Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: N&W Kansas City ala 1968!

The Birmingham area of Kansas City seemed to be a favorite spot for Bill Gibson to go shooting. If UP’s City of St. Louis, train #10 was on time into Kansas City from off the KP he would catch the N&W continuation of the train by shooting N&W #210 somewhere east of Kansas City Union Station. Many times Bill would set up right in Birmingham for that shot, but he would also record lots of N&W freight action. Here are 3 shots from a March 1968 visit. Enjoy!

1. N&W 3485 & 508 on train #210 at Birmingham, MO.

2. N&W 1333 (with 1355 & 1964) near ‘Tower 222’ in Kansas City, MO.

3. N&W 3711 (with 3723, 1933, 1900, 1910 & 1913) in Kansas City, MO.
(3 photos taken on March 29, 1968 by William A. Gibson Sr)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/22 20:31 by santafe199.

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Lance thanks for your continuing work with Art's collection. I really enjoy them. This series raised a couple of questions. First, were N&W's geeps equipped with a steam generator, or was one stuck in a baggage car? And, one the freight shot with F's in the lead, was this be choice or the luck of the draw?

These are great! I liked them all.

Just think, railfans in 1968 were probably upset about how the semaphores in picture 3 were soon to be replaced by those 'awful' searchlight signals. It's all relative, I guess.

Jim

The Yeti wishes he could have been there... Splendid material !!!

Wish I had started chasing trains about 1968. Fantastic pictures.

glcaddis Wrote:
> ... couple of questions.
> ...were N&W's geeps equipped with a steam generator...

I believe N&W had a class (or partial class?) of geeps that were steam generator equipped. I've seen numerous passenger train photos with a geep leading. But I'll have to let someone with more knowledge about the N&W confirm this.

> ...F's in the lead...choice or the luck of the draw?

My guess is this was just a random thing. During the 50s it seemed the RRs would tend to keep like models together in consist, and this practice undoubtedly carried over into the 60s. This pair of Fs may have been added to the consist because train tonnage was higher than normal, or the Fs could ferrying to be used at some outlying point. Just a guess...

Lance

222 is at the very east end of N&W's (now NS, and it's still called 222) Kansas City yard. You can see the Chotou Road bridge in the background which prior to the 1951 opening of the Harry S Truman Drawbridge, known just as Drawbridge, was the Milwaukee Road's entry into Kansas City across the Missouri River. The old bridge was imploded in the early 2000's to make way for a much safer and wider road bridge.

santafe199 Wrote:
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> glcaddis Wrote:
> > ... couple of questions.
> > ...were N&W's geeps equipped with a steam
> generator...
>
> I believe N&W had a class (or partial class?) of
> geeps that were steam generator equipped. I've
> seen numerous passenger train photos with a geep
> leading. But I'll have to let someone with more
> knowledge about the N&W confirm this.

The pre-merger N&W had d/b equipped GP9's with s/g's, numbered in the 500's - like the second unit in this consist. Post-merger '64, ex-NKP and ex-Wabash power was added to the mix; both had torpedo boat Geeps for passenger service. The way to tell the units apart was that all ex-NKP units had the number "2" added ahead of the former unit number; all ex-Wabash units had the number "3" added ahead of the former unit number.

> > ...F's in the lead...choice or the luck of the
> draw?
>
> My guess is this was just a random thing. During
> the 50s it seemed the RRs would tend to keep like
> models together in consist, and this practice
> undoubtedly carried over into the 60s. This pair
> of Fs may have been added to the consist because
> train tonnage was higher than normal, or the Fs
> could ferrying to be used at some outlying point.
> Just a guess... Lance

If an eastbound, probably excess power being balanced and returned to Decatur or Chicago.

Nice shots, WAG and Lance!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/14 08:44 by ATSF100WEST.

This is really nice to see. I never got to venture to KC to see much of other roads unless I went there on #70 with my dad and arrived in the evening hours, so the daylight shots are a pleasant thing. Thanks Art and Lance.
Brian Stevens

Nice, there are very few pix out there of the N&W/Wabash City of St. Louis before they stopped handling through cars from UP and the train became the City of Kansas City. Thanks for posting em.

BSB

Photo 3. The ex Wabash Fs come home as this was the ex Wabash KC east. Don't think the NW ever owned an F unit.
Birmingham is still a good place to shoot.

Thanks Bill, Art and Lance.

Bob Helling
PRose

Here is the Drum Head from UP's City of St. Louis.


Enjoy,

Mike

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Beautiful old girl image of N&W 210 "City of St Louis"!! Thank you for sharing all of these!

Awesome shots! First visit to Birmingham was in '71 and even then the variety was great.
JB