Passenger Rail Service in Cowley County
Santa Fe
Missouri Pacific
Frisco
Midland Valley
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
Shown in red on this map
Santa Fe Oklahoma Line
The busiest of the passenger lines in Cowley County was the line that connected Newton with Ft. Worth, Texas. On the map above, you can trace its route from Derby to Mulvane to Udall to Winfield to Hackney to Ark City and south into Oklahoma. You can trace this development by looking at timetables for this line for the following dates:
El Dorado Branch
On the map, you can see another red line going straight north from Winfield through Rock toward El Dorado. In the early days, this line ran through El Dorado north to Florence where it joined the Santa Fe main line. There was also a little spur from Strong City to Bazaar (which the railroad spelled Bazar). In later years, the line from Strong City to Bazaar was extended to El Dorado and the passenger service shifted to this route, joining the main line at Strong City instead of at Florence. This route is still used by freight trains heading south but wishing to avoid Wichita.
You can trace the evolution of this line by looking at timetables for the following dates:
Southern Kansas Line
The Santa Fe had five lines into Winfield! Running east and west at the north end of Winfield was the Santa Fe's Southern Kansas line. In Cowley County, it ran from Cambridge and Burden, through Winfield, and west through Kellogg and Oxford toward Wellington. This line didn't have as much traffic as the north-south line to Fort Worth.
You can see for yourself as you check these timetables for that line:
Shawnee line
The Santa Fe line south of Arkansas City carried trains not only to Guthrie, Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, but also trains bound for another line that ran to Shawnee, Oklahoma. These terminal for these trains was Ark City. Some schedules for this line are:
Kansas Southwestern
Yet another Santa Fe line in Cowley County was one that started as an independent railroad and which retained that identity when incorporated in the Santa Fe system. It was called the Kansas Southwestern. It ran west from Ark City to South Haven and then on to Anthony. You can see some schedules from this line here:
Missouri Pacific
Shown in very dark blue (almost black) on this map
The Missouri Pacific line in Cowley County ran from southeast to northwest, entering the county near Cedarvale, going through Dexter, then crossing through the north end of Winfield and leaving the county at Oxford. Until around 1950, the MoPac had its own bridge over the Walnut, but it washed out in a flood. After that time, they simply got trackage rights from the Santa Fe to use the Santa Fe tracks from Winfield to Oxford where the MoPac veered northwest toward Belle Plain and eventually on toward Larned. There was a short branch from this line connecting Dexter with Arkansas City.
You can see service on this line for the following dates:
St. Louis and San Francisco (Frisco Lines)
Shown in orange on this map
Beaumont Branch
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 Severy and Beaumont en route to Wichita and then on to Ellsworth.
They had a division point at Beaumont where a branch line went southwest through Winfield and Arkansas City toward Enid. This line crossed the Cowley County Fairgrounds and ran next to 14th Street through the Pecan Grove. At the west end of the Pecan Grove, the line headed southwest and crossed the Walnut River. The bridge abutments can still be seen. You can see a few schedules from the Frisco's line from Beaumont to Enid for the following dates:
Midland Valley
Not shown on this map
This line ran southeast from Arkansas City, generally following the Arkansas River through Oklahoma to Fort Smith, Arkansas. By 1911, it reached northwest to Wichita.
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