Nostalgia & History > Uncle Oliver (vol #1): Classic nose profile!

No kiddies, that’s not a typo! The initials W. O. G. stand for a railfan by the name of William Oliver Gibson. ‘Oliver’, who was a career Santa Fe employee from Amarillo, TX was a life-long friend, but no relation to the Kansas William Arthur Gibsons, both Bill (WAG Sr) & Art (WAG Jr). Art tells me that the friendship between Bill & Oliver goes back at least far enough that he can relate the story of how he was held in his (not-really-an-uncle) Uncle Oliver’s arms shortly after ‘little Art’ was born in 1936. Bill passed away in 1983 but his good friend lived on many years after, passing away just a few years ago. When Oliver passed away, part of his photo collection was passed down to Art.

Art & I will sit down over lunch in the coming days and I will get a more complete story, so I can properly introduce WOG. I have been able to squeeze some scanning time away from the main ‘WAG’ collection and have about 180 Oliver Gibson image scans in the bag. Like Bill, Oliver was prominently a roster shooter. Especially in his B/W steam shooting days. He shot quite a bit of Santa Fe stuff, but the UP, the Frisco & the Rio Grande are nicely represented in the stuff I’ve scanned so far.

Art & I will also start posting some of Oliver’s photography now & then via the ‘WAG running extra’ series. (On these occasions it appears we will have to modify the series title to: WOG running extra… ;^) I guess you might call this a “WAG-WOG” situation, a humorous twist that I’m sure both Bill & Oliver would approve of…

1. To get WOG off and running-extra here is an artsy color slide of AT&SF 4-6-2 3416. This engine was donated for display in Great Bend, KS probably not long after this shot was taken. But for now, she sits in darkened profile inside the roundhouse at Amarillo, TX.
(Color slide by William Oliver Gibson on April 15, 1956)

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

EDITED 1-12-17: I have changed this thread title from "WOG running extra #35" to "Uncle Oliver (vol #1)". This will accommodate future threads containing some very nifty images from the camera of Mr William 'Oliver' Gibson who later in his Santa Fe career was generally known to hale from Amarillo, TX. Oliver was no relation to the Kansas Gibsons, Bill & Art. But Art, considering the life-long friendship his father Bill had with Oliver considers him to be a sort of Uncle he never had! So here's to "Uncle Oliver" and the many of his remarkable images to come in future threads...

Lance/199



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/22 00:03 by santafe199.

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William O. Gibson (no relations to the WAGs, just life-long friends) had two books printed by South Platte Press. Journal of a Santa Fe Wire Twister - 100 Years of Family Railroading and Journal of a Santa Fe Wire Twister - Final Entries are nice reads, if you can find them. William O. was a third generation Santa Fe employee. That family's total was more than 100 years of service. He started in 1929 as a helper-electrician  He ended up covering a large portion of Santa Fe over the years, working in their Communications Department. I understand when he traveled for work, he did so on Santa Fe's passenger trains. Both books are great oral histories with many of his photos.
Dave in Missoula



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/17 20:33 by monaddave.

ATSF 3416 was taken out of service at Amarillo on November 7, 1953, but wasn't striken from the books until September 14, 1956, the very last Santa Fe 4-6-2 to be disposed of.  Judging from the whitewalls and other fresh paint, she's already been purtied-up for donation.