A little history

I'm a Missouri Pacific fan and a history buff. The Mopac ran through my home town of Waterville, Kansas. The line was originally built as one of the Transcontinental lines named the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad, but later changed its' name to the Central Branch of the Union Pacific. After the realization that the line would not be transcontinental, the hope of the line was to meet up with the proposed line from the Kansas Pacific to the Union Pacific transcontinental line in Nebraska. That line was not built. Jay Gould controlled the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific and purchased the Central Branch and then quickly leased the line to the Missouri Pacific, another Jay Gould line. The Missouri Pacific formally merged the line in to the Missouri Pacific system in 1909. The line was part of the Mopac until the merger with the Union Pacific in 1982. Various line abandonments followed and then the line was leased to the KYLE Railroad. The KYLE operated the line until the line from Ames to Frankfort was abandoned in 2001. A 10 mile section was left in place for use by the Central Branch "Historical" Society from Blue Rapids to Waterville, Kansas.

The prototype Waterville and Washington Railroad was built from Waterville to Washington, Kansas starting in April 1876 and being completed in December 1876 and then leased to the Central Branch.

My connection with the Railroad stems from some of my ancestors riding the train to the terminus of Waterville in 1868 and then settling near Hanover, Kansas. Other relatives also took this route and settled just north of Waterville.

Some interesting facts about Waterville in this timeframe is that Waterville was actually another stop on the Chisholm Trail and would take overflow of cattle that Abilene, Kansas, could not ship. Waterville for a period of time shipped more cattle than Abilene. History also notes a heard of 5000 turkeys being shipped by rail from Waterville.

I choose the name Waterville and Washington Railroad to honor the history, connection, and section of the railroad I want to model.

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