C.M. Saves the trains- Paxson, Ks.-The Stampede- C.M. takes a fall

{To read story in proper sequence go to bottom of Blog Archives & go up}




This isn't really a part of my story.  It' just a bunch of the letters I made up to send with our Model Railroad Passes.  I thought they were kinda cute & humorous & I had fun making the up  so included a few.

Our O. B. & C.S. Pass

                                                  

                                    

The Letterhead that went with our model R.R. letters

                                            
                                              C.M. SAVES THE TRAINS

    The most loyal & avid Osage Beach and Colorado Springs rail fan is C.M. Trains from Camdenton, Mo.  This story is of one of his photo trips.  He had packed his Brownie Kodak Camera & several rolls of film in his old Model T  Ford & was headed for western Kansas to get photos of some O.B.&C.S. 'High Ball'  freights & 'Varnish Runs' on the Kansas prairie.
    Now unbeknownst to ole C.M. some things were happening that would change those plans.  Rollin Along & Ollie Board were headed west from Osage Beach, Mo to Ft. Scott Ks. with a 'Hop" [engine & caboose only].  Rollin was in Engine #10 and Ollie was up in the 'Angel Seat' in the Caboose.  At the same time Ken I. Makit in Engine #1 was east bound pulling a 'Big Drag' of military supplies from Ft. Carson, Colo. to Ft. Osage, Mo.
     C.M. was on his way to Kansas when he spotted Rollin, Ollie  east of Hermitage, Mo.  Since he didn't have any Hop pictures he decided to follow them, taking pictures from first one startegic point and then another before headin on.  He had topped a hill around Wheatland, Mo. when he spotted Ken with the freight drag.  Remembering seeing the Hop east of Hermitage he realized that the Telegraph Operator, Kent Heargood, had missed a message coming over the 'High Wire' again and that their was going to be a 'Cornfield Meet' if something wasn't done.  So he dropped the old T in reverse, spun her around right in the middle of Hiway 54 and raced back to Hermitage.  He slid to a halt, threw open the door, and started running down to the tracks as fast as he could.
    Now folks at the Hermitage Cafe knew about ole C.M. and some of his crazy stunts so they started coming out to see what was going on.  C.M. got down to the tracks.  About this time Ollie could see the freight coming towards them and was frantically waving at Rollin but couldn't get his attention.  C.M. could see them both approaching fast so he threw the 'Switch'  sending Rollin and Ollie onto the Siding, then threw the switch back so Ken and the military freight could go 'Thundering down the Main.'   But, that was as much  of a Hero as C.M. was gonna be that day.
      Rollin had been watching C.M. wondering what craziness  he was up to, when he realized he would be going onto a 'Dead Siding' [for east bound trains to spot cars only]  Rollin 'Wipes the Clock' and 'Sets the Brakes', but, that's not gonna be good enough.  Engine # 10 hits the 'Toad' at the end of the siding and jumps the tracks.
      Now folks from the Cafe had been watchin this all from the top of the hill.  After all the dust had settled they went down to the tracks.  With some pinch bars Ken found at the R.R. Station and some oil field pipe that Hermitage citizens had scrounged up they pinched #10 back on the tracks so Rollin and Ollie could return to the Main Line.
    The town folks took C.M. back up to the Cafe where he spent the afternoon drinkin coffee and tellin everyone who came in how he had saved the trains.  The only regret he has was that in all the ruckas he didn't get a picture of Engine #10 while it was on the Hermitage siding.

                                               Yours till the Toad Hops,

Patrick's High Ball B.N. freight on the Ks. prarie

                                    
                                              
                                                   PAXSON KANSAS

     Many, many years ago somewhere between Argonia and Albion, along The Chicaskia River was a town called Paxson, Ks.  A Scotch-Irish immagrant whose name was Paxson founded it.  His first name or initial were not known, he was just called 'Pax'.  He was headed west in a covered wagon with his family.  History does not record his destination, perhaps he was just headed West.
     He was crossing the land of the Kansa Indian [Kansa meaning 'People of the South Wind']  They were probably named during the summer, had the been named in the Winter they would probably be 'People of the North Wind'.
      He had met Oracle Jones while camped along the Missouri River.  Oracle being headed for Colorado.  After talking to Oracle, Pax decided he too had invisionary power. While camped along the Chicaskia River Pax had a Vision.  His wife called it a bad dream but his spirit was undaunted.  He saw Russian Mennonites bringing a hard red winter wheat to the area that would grow in great abundance.  He saw the settlers exporting the wheat in great amounts back to Russia and around the world & that the area would become the 'Bread basket of the World'.  His wife declared he was, no doubt,  the biggest fruitcake in the world but he was unswayed.
    So he established a Trading Post and sure enough the settlers came.  The Trading Post became a settlement, the settlement a town, the town a riverport.  It prospered till farmers started building ponds and dams on the creeks that emptied into the river so much that in hampered nivigation.
      At one time Paxson had 2 hotels, 3 Cafe's & Opera House.  A saw mill that cut cottonwood trees into lumber and a wheat terminal at the river docks.  For awhile in had a River Boat the 'Queen Mary Margaret'.
    The railroads came to Paxson in 1865.  First the Osage Beach & Colorado Springs Railway.  A wooden grain elevator and stockyards went up.  Paxson, Ks. became a shipping point for cattle drives that strayed from the Elsworth and Chislom Trail.  At one time 4 railroad went through Paxson.  The O.B & C.S.,  Santa Fe,  Burlington Northen and SOO Line.  During the boom there was a Harvey House on the Santa Fe.
    The town eventually died.  Surrounding towns outgrew it and it dwindled away.  Of the 3 town, Argonia, Albion & Paxson only Argonia survives today.  A small farming community with some of the Paxson decendants still living there.  There is nothing left of Paxson except some old overgrown railroad beds.  Signs with the town name used to set along the old tracks but railroad buffs have taken them.  So Paxson, Ks. is just a part of history and not a very well remembered part at that.

                                                     Yours till the Ice Hatches,

{Note: A town of Paxson did actually exist in the Lindsburg, Ks. area in the 1800's}

Imaginary routes of our Model R.R.

Our Santa Fe R.R. Pass

                                                            

The Pax's Santa Fe Division 'Super Chief' at Osage Beach, Mo. R.R. Station.

Pax's Santa Fe freight engine spotting Cat equipment & Semi Trailers.

                                        
                                          THE STAMPEDE

     This little Incident took place in 1887.  It involves two parties.  One is Texas Jack, trail boss on a herd of longhorns the Lazy R was sending up the Santa Fe Trail to Abilene, Ks.  The other is Ken I. Makit, engineer for the Osage Beach and Colorado Springs Railway.
    Now for the story.  Ken was running a long string of box cars full of Wheat he had picked up at the elevator at Paxson, Ks. the sodbuster had harvested and was headed for a mill in Colorado Springs, Colo.    Ken  had been doing pretty good considering he was dragging an Osage-Colorado freight and the trouble they usually have.
     Texas Jack and his trail hands had brought those longhorns up from Tahoka, Tx.  He had been having trouble all the way.  He'd lost some to rustlers.  He'd lost a bunch in the Red River that was flooded but they'd had to cross anyway.   Indians had run off a few now and then for meat.  The last thing the wanted was a stampede.    Texas Jack and the trail hands had just got the herd across the Cimarron River in Southwest Ks. and was headed for the lower crossing of the Arkansas River at Ford, Ks.  They still had a thousand longhorns which wasn't too bad considering all the trouble, so things were looking up, but not for long.
     Up on the track Ken was coming up on a smitherin of Buffalo standing on and along side the tracks.  So he let out a couple of long blasts on the whistle.  That cleared the Buffalo off the tracks, but, it also did something else.  The longhorns were close enough to hear the whistle and it spooked them.  They started to run, straight at the train!  Texas Jack and the cowpokes spurred their horses to the lead steers and tried to turn them.  They got them turned and headed alongside the tracks running with the train.  But as the mass of cattle got to the curve they began to bunch up and crowd against the train.  Now it so happened the the cattle and the train were moving at the same speed so none of the cattle got trampled and the loaded wheat cars were heavy enough to stay on the tracks without tipping  over.  But a strange thing happened, the force of them longhorns pushed the ties and rails over about 5' for a length of about a mile.  This wasn't noticed until the next day when Ken made the return trip.  The curve is still in the tracks today!  The track crews never did get around to straightening it out.
      Any, Texas Jack and the cow hands finally got the herd under control, but, they were half way to Dodge City, Ks. so they just took the herd to the O. B. & C.S. cattle pens at Dodge and shipped them to Abilene from there.  The station master at Dodge City wired Colorado Springs and they sent down the No. 2 engine with an extra of cattle cars.  The Lazy R cow hands saved a few days on the trail and had a chance to whoop it up in in famous Dodge City.  They got as much for the cattle as they would have in Abilene and the O.B. & C.S. got some extra business
                                                      
                                         Yours till the switches point,

Jason's SOO Line drops of some Hopper cars at the CO-OP Elevator.

                                              
                                          

                                             C.M. TAKES A FALL

       When the train crews for the Osage Beach and Colorado Springs R.R. are off duty, hanging around the Coffee  Shop telling railroad stories there's a good chance that our faithful railfan, C.M. Train, from Camdeton, Mo., is going to be mentioned.  A favorite story is C.M.'s attempt to get an aerial photo of an Osage-Colorado train.  Now C.M. not being a man of means figured he needed an inexpensive way to get his photos.  He got the idea that the old steel R.R. bridge that spanned the Pomme De Teree River on Hiway 54 was the perfect solution.
     So one day he got in his Model T Ford, took his Kodak Brownie and headed for the bridge.  Upon arriving he climbed high in the girders to wait.  It so happened that engineer Rollin Along and fireman Rusty Waters were running engine #10 and a freight drag.  Since the Osage-Colorado couldn't afford sufficient water towers along  the way a flat car with two large water tank were coupled behind the coal car.  If the crews got desperate for water they would have to stop and bucket water up to the engine.
     On this particular day this was a good thing for C.M. as he had been up on the bridge for some time and his muscles were getting tired.  He spotted the train coming and shifted positions to what he though would be the best angle for a photo.  Thing were going pretty well, he thought, till the train started onto the bridge.
    Rollin had spotted C.M. and had slowed #10 and it's drag to a crawl,  but the old bridge still began to shake as the train entered the bridge.  C.M. was trying to hold on with one hand and take a picture with the other. Before he knew what was happening he lost his grip and began to fall.  Now Lady Luck was smiling on Ole C.M. that day because he fell into one of the water tanks.
     Rusty Waters Who had only seen him fall anxiously climbed over the coal tender to see exactly where C.M. had landed.  There he found him sputtering and splashing around in the water tank and fished him out.  He managed to get him to the engine where he could dry out.  Needless to say the camera and film were ruined.
     He got a new camera but the incident didn't keep him from trying to get his aerial photos.  Train Crews would find him out in Kansas perched atop a windmill or silo and he was spotted in the top branches of a big old Cottonwood tree snapping pictures.  But they never found him atop any of the railroad bridges that spanned the Osage Beach & Colorado Springs railroad tracks.

                                              Yours till the roof walks.