Rediscovered train car near Riverfront Park dismantled

An old tanker car was recently uncovered and rediscovered on the retired railroad tracks just south of the new Riverfront Park road in the north part of Fort Scott.

The car was discovered during recent construction in the park area on North National Avenue. Concern about the car's location led to a search for the owner, as well as it's removal, Bourbon County Emergency Manager Will Wallis said.

"I began my search for the owner of this tanker car when I was notified by the city of Fort Scott, and a few concerned citizens, of its presence and its exposure when the river walk was completed and open to the public," he said.

According to Wallis' resources, the car has sat quietly on the tracks for more than 20 years. The car has been empty all these years, Wallis said.

"It was cleaned before it was brought to that site," he said. "The owner confirmed that before (workers) began cutting on it. According to the information stenciled on the car, it carried chemicals of some sort due to the CHEMTREC placard."

According to CHEMTREC.com, CHEMTREC stands for Chemical Transportation Emergency Center. The company has a "broad range of critical resources that can help emergency responders mitigate incidents involving hazardous materials."

During its time on the tracks, Wallis said the tanker was mostly left alone.

"As far as I know very few people knew it was there and it was sort of (an) 'out of (sight) out of mind' situation," Wallis said.

The search to find the owner to have the car removed took a couple months, Wallis said.

"I started with the owner of the tracks that the car was sitting on," he said. "I talked with two railroad companies, Union Pacific and Missouri Northern Arkansas. The tracks were disabled and so it took some time for them to go back to when that happened and also who actually did own that car. They both came up empty handed after about a month of searching."

While the railroad companies had no leads, City Manager Dave Martin did.

"In the meantime, Dave Martin had made a connection and told me that Progress Rail was possibly the owner," Wallis said. "This information was supplied by Jim Smith. I called a Helen Vann with Progress Rail who said that she would take my information and get back with me."

Another month passed and Wallis had not heard back from Progress Rail. After a phone call, he was given another contact, Chris Nickelson, who could lead to information.

"He told me he would investigate the information printed on the car then get back with me," Wallis said. "In the late part of November he called me back and did confirm (Progress Rail's) ownership."

Once Wallis knew who the owner was, plans to have the car taken care of fell into place.

"(Nickelson) said that he has a recycler in the area that does work for them and he (would) have them come by and remove it as soon as they were done at their current job. On Friday, Dec. 4, Mr. Nickelson called me and said that the demo crew of Wes Recycling was going to start the process of cutting up the car," Wallis said.

The entire removal took only a matter of days, once work began.

"Wes Recycling began to remove and cut up the train car that had been located near the River Walk area," Wallis said. "They started early that December morning and had the car pulled out and cut up in 10 pieces. Most of it was hauled away that day and by Tuesday, Dec. 8, it and all of their equipment were gone."

The equipment used for the job included a large track-hoe "designed to tackle that type of demolition," as well as a cutting torch and a tractor-trailer dump vehicle.

Wallis said before this, he had not come across a project of this capacity during his time as emergency manager.

"As far as working on a removal project of this magnitude, working as the emergency manager for Bourbon County, no I have not," he said.