The Great Bend district defines the northwest boundary of Santa Fe territory. This lengthy branchline meets up with the Colorado Division Garden City district in Scott City. One interesting note on this operation. The Garden City Northern owns the tracks from Garden City to Scott City. For a time the Santa Fe still operated the Great Bend district but left the line out of service from the Mo Pac Crossing to Scott City. It sold the Great Bend district to the Central Kansas Railroad. Could the (bn)Santa Fe still own 0.9 miles of track from this crossing to Scott City? Probably not.
This is an interesting line for several reasons. It is one of the longer Santa Fe branchlines in western Kansas (if you include the Garden City District on the end of this district.) The rail is very light and rippled after years of Santa Fe use. It is primarily an agricultural route and therefore seasonal. There are few towns of even small size on this route. There is still a Santa Fe depot still onsite in Ness City.
Also interesting is the fact that in this lines twlight the Santa Fe pulled out its Rotary Snow plow to clear many large drifts on this district just prior to its sale to the Central Kansas Railroad. This line is subject to drifting in the Kansas wintertime. What makes this interesting is that the Santa Fe even took the trouble to brush the dust off of a rarely used piece of maintenance of way equipment to clear a branchline that they had basically sworn off years ago. This trip is documented in CRV's SANTA FE Snow Blowing in Kansas. This video is recommended as it was the last time the Santa Fe rotary was used under the Santa Fe corporation operation. In addition it is clearing a branchline. The snow drifts were minimal but you still get to see this beast chew into a few tasty waves err.... drifts. There is also an interesting discussion of the evolution of Santa Fe Rotary evolution. The Snow Plow also made a visit to the district in February of 1979. Maybe it should have been based out of Ness City or Great Bend?
Timetable from November 29, 1942
Distance from Great Bend
MP 0.0 GREAT BEND
MP 8.3 HEIZER
MP 15.4 ALBERT
MP 19.8 SHAFFER
MP 24.5 TIMKEN
MP 32.2 RUSH CENTER
MP 39.1 NEKOMA
MP 45.1 ALEXANDER
MP 52.8 BAZINE
MP 64.4 NESS CITY
MP 72.8 LAIRD
MP 80.5 BEELER
MP 87.2 ALAMOTA
MP 96.0 DIGHTON
MP 103.5 AMY
MP 109.8 GRIGSTON
MP 116.1 TRACTOR
MP 119.2 MO. PAC CROSSING
MP 120.1 SCOTT CITY