Nostalgia & History > Highbrow visitor from the east

Beginning in 1977 Santa Fe experienced some very sharp growth in traffic which necessitated leasing locomotives from other RRs. Colorful paint schemes from a handful of RRs made it onto Santa Fe trains in many areas of the railroad in those days. In 1979 Norfolk & Western power could be seen on the Santa Fe from Chicago to the left coast, and many parts in between. Here’s a typical consist toting a 981 train across a wooden trestle just west of the Ellinor, KS crossover plant on a late summer afternoon. The high-nosed SD-45 visitor from the east actually looks at home here on this Santa Fe hotshot. This train is eastbound on the Middle Division 4th District mainline over a short farm field drainage tributary into the nearby Cottonwood River. This is low-lying farm land and heavy rainfall very often provides a need for the mainline to be elevated like it is shown here.

I should mention: The engineer on this train was one of my favorites! At the throttle is L. K. Schlup (pronounced Shloop). He was better known as Red, or “red-on-the-head”. And he was truly a one-of-a-kind character!

1. AT&SF 8078 along with N&W 1719 and AT&SF 5642 leading train 981 T-1 at Ellinor, KS on August 22, 1979.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/22 22:50 by santafe199.

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I doubt the NW unit was ever a leader on the AT&SF. As a train watcher from the Midwest I could never get used to Southern and NW long-hood-forward geeps.


Marty Bernard

This Midwest(raised)boy liked the Southern and NW long hood forward unit; especially the SD45's.

Larry

Compared to the UP the Santa Fe was kind of a downer in that it didn't pool power nearly as much. At least it somewhat made up for it in leasing power with NW, Chessie and CNW.

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