Nostalgia & History > Front Street in Dodge...

...oops, let's make that Fort Madison, IA

Although a day late for Warbonnet Wednesday here’s another black & white gem from the Junior Spellman collection. This is from a 2nd or 3rd generation copy negative so the quality is a bit rough, but the subject should make up for that! In 1978 I worked the Santa Fe switchman’s extra board in Dodge City for a couple of summer months. So I’ll hazard a guess the time of day is mid morning in the summer time. The mainline through Dodge is only just slightly off a true east-west orientation. The sun is just about head-on and is already pretty high, and the grass/tree foliage looks like late spring or maybe summer. This train is rolling east along Dodge’s famous Front Street (now called ‘Wyatt Earp Blvd’-according to Google Maps). I believe the head end just about to cross 4th (?) St.* There are some tracks between the double main & the street which I don’t remember from 1978. I’m sure one of you AT&SF scholars can fill in some missing info… (Evan?... ;^)

But as for the rest of us mere mortal Santa Fe fans, we can just gaze upon yet another Warbonnet and wonder over how vibrant this scene would be in living Kodachrome color…

1. AT&SF 32L on the point of an eastbound passenger train at Fort Madison, IA. (see my reply to Evan below @ 240) Approximate era: early 1950s. Train # unknown.
(copied from the J. M. [Junior] Spellman collection)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/22 22:23 by santafe199.

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As been thru 'Dodge' many times on our passes, I really got a 'Boot' out
of the photo...

RD10747 Wrote:
> ...really got a 'Boot' out of the photo...

(chuckling) Funny you should mention... It appears I'm gonna have to "re-boot" my story:

*I just got off the phone with long time pal 'The Chief Way'. During his Amtrak career he worked the ticket office in Dodge City many, many times. He has convinced me the signal in the shot is actually east of the passenger depot. I trust his memory a lot more than mine. The last time I ever shot around Dodge would be while chasing a Santa Fe passenger special in October 1981. But we were way out of town, come to think of it...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 13:35 by santafe199.

santafe199 Wrote:

> This train
> is rolling east along Dodge’s famous Front
> Street (now called ‘Wyatt Earp Blvd’-according
> to Google Maps).

...any chance this is really an eastbound train at the depot in Ft. Madison, IA? I keep squinting at that number plate trying to make it look like 3523, the signal west of the depot in Dodge, but I can't make it. None of the buildings match what's in Dodge anymore, either.

The signal number looks like 2323 to me, and there was a signal bearing that number just east of the depot in Ft. Madison. This photo of an eastbound at the depot appears to show the now-gone three-story building in the background:

http://www.fortmadisonhistory.org/gallery/image/256121/3853511

...and the hip-roofed building near the right margin is still standing, as is the building bisected by the left margin:

http://goo.gl/maps/Kfyj5

The twelfth photo in this thread shows where the signals were located relative to the depot. Apart from swapping semaphores for searchlight heads and cutting down the masts a little, the signals seem to match - signal 2323 on the right has the same "lengthwise" base as the searchlight, and the one on the left has another relay box east of it. This view also shows the tracks in the background of the diesel shot - two Santa Fe leads and two CB&Q tracks:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2432787,2432812#2432812

Looks like MP 232, signal #23...The steamboat is a'comin...

Evan_Werkema Wrote:

> ...any chance this is really an eastbound train at the depot in Ft. Madison, IA?

I'd say there's a really good chance. The signal number in the original scan is really fuzzy. The negative is 2 1/4 square, but is second generation at best. I can squint & see 232-something. Then I can squint & see 352-something. (Which is what tipped me off to Dodge City). I told John on the phone that the vast majority of the 'copy' negatives look to be from Kansas locations. But as it the saying goes. "nothing is written in stone", especially when you have a group of images with no date information other than "Locomotives 1950". I have only a vague idea how downtown Dodge City must have looked in the early 50s, but the general layout in this shot is similar to what it looked like in 1978 for a mid-morning EB shot.

Your info filing & retrieval system is second-to-none, so if you can compare with known photos of Fort Madison, lets go with that...

Lance

I don't think it's Dodge. I don't see Matthew or Miss Kitty standing out there.

Lance
I think we discussed the signal number and the CB&Q track in the right of the photo
that made me think it was Fort Madison? That was my first guess.

The_Chief_Way Wrote: > I think we discussed the signal number...

Yeah... I re-scanned the negative a couple of times. The overall image was still pretty rough, but '232' has a light edge over '352' on that signal...

There are 39 total images left in the group. 2 of them are no-doubters: WB coming off the river bridge at Ft Madison & a platform stop at Joliet. With the exception of the Freedom Train PAs (1948?) a 2 other suspicious shots, everything else is readily identifiable as being in Kansas...

Its Fort Maddy.

Peter

Looks like 2323 to me also. upkpfan

My first year working as a brakeman in 1967 Newton to Dodge City, and I remember Front Street. I'd like to see a picture of it.

When I came back in the summer of 1968, I seem to remember that Front Street was all gone and replaced by the highway through town.

Stephen Noyes