KCT SW1200 76Kansas City KS Kansas City

Santa Fe Junction Interlocking sits astride the Missouri-Kansas state line, and KCT 76 has just crossed into Missouri in this scene. Easily the busiest location in town, trains from any of the twelve railroads which jointly own KCT can be seen here. Tower #3, while still used to house electronics and route controls for this interlocking, was closed in 1969 when a central dispatching center replaced it and all the other towers KCT had at the time. The black bridge in the background is KCT's double-deck, double-track crossing of the Kansas River. The odd-looking silver towers on the bridge are lift mechanisms to raise the bridge in the event of flooding and are not connected most of the time. The upper deck line was primarily used by passenger trains from UP and Rock Island connecting moving to and from Kansas through KC Union Station. Today, primarily freight trains use this bridge. The tracks through the junction have been reduced or changed around over the years, but the area remains one of KC's busiest.