The Kansas City Southern negative collection continues to yield some interesting views. Take for example, this photo of the Division Office in Pittsburg, Kansas which also managed to catch a track crew putting the finishing touches on replacing a rail in the street crossing.

The two gents at either end are pounding in the last few spikes while the two in the center are putting the board back in the crossing and the gent second from the right is tightening the bolts in the joint bar.

While you might be hard pressed to find a scene like this on a Class I railroad today, the skills, tools and methods seen in this photo do live on in preservation, at least for the moment.

Jason Midyette

Kinda looks like our crew, though we do cheat if there are more than a few spikes by using a pneumatic spiker.