Passenger Rail Service in Rice County

1906 rail map of Rice County

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

Shown in red on this map

Original Santa Fe Main Line

The original line of the Santa Fe followed the curve of the Arkansas River. On the map above, you can trace its route from Hutchinson to Sterling, Raymond, Ellinwood, and on toward Great Bend. Later, a shortcut was built from Hutchinson to Kinsley and many of the through long-distance trains took this shortcut, reducing service to Great Bend. You can trace this development by looking at timetables for this line for the following dates:

Florence to Ellinwood

On the map, you can see a red line going from Chase to Lyons to Little River . This line went on to McPherson and continued to Florence where it connected with the Main Line (which had gone south to Hutchinson and Newton en route to Florence). Westbound, it went to Ellinwood where it also connected to the Main Line. In later years on this run, the train is shown as “motor” which generally referred to what passengers called a “doodlebug”, a self-propelled motorized car with flanged wheels (to run on the track), but costing less to run that a traditional steam engine. You can trace the evolution of this line by looking at timetables for the following dates:

Little River to Holyrood to Galatia

You'll see another red line going from Little River to just beyond Holyrood. A few years after this map was drawn (in 1906), the line continued straight west to Galatia but it went no further. The line to Galatia provided passenger (or at least mixed service) for many decades. The east end of this line was Little River where it connected with the Ellinwood to Florence line. In the early years, there was a smooth connection at Little River for eastbound travelers and then another smooth connection at Florence for those heading to Topeka, Kansas City, or Chicago. However, by 1943, these schedules were not well coordinated, so a traveler making the same trip would have had an 18 hour layover in Little River!!! You can see for yourself as you check these timetables for that line:

Missouri Pacific

Shown in very dark blue (almost black) on this map

Kansas City to Pueblo, Colorado

The Missouri Pacific's main “Main Line” went from St. Louis southwest to Texas, but they also had long-distance service from St. Louis to Kansas City to Pueblo where they connected with lines going to the rest of Colorado and on to Utah and California. Geneseo was a major stop (and transfer point) on this line. You can see service on this line for the following dates:

Geneseo to Wichita

The KC-Pueblo line of the MoPac had a spur from Geneseo to Wichita. Passengers from Wichita could take this train from Wichita to Geneseo, where they could switch to a Colorado-bound train. Eventually, the eastbound and westbound KC-Pueblo trains were coordinated to meet in Geneseo. (Since it was single track, they'd have to pass somewhere.) The train from Wichita was then coordinated with the two KC-Pueblo trains, allowing passengers from Wichita (and intermediate points) to connect to either eastbound or westbound trains. It made for a relatively roundabout way of getting from Wichita to Kansas City, but it could be done. You can see Wichita-Geneseo timetables for the following dates:

St. Louis and San Francisco (Frisco Lines)

Shown in orange on this map

line to Ellsworth

The Frisco's home base was Springfield, Misouri. Their two main lines formed an X crossing at Springfield. One line went from St. Louis to Springfield to Tulsa. The other went from Kansas City to Springfield toward Birmingham, Alabama. They did have a few lines in Kansas and one of them came through Lyons to Frederick to Lorraine to Ellsworth. It is interesting to note that the little town of Frederick once had passenger rail service from two different railroads! You can see a few schedules from the Frisco's line to Ellsworth for the following dates: This space is provided, free of charge, by midks.com to those who have momentos of local history that they wish to share. If you have photographs or documents that pertain to trains in Kansas and are willing to share them freely, you should contact the webmaster.