The Howard Branch

[W. Gray]

•   Officially, known as the Howard Branch, Southern Kansas Division, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, the eighty-four mile branch line began in Emporia. The line extended from Emporia south through Olpe, Root, Madison, Bisbee, Hamilton, Utopia, Eureka, Small, Climax, Severy, Fiat, Howard, and terminating at Moline.

•   A spur at Madison Junction went southeast to Hilltop and Virgil.

•   The line went by the name of the Howard Branch because the original 1879 terminus was Howard. Moline became the terminus in 1886.

•   The line served Howard for 96 years before abandonment in 1975.

•   Originally, Howard had two passenger trains and two freight trains per day. The train speed limit was 30 miles per hour—this was a branch and not a mainline.

•   In the later years, there was one train each day in each direction. At this point passenger service consisted of mixed service, which meant the rail company added a passenger car to the end of a freight train. Sometimes the car added was a combine, which meant one-half the car contained seats for passengers, and one-half the car was for freight. Sometimes the combine was the only car behind the locomotive. Passenger service to and from Howard was available until the late 1940's or so.

•   After passenger service ended, freight trains to Howard, one in each direction each day, ran until abandonment of the branch line in 1975.

•   The tracks came southwest into Howard from Fiat crossing K-99 just before the Paw Paw bridge, which until the 60s was a large iron truss bridge similar to the old Elk Falls bridge. A concrete bridge replaced the iron truss in the sixties. A new bridge replacing that span occurred just recently. The train curved southwesterly across the north part of town and then crossed Washington Street at Plum.

•   When the rail company tore up the rails, I cannot say. However, if one goes down to the corner of Plum and Washington Street and looks southwest one can still plainly see the old raised roadbed curving around from Washington Street going to the long gone station. A lone tree is growing in the middle of the old right of way.

•   After leaving Howard station, the tracks headed southeast. One can still see that portion of the roadbed curving around the fairgrounds. Last time I was in Howard, someone was cutting the brush and trees away from the old roadbed. The track curved on across the county road south of the fairgrounds, then crossed the Elk River, and then split for Moline.

•   Several track sidings ran straight south from the Howard station. One lone siding went across the county road and then along the front of the cemetery rock wall. The siding ended just before the first cemetery entrance. It was common to see empty boxcars or stock cars parked in front of the cemetery.

•   The rock wall facing east along the paved road sets back several feet because the siding took up that open area. The road in front of the cemetery, incidentally, used to go down to the Elk, cross a low water bridge and then go straight up the steep hill to connect with June bug road to the right of where the cable tower is. A flood, probably '61, washed out the bridge and the county closed the road. Another low water bridge lies to the west.

•   I have heard from time to time the wall might be moved the short distance out to the road to give the cemetery a little bit more room. However, the cost of moving the wall is probably more than the benefit received.

•   The Howard Branch went north from Howard to Fiat through Severy to Climax, Small, and Eureka. The stop at Small was not a town but was a railroad name for a stop at an alfalfa mill. The mill was located on the corner where the paved "shortcut" from K-99 goes into Eureka. The mill disappeared in the sixties.

•   About three years ago, I drove to the location of Fiat. There is nothing there to signify a town but there was still an "RR" sign hanging on a fence where the rails used to come through. The Elk County history book has a story about a student in Fiat catching a train each morning to attend high school in Severy coming back by rail each evening. Old maps of the 1870s also show stops at Cresco and Paw Paw.

•   At Severy, the rails from Fiat crossed the east-west St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (The Frisco) and then crossed K-96 (US 400).

•   In 1946 a freight train pulled by a steam engine, just coming from Fiat and Howard had passed through Severy and was approaching K-96. A driver barreling down K-96 was traveling at a high rate of speed and apparently did not hear or see the steam engine. The fast moving automobile slammed into a boxcar behind the tender. The impact derailed the boxcar and the momentum of the boxcar took the rest of the train's twelve cars off the track. Only the engine and tender stayed put. The crash killed all three people in the car.

•   The Frisco rails headed east out of Severy went to Fredonia and passed through northeast Elk County on the way.

•   The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad also ran east to west from Winfield to Grenola, Moline, Elk Falls, and Longton and Independence. That line is now the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. The Santa Fe no longer exists as an independent railroad. It is now part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

•   Howard also had interstate bus service by either Greyhound or Trailways and I recall the buses stopped at the southeast corner of Wabash and Washington near the old bank to pick up and drop off passengers.

[Teresa]

Since I grew up at the  end of Plum and Washington.. I remember that train running every day.
John Layton was the depot manager and my sister Sherri and I, along with his daughters Janice and Peggy,
Used to go down there and play and watch him send messages on the telegraph key.
He said when the train pulled in to the station, many times there was a Hobo that had jumped the train and was riding to the next place.. Sometimes they got off in Howard and sometimes they just kept going.

After the movie at the Plaza was over, my sister and I used to have to walk home.. And the last street light was almost at the
Railroad tracks. We were goosey anyway about the dark..and it was darker than pitch sometimes and we would be real brave until we hit the railroad tracks and then if one of us spooked out and  broke out running.. The other one was right on the heels. That was sometimes the longest block in the world when it was dark.. 

I remember that Mark and Rob Cookson, Robert Sharp, Danny Kennedy, John Gray, Tim Roberts and some other boys used to go out and put pennies and nickels on the tracks, so that the train would smash them.
( I think Mark took his to school and sold them)
He also would put baby garter and grass snakes that he would find, in a band-aid box and take them to school and sell them for a dime or quarter to kids.. 

I used to walk the tracks sometimes, but my mom never knew ( I don't think anyway ) because we weren't supposed to.. But it was fun.

I remember when they took the tracks out.. I thought it was a sad time..

   

[W. Gray]

•   Putting coins on the track to flatten them from tons of locomotive pressure seems to be a universal experience. It is done here in Colorado all the time.

•   I have seen an old map, which shows double tracks going across Washington Street, but I do not recall if that was still the case prior to the tracks being torn up.

•   One of the station agents at Howard just recently died in Moline—Dick Hisle, I think.

•   It is a long story but the tracks from Emporia to Howard were first intended to be narrow gauge, similar to the mountain railroads in Colorado. Narrow gauge tracks were laid from Emporia to Eureka before someone wised up and then widened the rails to standard gauge.

•   Howard once had a roundhouse and turntable to turn locomotives around to point them back to Emporia. When Moline became the terminus, the roundhouse was moved there.

•   Originally, the extension from Howard was supposed to go to Elk Falls but Moline won out.

•   Howard at one time had six stock pens with a 14-car storage capacity. There was also a multi-ton truck scale, which is still over in the old rail area.

[Jody]

DID ANY OF YOU EVER TRAVEL TO  MOLINE ON THE  RAILROAD TRACKS (in a model t)?  IT WAS REAL SCAREY GOING OVER ELK RIVER.

[emptynest]

My husband used to ride the train from Moline to Howard back in the day to visit his aunt.  They would stay all day and then ride the train back to Moline.  They lived right off the tracks in Moline---in boxcars, because my father-in-law worked for the railroad and that's the housing they provided.  I want to say that they paid 25 cents to ride the train, but I could be wrong.  He never spoke of having a model T,though.  I think they were too poor to have a vehicle of any kind.

[W. Gray]

Trivia time.

Let's suppose the Howard Branch still ran from Emporia to Eureka.

Let's suppose one day a box car was sitting on a siding in Howard .

A freight conductor or engineer finds a dead body in that box car. The body has stab wounds and has been shot several times. Obviously murder.

What police jurisdiction would conduct a murder investigation?

City?—no.

County?—no.

State?—no.

Who has jurisdiction?

It would be the same jurisdiction that would prosecute someone driving an automobile on the tracks, that is, the railroad police, in our case the Santa Fe police.

[W. Gray]

Above, I shortened the Howard Branch considerably. Naturally, it ran from Emporia to Moline rather than Emporia to Eureka.

[Janet Harrington]

Ah, Waldo, I wish you had given me time to answer that question because I knew the answer.  Railroad police have jurisdiction on all railway property and railway right-of-way.  However; railroad police work in partnership with local and state authorities.  They have final say so.  I have met several railroad police and they are really nice guys. 

[W. Gray]

There have been a number of people murdered on moving passenger trains. Some guy went berserk a few years ago and shot and killed several people on a train back east.

There was a case of a women killed on a transcontinental train in the 40s or 50s.

She was apparently murdered in her compartment somewhere west of Denver based on  some passengers saying they heard muffled screams.

Best I can remember, by the time the murder was discovered, the body was in Salt Lake City and was kept where it was until the train arrived in Oakland. I think railroad police got on at Salt Lake and began their investigation at that point.

[Flintauqua]

Waldo (or anyone else), have you ever come across any info regarding the Howard Branch continuing past Moline.  Years ago I remember coming across a map showing the route continuing to Rogers in Chautauqua Co.  I have long ago lost any photo copy I may have had of this map, but the one I viewed was probably in the special collections at either the Wichita Public Library or WSU.  Any one have any thoughts?