I always try to get a decent bike ride the day of or day before I referee a varsity football game. It helps get my legs stretched and warmed up. My mind is sharper and I am less tired the next day.
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago it didn't work out that I could get a decent ride in on my usual routes so I brought my bike with me and explored some of the Liberty greenway trails. While they are more for walking/jogging I did get a decent enough ride to get me through my game by using some streets.
I don't know how they came to fruitition but part of the greenway system was built on the old Excelsior Springs Interurban railroad line.
I uploaded some pictures to Panoramio and you can see them mapped here.
There was even a foundation of an old post still there.
The other trails were just built in greenways along sewer corridors.
You can read more about the Excelsior Springs Interurban here. I excerpted some paragraphs.
"Retiring from active banking in 1908 to devote his full attention toward promoting the interurban, St. Joseph financier Charles F. Enright is largely responsible for the Kansas City, Clay County and St. Joseph (K.C., C.C. and St. J) Railway Company. Enright solicited financial support from Eastern capitalists, secured franchises and the necessary right-of-ways for the road. The system consisted of a 51 mile division linking Kansas City to St. Joseph, and a 28 mile line to the spas of Excelsior Springs. The original Kansas City terminal was located at Thirteenth and Walnut streets, but was moved in 1920 to the Railway Exchange building at Seventh and Walnut."
"Two trains left simultaneously from Kansas City and Excelsior Springs, converging on Liberty, where one pulled into a siding to let the other through. At the Excelsior Springs station (currently V.F.W. Post 741), the conductor would reverse the trolley, and the westbound run was made backwards. The cars ran hourly from dawn until midnight. Riding the full length of the route cost 75-cents, and daily patrons could purchase commuter tickets by the book."
"The interurban's heyday lasted from 1913 until 1923; during those years net earnings rose annually from $198,000 to $455,877. But profits were offset by much litigation. On October, 24, 1917, the Missouri Supreme Court forced the K.C., C.C. and St. J. to pay $250,000 in damages to the Interstate Railway Company for ursurping its Kansas City to St. Joseph right-of-way. And occasional mishaps were inherent to the system's close schedule. The K.C., C.C., and St. J. Railway's safety committee published their statistics for the year 1915 on greeting cards, and distributed them to customers after New Year's 1916. "Although the electric line carried over a million passengers during the year," read the analysis, "only nine were injured;" a remarkable figure, considering 13 separate collisions with livestock had occurred as well as 23 automobile and other accidents. While the line had averaged a collision every 10 days, the card closed with a surprising attribute, giving "trainmen and friends along the line credit for this good showing."
The line even has a historical marker in Liberty to commemorate the line.
Like the Kansas City to St. Joseph Interurban line, I'll geomap/preserve the corridor as time goes on.
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