Kansas branchline action by the mid-1960s is a hit-or-miss proposition. But here in mid-October, 1965, UP GP9 251 is scurrying along west of Hoxie, westbound with the Plainville branch local freight. Constructed in segments by three separate railroads in the late 1880s, the opening of 224.68-mile Salina-Colby-Oakley line was celebrated in 1888 with no less than a Golden Spike ceremony. After that, things settled down to a daily accommodation – trains 553-554 (after 1927, a motor car) -- and a couple scheduled freights. Parts of the branch will be washed out in 1993, and portions abandoned 1994 and in 1997, almost a century after UP took over operation from its original builders.
