get outside. be considered. The best photo as determined by 4. When at the meeting, not to do every­ OKC's Train Show contest judges will receive thing, then go home and do nothing. the Preston George Memorial Award. Prints or 5. The next day, find fault with the officers negatives can be accepted. Entries received after and other members. June 30 cannot be accepted. 6. Take no part in the organization affairs. 7. Be sure to sit in the back, so you can talk freely to another member. Orphan Train Reunion 8. Get all the organization will give you, but don't give the organization anything. Schedule 9. Never ask anyone to join the organiza­ Reprinted from the Daily Oklahoman tion. 10. At every opportunity, threaten to The Oklahoma Orphan Train Riders re­ resign and try to get others to do so. union sponsored by the Orphan Train Heritage 11. Talk cooperation, but don't cooperate. Society of America will be June 28-29 at the 12. If asked to help, say you haven't time. Grandview Hotel in Tulsa. 13. Never read anything pertaining to the Between 1853 and 1929 more than organization. 150,000 destitute and orphaned children from 14. Never accept an office — it is easier New York institutions were loaded on trains and to criticize than to do things. placed with families throughout the Midwest. 15. If appointed to a committee, never New York institutions included the Children's give any time or service. Aid Society of New York City and the New 16. If you receive a bill for dues, ignore it. York Foundling Hospital. 17. Don't do any more than you have to, The Balwin Place Mission and Home for and when the others willingly and unselfishly Little Wanderers, in Boston, also participated in use their ability to help the good cause along, finding homes for abandoned children. then howl that the organization is run by a The society is sponsoring a national effort clique. to obtain stories and biographies of the orphan the DISPATCHER PAGE 5 July 1996 Museum Highlights Railroads, signs and a working model train display. Visi­ tors can walk through the cabooses, which are Route 66 refurbished throughout, with more bits of rail Reprinted from The Sunday Oklahoman, Apr memorabilia. 14,1996 Austerman and Knuppel are working on a small Route 66 exhibit, recently delivered by Eye-catching reminders of important parts the Oklahoma Historical Society and one of of Yukon's history can be found at Yukon's only a few Route 66-theme displays at muse­ Best Railroad Museum. The Rock Island ums along the route statewide. These exhibits Railroad, rail service in Oklahoma, a booming are satellites of the Historical Society's new grain milling industry, and Route 66 are re­ Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. membered there. The train museum was chosen to house a The museum began modestly with a single satellite display because of the railroad's ties to refurbished caboose and boxcar with a few the famed Mother Road, Austerman said. "The items inside, perched on a length of rail next to relationship between Route 66 and the Rock working tracks on the east edge of town. Island was a natural; the two ran parallel across Originally a project of the city's 1991 centen­ the state." Austerman's son, David, who helps nial celebration, Yukon's Best Railroad Mu­ create and maintain the museum's displays and seum since expanded inside and out. equipment, said the museum's array of train- "We started out as Yukon's 'Good' Rail­ related hardware and gadgets on display will road Museum," joked Jack Austerman, a spark the interest of visitors, even those who retired orthodontist who runs the museum with don't know much about trains. co-curator John Knuppel, a retired fireman. "From lanterns, locks, signal parts, and The museum's name is a tribute to the signs to locomotive horns - some of these are "Yukon's Best" flour mills across the street, things you may not think about until you see which operated from 1884 to 1970. The grain them." And each item has a story. There is a elevators still stand, bearing the freshly-painted row of the brass fare boxes used when the "Yukon's Best" logo. Interurban Trolley ran between El Reno and Today the museum boasts three red and Oklahoma City from about 1910 to 1947. The yellow cabooses flanking the red boxcar, so old wooden Interurban Depot still stands in a bright and shiny they seem more like a child's lumberyard just across from the museum.