Nostalgia & History > Back when a grain train had a different look

This picture is from the files of the Kansas State Historical Society. A short notation says it is an ATSF train pulling a string of boxcars filled with grain sometime during the 1940s near Winfield, Kan. Pulling the long consist of loads was 2-8-2 ATSF steam locomotive No. 3212. I don't have the retirement date of the locomotive but I have read it was still in service up until about 1955. It was apparently assigned to freight service for a long time out of Argentine, Newton, Wellington and Arkansas City, Kan. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone can identify this photo location, given the grain elevator in the background. (Photo courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/14 19:56 by JoCoLB.

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Had it not been for the dirty engine one might think it was a publicity shot.

Thanks for sharing this picture. Real neat perspective of railroading in the 40s.

Did they call these "unit trains" in the 1940s?

Larry, I'm thinking this could be Akron, KS, which is the first location north (TT east) of Winfield on the old Douglas District short-cut between Winfield & Augusta. The train being back-lit tells me it would be heading north (TT east) and this photo seems to match the view I pulled up on Google Maps for Akron, KS. Not conclusive, just a hunch...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/14 21:22 by santafe199.

Thanks,Lance. Is there still a grain elevator at Akron?

Great shot.

~Ryan

JoCoLB Wrote:
> Is there still a grain elevator at Akron?

Not according to the street view in Google Maps. I was able to drop the little 'street view man' right on the 86th Rd crossing at Akron. The view to the SSW shows a stub track with a bumping post. This stub could easily have extended further north to service the old elevator which appears to be located just north of the crossing in the shot you posted. I also swiveled to look NNE at the rise of the land. It doesn't appear to provide enough elevation for your KSHS shot. But that shot could have been taken from atop some structure that has long since been removed.

The last time I rode that mainline was in late December of 1986, but I really don't remember if Akron still had an elevator then...

Lance

I see a second track next to the locomotive. Do you think that was a siding or a second main?

JoCoLB Wrote:
> Do you think that was a siding or a second main?

The Douglas District never had more than one main line, so it's most likely a short siding or some other auxiliary track. When I hired out in 1978 Santa Fe had a siding called Akron which I believe was installed "out in the country" north of the location we're looking at in the KSHS shot. It seems like I vaguely remember an elevator here, possibly the same one in your KSHS shot. But those memories are coming up on 30 years old. On the other hand, if you go back far enough just about every little whip-stitch location on the Santa Fe had an elevator, and many of them lasted into the 70s and even 80s...

Lance

Looking at the 1966 topo map on Historic Aerials, it looks like there was the elevator on the (geographical) west side of the tracks, and a long siding on the right side of the tracks. As you can see from the attached clip, the siding rejoined on the south end just before the elevator siding. The north switch was more than a mile up the track, and isn't shown in the clip.

Working with the Google Earth wayback machine, it appears that the elevator existed until about 2006, when it was torn down. The siding track may have been partially gone before that; the resolution on the older images is too poor for me to be sure if it is there or not. Interestingly, the most recent image shows the south switch on the elevator track still tied into the main, though the north switch (which was north of 86th st) was removed long before. There was also some sort of track and tie salvaging happening from about 2009-2012. There is a HUGE pile of ties just north of the elevator slab, and a goodly amount of stick rail gathered up on the slab and general environs. It looks like too much to account for the missing north end of the elevator siding; perhaps it cam from the east siding, though that looks to have been removed long before.

While this siding was removed, there is a new half mile siding just a bit up the road, north of 72nd street. The Google Earth image shows signal maintainers working on the signal shack.

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If that's a whistle board right beside the engine, then there should be a crossing 1/4 mile ahead, but in the old map, the crossing looks closer to the elevators. And the rear of the train looks like it's coming out of a curve.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/14 06:08 by ddg.

rantoul Wrote:
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> Are the boxcars Santa Fe and do they have a map to
> the right side of the door? Great photo.

That looks to be the case here. Possibly the oldest grain "unit train" type of photo I've ever seen.