| Here is some Midland Valley information which gives the operating expenses for the joint track arrangement with Frisco from Maney Junction (Rock Island, IT) to Fort Smith. This information came from Ingersoll's private papers and includes the cost for sharing the Frisco station at Fort Smith. The total cost for 1908 to Midland Valley, for the joint track arrangement with Frisco into Fort Smith, was $13,049 for track rent; $750 use of Frisco's passenger station; $3,000 track maintenance and $2,100 station operating expense for a total of $18,899. (It is possible that MV may have later gotten this rate reduced a little as a document from 1911 gives the lease rate as $600 per mile.) In 1908 the Midland Valley was operating 6 trains per day over this leased Frisco track, except on Sunday when only one was operated. The average operating distance was about 16 miles from Maney Jct. (Rock Island, IT) to the Fort Smith, AR Frisco depot. It is sometimes confusing but needs to be remembered that this lease arrangement had nothing at all to do with the "Mansfield Branch" of the Frisco. MV crossed it twice with their own tracks but didn't operate trains over it. It is interesting to note that the part of the leased Frisco track south of Bonanza, AR had the Frisco, the Midland Valley, and the Missouri & Louisiana all operating over the same short stretch of rail at this time. (In fact, from what we have discovered some of the Missouri & Louisiana traffic continued on down the Frisco past Jenson, through Maney Jct. and all the way to Poteau, IT.) I have read comments in articles in the "Key" (South Seb. Historical Society) about how much rail traffic there was through Jenson in those years, but I'm just now starting to realize just how many trains that may have been. In August 1910 Frisco submitted a bill to MVRR for the cost of replacing the 60# rail on this shared track. This was a couple of years after the rail had been replaced. Frisco documents, submitted to MV, showed the 1886 rail which was removed from Maney Jct. (Rock Island, IT) to Jenson Jct. (the Arkansas line) had been laid new. The rail from Jenson to Fort Smith had previously been used. This rail had originally been first laid on the Bentonville Branch "for 3 or 4 years". The replacement rail was 75#. |
