Mondays are always hard even when you are retired...
Today was resting from our riding yesterday. We had a full day with our iron horses to experience a taste of history aboard the historical "Katy" train car. Kehde's owners was able to preserve some of Sedalia's history by repurposed an old train car into a bustling full-service restaurant with mouth watering food at it's best.
Who could pass up the chance to visit Kahde's BBQ? Not the 4 Amigo's from southern MO.
Kehde’s was listed as among our best bbq restaurants in Missouri
A little history... MKT Railroad - The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
was incorporated May 23, 1870. In its earliest days the MKT (the railroad’s reporting mark) was commonly referred to as "the K-T", which was its stock exchange symbol; this common designation soon evolved into "the Katy".
The Katy was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north. Eventually the Katy's core system would grow to link Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Temple, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston, Texas. An additional mainline between Fort Worth and Salina, Kansas, was added in the 1980s after the collapse of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad; this line was operated as the Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad (OKKT).
The Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch had begun operations in 1865. When it incorporated in May 1870 the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad immediately acquired the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch and its 182 miles of track. The Union Pacific Railway was, for a period of several years in the late 19th century, the official name of the Union Pacific Railroad, which later acquired MKT as part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
At the time of the 1870 incorporation, consolidations were also made with the Labette & Sedalia Railway Co. and the Neosho Valley & Holden Railway Co. At this time MKT also acquired the Tebo & Neosho Railroad Co., the St. Louis & Santa Fe Railroad Co., and the Hannibal & Central Missouri Railroad Co. Combined with the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch these small, newly-built railroads formed the foundation on which the Katy would build.
Congress had passed acts promising land grants to the first railroad to reach the Kansas border via the Neosho Valley, and the part of the Katy that had been the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch was in a heated competition for the prize. On June 6, 1870, Katy workers laid the first rails across the Kansas border winning the race. Ironically the promised land grants never materialized; the courts overturned the grants promised by Congress because the land was in Indian Territory and was the property of the Indian tribes.
Still, the Katy continued its push southward, laying track and acquiring other small railroads, extending its reach to Dallas in 1886, Waco in 1888, Houston in April 1893 and to San Antonio 1901.
When the railroad reached Houston, joint ownership of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad gave the Katy immediate access to the Port of Galveston, and access to ocean-going traffic on the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1896, as a publicity stunt set up by William George Crush, the Katy crashed two locomotives, pulling heavily loaded trains, at a site that came to be known thereafter as Crush, Texas. The collision occurred before more than 40,000, three of whom died and several injured, when the exploding boilers sent debris flying. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin, who was performing in the area at the time, commemorated the event in "The Great Crush Collision March" which he dedicated to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway.
From 1915 until January 4, 1959, the Katy, in a joint venture with the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway (popularly known as the Frisco), operated the Texas Special. This luxury passenger liner ran from St. Louis to Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio. It sported rail cars with names like Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, David Crockett, and James Bowie.
With the merger movement in full swing across the industry by the 1980s, for the Katy this proved to be a major setback as it cost the railroad much overhead traffic, which it depended on. Surrounded by much larger systems the railroad saw no other alternative than to find a merger partner. On December 1, 1989, the Katy was formally merged into the MoPac, and the MKT is a part of the Union Pacific Railroad system.
Sadly, today, the only thing running on its tracks are joggers, hikers and cyclists. As part of the rails-to-trails program, the old train line was turned into the "Katy Trail".
Train dining is a fun and unique experience, especially when you’re dining in a train car that was running before you were born.
Back to my resting for whatever comes up tomorrow!
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