Frisco - Sac River Bridge
Photos
Looking east to former bridge location from Route 123 crossing. Bridge piers still intact but deck and right-of-way removed
Photo taken by Nathan Morton in May 2009
BH Photo #140341
Facts
- Overview
- Lost Deck plate girder bridge over Sac River on Frisco Railroad in Aldrich
- Location
- Aldrich, Polk County, Missouri
- Status
- Lost
- History
- Abandoned by Frisco Railroad for parallel "Highline" route, and removed with the creation of Lake Stockton
- Railroads
- - Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield Railway (KCC&S)
- St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (SLSF; Frisco)
- Design
- Deck plate girder
- Also called
- Frisco - Aldrich Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +37.53597, -93.54686 (decimal degrees)
37°32'10" N, 93°32'49" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/451686/4154472 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Aldrich
- Land survey
- T. 32 N., R. 24 W., Sec. 3
- Elevation
- 873 ft. above sea level
- Inventory number
- BH 42576 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- April 24, 2017: Updated by Clark Vance: Added category "Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield Railway"
- April 6, 2017: Updated by Kelly McClanahan: moved pin
- February 26, 2010: Updated by Greg Hall: added GPS coordinates
- May 17, 2009: Added by Nathan Morton
Sources
- Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Greg Hall - cyclebay [at] aol [dot] com
- Kelly McClanahan
Comments
This is actually the KCCS line, which was sold to Frisco who combined it with their existing line formally known as the "Blair Line".
The Blair ran from Belton near KC through Harrisonville, LaTour, Clinton and bounced by the KCCS all the way until just north of here where the Blair continued south to Springfield and the KCCS went west to connect in Ash Grove.
When Frisco bought them both, they combined sections of the KCCS and their line and made the "highline", then abandoned portions of both the Blair and the KCCS where they didn't need access anymore.
Finally Frisco abandoned the whole thing in favor of the Truman Lake. Too much money for the amount of bridges needed and they could run trains through the Fort Scott branch into Springfield.
Fun facts:
1. President Harry Truman rode on this line before it was closed
2. Ash Grove is where the connection from Fort Scott is, ironically, considering they abandoned that section!
3. The KCCS had a nickname too, "Leaky Roof", because it was so cheap and the cars hardly ever carried anything but clay, so the roof's leaked. It angered a local Flour farmer because his flour would get wet, so he hauled the flour by tractor to the competitor line to have it shipped!
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/polk/aldrich-rail/
At one time, bridge was a steel through truss. North approach was a timber trestle with about a 16-17 bents. I have a picture of south bound train on the trestle if any one is interested.
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