ABOVE: Southbound coal train No. 91 tops the grade in Gravette, Ark., with a display of smoke from its mixed bag consist. Gray SD60 759 is working with rare SD40X 701, still in KCS white paint, along with Oakway SD60s 9054 and 9011 on July 9, 1993. LEFT: Sitting between the Heavener Sub and Highway 59 in Gravette is KCS caboose 383. This caboose can be easily photographed from alongside Highway 59 in the mornings, as seen on July 9, 1993, as a train passes in the background.
Today traffic along the Heavener Sub amounts to between a dozen and 16 or so trains every 24 hours, equally mixed between coal, grain and freight traffic. As with other Class I railroads, the KCS crews on the Heavener Sub “call out” wayside signals, making it easier to find and track the traffic. Also, the defect detectors also broadcast over the scanner, again assisting the properly equipped railfan to locate and follow the trains.
The KCS dodgers at one time worked between Siloam Springs and Pittsburg, Kan., with the crews working north one
day and back south the next, on week- days only. In December 2007, the KCS moved the crew base from Siloam Springs south six miles to Watts, Okla., location of a six track freight yard. In 2013, train WT101 works north out of Watts, regularly servicing customers in the Siloam Springs, Gentry and De- catur areas. Occasionally WT101 will work north to Anderson and then re- turn south to Watts. These dodgers work Monday through Friday. Your author’s first visit to this area was in the summer of 1993. After spending a frustrating morning in the
Springdale area trying to do something with the Alcos on the A&M, the after- noon was spent along the Heavener Sub. While the Springdale area is sub- urban in nature with lots of city-type driving, the Heavener Sub is the oppo- site, very rural in nature, with easy ac- cess and an easy to follow right of way featuring interesting trains and manned helpers. It is the author’s hope that fans visiting the NRHS convention will give the KCS Heavener Sub a look while you are in the area. With colorful trains plentiful on the KCS, it is unlike- ly you will come away disappointed from your trip along Highway 59!
The author would like to give a big “thank you” to Lowell G. McManus and the Kansas City Southern Historical Society for their much needed help in the preparation of this article.
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