Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Countdown for the Texas Chief

It’s the middle of April in 1971 and the majority of the nation’s railroads are in a long-awaited countdown to May 1. This will be the much trumpeted birthday for something called: National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or more familiarly Amtrak. There are a scant 2 weeks left before Santa Fe regretfully leaves the business of running passenger trains. President John S. Reed is reportedly in anguish at the final decision to join Amtrak. But on May 1 Santa Fe will turn 2 of its prized long-distance offspring over to Amtrak operations: The well-known and loved Texas Chief & the world-renowned Super Chief.

On April 14 Bill Gibson is on his way to Texas. He has great weather and is able to shoot train #15 at Oklahoma City, a place where he will later shoot [at least] 3 of Amtrak’s versions of the Texas Chief ( http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2613549,2613549#msg-2613549 ). With just 2 weeks of pure Santa Fe left to see, please enjoy Bill’s shot here of a perfectly lit A-B-B-B consist dressed in one of the world’s most famous passenger paint schemes…

1. AT&SF 325 L is pointing train #15, the Texas Chief at the station stop in Oklahoma City, OK on April 14, 1971.
Photo by William A. Gibson (WAG) Sr.

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/22 23:32 by santafe199.

---

An "A+" image.
Bob

The dual-service 325L, to be relegated to freight service for the rest of its career on Amtrak Day.

Another fine slide - thanks again for sharing this with all of us Lance!

Great shot!  That is my train.  Rode it at least 50 times Temple-Newton and back.

Randy Lundgren

Only a AT&SF ALCo PA would look better.

Great shot!!  Old Santa Fe Ry. operating crews on the Texas Chief above were based out of Arkansas City, KS and worked between Arkansas City and Purcell, OK.

RodneyZona Wrote: > ... operating crews on the Texas Chief...

Gee whiz Rodney, do you even like the picture?

I'm sure Rodney does like it.  I can't imagine anyone not liking it.  First thing I did when I looked at the posting was reach for my '71 timebook to see if perhaps I had worked that train from Emporia to Arkansas City but then realized that one timebook is missing.  I'll never know.  Post some more!

SWEET! !!!

The hoggers, Emporia to Ark City on #15 & #16 at that time, were Newt Beatty and "Fearless" Phil Tolbert. (my spelling may leave a lot to be correct). wag216 and my late freind Al Ramsey.spent many nice evenings watching #16 and #11 at Wichita (that is in Kansas).

Mr. Gibson:  Yes, I worked as a fireman with Newt Beatty and Phil Tolbert more than any other passenger engineers in that time period.  A couple of little stories about Newt....

     Newt had a habit of always rocking forward and backwards when he was operating a train.  Don't think he even realized he was doing that.  Clyde Shellenberger was his fireman one night and they were discussing the fact that someone had been shooting at the cabs of moving trains.  Clyde told Newt he didn't ever need to worry about getting hit (account of his rocking).  He said he didn't think Newt understood what he meant by that statement.

     Newt always wanted to be "on time".  After our engines were serviced at Newton, Ks we departed for Ark City with a fist full of temporary speed restrictions as the maintenance of way had been working on the track between Wichita and Winfield.  To compound the problem our speedometer wasn't registering correctly or not working at all.  Newt requested that I check the elapsed time between each milepost and shout it out to him.  OK, I could do that.  Another problem cropped up as we departed Wichita.  Fog so thick you couldn't see more than about a car length ahead.  So here I am starring out the windshield attempting to catch the signal indications and the mileposts while the light from the headlight was being reflected by the fog back into our eyes.  I think most engineers would have just slowed down a little bit due to the conditions but not Newt.  He was always going to make the best running time possible.  When I got off at Ark City my head was just spinning inside.  Guess I'd been hypnotized by all that reflected light.

     Just thought of something else.  Newt and I were discussing some hard nosed engineers that we both knew when he said I really didn't know what a real "crusty engineer" was like.  He had started on the railroad in 1928.  Said he rode some of those early trips with a pipe wrench in his hand or beside him just for protection.

     As to Phil, he was just the opposite of Newt.  Much more cautious and didn't really care when he got there.  I would want to hurry him up some.  ha!

     I really miss some of those old f*rts.  Now that I am one.

                          Mark