Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe Middle Division, 4th District

Santa Fe used the term "district" instead of "subdivision" until some time in the 80s, I think about the time of the proposed ATSF-SP merger, when they adopted "subdivision" to conform to the practice of the SP. The Santa Fe Middle Division 4th District ran from Ellinor (Ks.) to Wellington (Ks.). I took this photo in August of 1974 on the 4th district. I would guess this might have been a local that worked the refinery at El Dorado and is heading back to Emporia. Not sure excatly where I took this photo, probably just NE of El Dorado. Maybe santafe199 or ddg could provide a more exact location.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/15 07:02 by WichitaJct.

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Westbound at Matfield Green would be my guess.

that's a helluva refinery business ... nice catch

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Pretty sure it's Matfield Green. In the early 80's, the white building you see in the backgrtound was juacked up, loaded up, and moved east to a farm. You can still see it today a mile west of Bazar, where the track separates from the highway, at the little farm on the west side.

I concur with Dennis. To get this shot you most likely stopped in town (that would greater metropolitan downtown Matfield Green... ;^) and drove in behind 177 highway to the depot area. There were only a couple of short little 'alley' slots where you could do this. The depot was still standing as late as August 1974, albeit out of service. You would have to have walked across the tracks and hiked up on this rise on the west (TT north) side for the elevation in your shot. The white house & grove of trees puzzles me a bit, though. The only house currently that close on the east (TT south) side of the main is back further near the bend at the east end of the siding.

Out_Of_Service Wrote: > that's a helluva refinery business ...

This would be regular main line local train 1311-1312 (between Emporia & Arkansas City). It would serve as tank car shuttle for the 2 refineries at El Dorado & 1 at Augusta in those days. The train would also have pick-ups & setouts for Mulvane & Winfield. It was usually always a healthy sized train...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/15 07:28 by santafe199.

When I was looking at the picture, before scrolling down to Dennis's comments, I thought "that's Matfield Green". So I'm just concurring with him.

Mark Cole