Western Railroad Discussion > Shades of the Bicentennial

Earlier this month I dropped in on my old Hutchinson, KS pal “The Chief Way” for lunch. I had been chasing BNSF’s latest passenger special, the Casper, WY-bound “inspection” train, and was on my way home from Dodge City. After dining in fine style (insert a slightly sarcastic cough here*) at a local Spangles franchise we took the obligatory photo tour of Hutch’s industrial areas. I was able to shoot a switch engine that swept me back 4 decades to the days when it seemed like every RR in the country got all patriotic and painted up RR locomotives in a veritable blizzard of red white & blue paint schemes. These re-adorned locomotives ranged from front line ‘pride-of-the-fleet’ roads units down to lowly industrial switchers. The R/W/B engine seen below currently works for the Hutchinson Salt Company right here in the year 2017. But if I squinted just a bit, I could feel like it was 1976 all over again…

1. HUTX 1284 sits in Hutchinson, KS on February 9, 2017.

Thanks for looking back & forth!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*I’m not being very fair here. It was actually my idea to visit Spangles. I was all-of-a-sudden craving the all-American cheeseburger washed with a good old fashioned chocolate shake. It was pretty tasty stuff…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 08:15 by santafe199.

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What's the green Geep in the background?

Posted from iPhone

Q-GP30 Wrote: > ... the green Geep in the background ...

It's an ex-BN chop-nosed geep. Introducing HUTX rust-bucket #7, seen here just a few days past its prime... ;^)

2. HUTX bn 7 in Hutchinson, KS on December 12, 2013.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 08:48 by santafe199.

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Thanks Lance, that's a Bicentennial I don't recall ever seeing ....

The 1284 came from the Cuyahoga Valley, IIRC
The current red/white/blue paint job is fairly recent and was done in Hutchinson.

Do they still mine salt in Hutch? Is it shipped by rail? I was under the impression the salt business was gone and the mines converted to storage facilities.