ICG SD20 2039Kansas City MO Kansas City

Here is a cross-section of Kansas City , Missouri and Kansas City. Kansas. In the foreground, the front end of an ICG loco is lifted by a crane after a minor derailment or some sort of maintenance. The boxcars just beyond are in storage at the north end of BN's former Frisco 19th Street yard. The brick building on the right is an abandoned industry, of which there were many in the West Bottoms during this era. Above the trees is a remnant of one of the former railroad freight houses. The multi-tiered structure is part of the massive Kansas City Stockyards complex, some of which was still in use at the time, though at a small fraction of its capacity. Between the stockyards and the UP/MP locos in the distance is the Kansas River. UP Armstrong Yard was the eastern end of the railroad until the UP/MP/WP merger in 1982. At the upper right is Kaw Tower. The two truss bridges at upper left carried the double-track KCT High Line which was primarily used by passenger trains during the 40's, 50's and 60's, going to and from Kansas City Union Station. Along the top of the view are the new piers constructed to support I-670, a short section of the Interstate Highway system. Though only a few miles long, I-670 would have the distinction of being the most expensive segment of Interstate Highway ever built up to that time, due to the need for nearly continuous bridgework from one end to the other. Much of this scene is different thirty years later. Illinois Central no longer serves KC. Wooden outside-braced boxcars like the one behind the ICG loco are long gone, as are forty-foot boxcars in general. The stockyards are all gone, with only a small segment of the structure preserved as a monument to what was once a reason for Kansas City's existence, cattle shipment and meat processing plants.