Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday: Foliage that is!

It used to be really easy to catch a Rock Island train in Keats, KS. You just spotted a train passing through Manhattan westbound, drive the 8 miles to Keats and waited close to an hour. I did so many times. Sometimes it might take a little longer, if the crew decided to stop for ‘beans’, or other supplies at the Safeway they ran right behind in west Manhattan. At any rate, it was certainly no high speed chase in the dying years of the Mighty Fine Line. This train back on that crisp autumn afternoon looked to be mostly hoppers. Normally any train rolling through my home town was a mixed bag-manifest. Maybe this is an early example of a unit “grain train”. That would be the Rock Island: A single-engine, unit grain train.

Not exactly maroon color on the point to match the thread theme. Only the dying foliage on the background trees produced a color anywhere close to maroon. Ah… but here comes a maroon caboose (sorta) with a solitary pig right ahead of it. So it wasn’t really a ‘unit’ train. I sure hope I waved at the conductor! In 31 months he will be out of a job…

1. CRI&P 4350 in blue & white rolls through Keats, KS solo with a lot of grain hoppers.

2. CRI&P 17176 rolls along faithfully behind the 4350.
2 Kodachrome slides taken in September (26th?) of 1977.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/22 21:45 by santafe199.

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Thanks Lance, that first shot is terrific.

Tim Costello

Thanks Lance, that caboose shot is terrific.

"Clifton - Copy Three". Six years before your encounter, a meet was being set up at Keats.

Wonderful shots, pal.

Roberto
PRose

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.....Make that Copy 5.
RI (Uniform Code) required 4 copies of a train order to
the train and 1 office copy.
zr190

zr190 Wrote:
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> .....Make that Copy 5.
> RI (Uniform Code) required 4 copies of a train
> order to
> the train and 1 office copy.
> zr190

Thanks for the correction. On the UP it was three. One for head end, one for rear end and operator's copy.

Bob H.
PRose

Wow,
Typical Rock at the end.
Thanks for posting