Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe poor man's roundhouse

I can remember when the Eisenhower Center complex was under construction in 1960’s Abilene, KS. Ground was first broken in 1959 when I was 4 years old. My Grandparent’s house on SW 4th St was right across Buckeye Avenue from the Eisenhower grounds. The house is long gone, but the old lot sits right behind the current ‘Greyhound Hall of Fame’ building; the place where we had our 1st Great Smoky Valley Shootout last October.

Any given Saturday a half-dozen of us cousins (out of a total herd of 22) could be found congregating at the ground zero that was indeed my Grandma’s house. I can remember countless times we would roam the neighborhood inspecting the new construction going on. But my eyes would always stray over to the adjacent Santa Fe RR yard, which is just north of the Eisenhower grounds. I can remember this little ‘boxcar-without-wheels’ sitting right where all the engines would park. My grade-school childhood eyes didn’t see that it was there for those engines. I just remember it being part of the overall Santa Fe scene in Abilene. Part of the Santa Fe brand of magic that sank the railfan spirit irreversibly deep into my soul.

While scanning a box of my friend Jim Watson’s miscellaneous 2¼ square Ektachrome transparencies I found this remarkable image, straight out of my childhood memories. By the time my adulthood and employment with the Santa Fe came around this scene had long been erased from the yard in Abilene. Neither one of us can pin down an exact date for this photo so a little historic sleuthing will have to suffice. A companion photo [that didn’t scan well] shows the completed Eisenhower Library back behind it which allows me to say “circa 1965”.

1. AT&SF “roundhouse” scene in Abilene, KS circa 1965. That’s the iconic Bert & Wetta elevator in the background, before it became Bert & Wetta. And that's GP-7 2854 & companion waycar back there minding its their business.
(EK 2qsq orig trans by James W. Watson)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Watson (UP6900)



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/22 21:02 by santafe199.

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And this is when a 14 year old boy could wander into this, and he'd be met with "Hi kid!  Do you like trains?"

Lee Hower - Sacramento

mcfflyer Wrote: > And this is when a 14 year old boy could...

You hit the nail right on the head, Lee! By the time I was 14 I'd had several cab rides around the yard in Abilene... :^)

Lance

and the turntable was off to the right ?

santafe199 Wrote:

> Neither one of us can pin down an exact
> date for this photo so a little historic sleuthing
> will have to suffice. A companion photo shows the
> completed Eisenhower Library back behind it which
> allows me to say “circa 1965”.

Looks like the caboose behind the geep is wearing the early "road pool" scheme with Indian red sides, black roof, and yellow pinstripe and emblem.  That scheme first appeared on newly refurbished Ce-1's in 1966.  If Jim has a closer view showing the caboose number, we might be able to pin down a "not earlier than" date even better.

If not no worries, it's still a fascinating image.  You look at a "repurposed" car like that, with all those funny-shaped and positioned openings, and you start wondering "now what were THOSE for?"  Those two high-mounted doors (?) on the front near this end with a horizontal board or two below them are particularly perplexing.  Was that landlocked Tk-L tank car beyond it the fuel supply?

Evan_Werkema Wrote: > ... If Jim has a closer view showing the caboose number...

Jim did shoot the 2854 with the waycar right behind. But the angle is too sharp to make out the 3 digits behind the obvious '999'.
And this was before the large numeral were added up top...

Lance

added: Yes John, the 'engine air-operated' [one way only] turntable should be just out of frame to the right...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/15 11:42 by santafe199.

It isn't "circa 1965".

The handrails on the 2854 are yellow. That puts it in the '66/'67 range and perhaps somewhat later than that, as the the 2854 was not involved in the general renumbering of '69/'70. In the image, it appears that there might be wear to the paint of the vertical rails that one would use to pull themselves up the stepwell. That definitely could make this '68/'69.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

I wasn't there except a time or two in '62 but worked in and out of there quite a bit more in '63 and '64.  What I remember most about that building (car) was that there was an kind, tall old gentlemen that worked out of it at night.  The only name of his position that I can come up with is "engine night watchman".  It may have been a little different than that.  I think I was told he had been promised employment until he reached retirement age so it was kinda a "make a position" job.  Perhaps it was a carry over from watching the steam locomotives.

Mark Cole
Temple, TX

The "roundhouse" was located near the intersection
of Campbell St. and SE 3rd St.

Look at this Google Street View. It appears that the remnant
piece of track that the tank car sat upon is still there.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.912944,-97.209229,3a,22.1y,96.44h,89.25t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sg01WpPmnLt64CHku6hJ9_Q!2e0

BaltoJoey Wrote:>  The "roundhouse" was located near the intersection of Campbell St. and SE 3rd St.

Yup, you've got the spot! The track in the foreground leading up to the orange wheel stops is the old turntable track. I don't know when the turntable was removed. I know it was there during my Santa Fe tenure, which ended in 1987. The actual "RH" track shown in Jim's photo would be right about where the pile of track material is now laying (just beyond the turntable track). Of course, the stub piece to the right of the mound of gravel is just a bulk segment of some new turnout to be installed somewhere.

Lance

It looks like the pole with crossarm on the right in the photo is in the Google Street View photo.   If so, it provides a good indication of where the boxcar had been sitting. 

It is amazing how such a bucolic setting has been changed into the sterile, ballast infested and character devoid scene that it is today. 

Rick Rowlands
Hubbard, OH
Youngstown Steel Heritage

There was a similar box car type "office" at Augusta, across the tracks to the east.

Posted from Android

Also at Tower B, El Dorado, between the tie-up tracks.