Back on track

Those passing down state Route V could hardly see what lay beneath — a boxcar, a remnant of a nearly forgotten narrow-gauge rail line from Sedalia to Warsaw.

Nearly four years ago, Don Bockelman, 45, began uncovering the boxcar, which was once used as a ticket booth. That’s when Car No. 581 received a new life.

“I hated to tear it down because it’s been here all of my life, all of their lives,” he said of the boxcar that sits on his parents’ property near Springfork Lake.

The boxcar served as a ticket office for the Springfork stop on the Sedalia, Warsaw & Southern Railroad. The line was built in 1880, and was purchased by Missouri Pacific in 1881. It was standard-gauged in 1902, and became known as the Warsaw Branch.

Bockelman worked on the car every night after work. He had to remove the weeds and vines that had taken over the structure. The termite-infested car had started to sag, after sitting abandoned for about 60 years. Bockelman removed the weeds and jacked up the frame. The roof and rafters were about all that were salvageable.

“I wish I could have saved more,” Bockelman said.

All the rafters are original, except for one on an end that had rotted and had to be replaced. Bockelman found a walnut log on a nearby creek and used the old rafter as a template to create a replacement.

Dates were stamped into the wood, marking significant happenings: a new roof in 1899, and a roof replacement April 28, 1896.

During the course of the restoration, Bockelman met Ken Bird, of Lincoln. Bird is finishing a manuscript about the rail line, and he found Bockelman while doing research. The two became fast friends over their shared love of the railroad.

“This thing almost disappeared,” Bird said of the boxcar.

The railroad had two trains a day, one passenger and one freight. Farmers used the line to ship cattle, lumber, grain and other merchandise. It cost passengers less than a dollar to ride to Sedalia, but the trip took four or five hours.

“It was very important to Benton County and Sedalia at the time, because it opened up a lot of merchandise traffic,” Bird said.
The last train on the railroad ran Aug. 31, 1946.

Photographs and a map of the railroad, most assembled by Bird, hang inside the bare boxcar. Also inside is an old whistle post from just north of Mora, and wood-burning stove. 

Originally, the boxcar had a ticket window and a small door.

“It’s not finished yet. ... I’d like to get it back to what it looked like in here originally,” Bockelman said.

So far, the Bockelmans have been unable to find any photographs of the boxcar. Bockelman is using his parents’ memories to finish the inside, which will include wainscoting.

Bockelman’s parents, Don and Mabel, have lived on the property for nearly 55 years. Mabel Bockelman remembers riding the train with her grandmother into Sedalia to shop. Her grandfather would fetch them once the shopping was done.

“You didn’t think much  more about getting on a train than you’d think about getting in any other vehicle today,” she said.

The boxcar is just about the only physical remains of the railroad on the Bockelman property although each of the Bockelmans can stand and point to where their memory tells them other landmarks were: A cattle stockyard stood to the southeast. A big store, where farmers picked up mail and bought groceries, was to the west of the ticket office. Near the store was a scale to weigh grain trucks.

Back then, Springfork was a busy little town.

The line went from Sedalia to Valda, Springfork, Mora, Cole Camp, Tahoma, Lincoln, Schuyler and Warsaw.

“It was a narrow-gauge railroad, so it had lots of curves,” Bird said. 

The elder Bockelman grew up in Mora. He has memories of the train crew stopping to pick blackberries there.

“They didn’t get in any hurry,” he said.

Bringing the boxcar back to life has become a family affair. Bockelman’s parents helped when they could, and his daughter, Andrea, spent many hours painting.

“I’m proud of him,” Mabel said. “I’m glad he restored it.”

There are very few artifacts left from the Sedalia, Warsaw & Southern Railroad. Bird was able to find a few station signs owned by individuals and an occasional railroad spike. He applauds Bockelman for the boxcar restoration.

“There’s people who write about history, and people who do history,” Bird said. “(Bockelman)’s  a doer.”