Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Home town passenger trains!

In scanning & archiving Bill Gibson’s marvelous slide collection I had an idea I would be surprised with shots of certain subjects, or shots from certain locations I didn’t expect. Indeed I have had my eyebrows raised numerous times. It’s been like having Christmas morning 3 or 4 dozen times in the last 3½ years!

But a tiny thought started creeping into my mind. The deeper I scanned into Bill’s collection the more this thought kept nagging at me. I finally asked Art a couple of years ago: “Didn’t you or Bill shoot any passenger trains in Manhattan (KS)?” I just wasn’t finding much of ANY kind of shooting from my home town. Art explained to me how Manhattan just wasn’t a place either one of them visited very often. I knew the creation of Amtrak spelled the end of rail passenger service here, so I was really looking forward to finding a few shots throughout Bill’s collection. Not so!

I did have one solitary Rock Island shot Bill let me duplicate from his collection waaay back when (‘79?). So when I found this stray UP shot a few weeks ago I knew I had another thread for TO. I now have images of at least one passenger train from both RR’s that served my home town of Manhattan. I know you won’t enjoy these 2 images nearly as much as I will! (But see what you can do… ;^)

1. UP 604 leads train #39 over what is now Pecan Circle crossing in southwest Manhattan, KS on October 29, 1955. I believe the automobile in the background is on old US hwy 40 which was routed up & over ‘Stagg Hill’ in those days. Today US 40 has been rerouted to piggy-back on I-70 a few miles to the south, and this road is now 4-lane KS hwy 18 with a newer routing. This area is now completely filled in with businesses. Just out of sight to the right would be ‘Manhattan Monuments Co’, and on the left would be the building complex housing the ‘Asian Market’ food store & ‘Bamboo Chinese Buffet’ restaurant. In the far background would be the Clarion Hotel complex. That hill in the right hand background is the current location of Manhattan’s Sunset Zoo.

2. CRI&P 676 leads train #226 over what is now Farm Bureau Rd crossing in west Manhattan, KS on June 25, 1957. On the left is the ground where the current Carmike Cinema + parking lot now sits. On the right the future ‘Redbud Estates’ mobile home/trailer park will sprawl over the ground between this crossing & Wildcat Creek. Directly behind Bill’s vantage point will be the future ‘Boulevard Bend Shopping Center’ (according to Google Maps) just off Seth Child Road (KS hwy 113).
(2 images from copy slides by William A. [Bill] Gibson Sr.)

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



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/22 22:15 by santafe199.

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Thanks for sharing these. Both short passenger trains would look perfect on some model railroads. Rock Island 676's paint scheme is beautiful. I can hardly remember seeing other color images of that paint scheme.
Bob

That was the first - and best - RI livery...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

It is truly amazing how both of those areas have changed so much over the years.

What type of coach is that on the Rock Island train? Thanks.

pwh Wrote:
> What type of coach is that...

I've no idea. Rock Island passenger service was dead in Kansas by the time I was in junior high school. I'm pretty sure you will get an answer eventually, though.

Brian???

Posted from Android

That RI coach appears to be a former combine which had been converted to a full coach, but leaving the original baggage door in place. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I really appreciate seeing the photo of the Union Pacific PA. While there are plenty of UP E-unit photos, photos of the UP PAs are far less common.

Thanks for sharing.

Lance,
You just mentioned US 40 HWY that went up and over Skagg Hill. When we went to the cemetery for Ton Lee's burial, I seen a bridge abutment along the way there. Went by there and took a pic. of it and it has the letters GB 112 indented in the end of it. That would mean to me that was also the route of the" Golden Belt RD." Union Pacific HWY., Victory HWY and of course US 40 HWY. The numbers 112 could be 112 miles from KC. Don't know that. Interesting. upkpfan

Here is the 676 many, many years later...

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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Not the first RI paint scheme for passenger F units, but maybe the first simplification.  Original scheme had crimson and maroon. Still much better than what would follow.