Railroaders' Nostalgia > Laying over in Kansas City

My duties as a Santa Fe extra board brakeman also included being qualified to work in passenger service on all Amtrak trains. During the winter lay-offs in 1978-79 fellow brakeman and railfan pal Dave Franz *monaddave* & I got our student baggageman and student flagman trips out of the way. (Our student baggage trip together out to La Junta & back is a story in itself! ;^) I wouldn’t subsequently get qualified as an Amtrak conductor until 1986, but I never did work as a conductor. In fact, my student conductor qualification trips in ’86 were the very last time I rode an Amtrak train in the employ of the Santa Fe.

In October of 1979 I was called for 2 round trips as the flagman on trains #4 & #3. The job was in interdivisional affair between the Middle & Eastern Divisions. We Middle Division guys worked out of Newton, into Kansas City for a layover. And the Eastern Division guys worked just the opposite. It was a unique situation in that trains #3 & #4 would meet each other, usually somewhere in the Emporia area. But there was hardly ever any inter-mingling with a crew from the “other” division. Here’s a link to an earlier thread with a deeper story about October 1979… http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3268526,3268528#msg-3268528>

If you accessed the link above you might have noticed an odd-looking blue & white-striped piece of passenger looking equipment in the background behind the wrecked Amtrak units. Here are a couple of shots of the same. If I am remembering correctly this railfan had to utilize a somewhat contrary form of transportation from my lodging at the Continental Hotel in downtown KCMO out to Argentine Yard. Yessir, I’m here to tell you: I’m pretty sure I had to ride (oof….) a BUS out to a stop close to my target. I then had to hoof it the rest of the way over to the Argentine Diesel Shops. But I was on a determined mission to photograph the wrecked passenger units, which I had spotted from the trip inbound on #4 earlier that morning. My timebook tells my I got tied up (off duty) off #4 at KCUS at 0835 and went back on duty on #3 at 2350. A little bit of sleep, followed by an opportunistic afternoon of railfanning in Argentine.

I know, this sure is a lot of meandering dialog just to show 2 heavily overcast images. But there you have it: an interesting & highly personal testimonial from this 24 year old railfan from 35 years ago. When #4 went in the dirt at Lawrence earlier in the month, most ALL of us railroaders took it very hard.

In case anyone is interested, here are the engine consists (also from my timebook) for inbound #4 & outbound #3 on October 19, 1979 at Kansas City: #4: 524, 509 & 521 ~ #3 525, 530 & 507…

1. & 2. GE ‘loco lab’ 100 is sitting in the engine yard at Argentine Diesel Shops on October 19, 1979.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/14 08:58 by santafe199.

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It's pretty hard to tell by looking at it, but that car is a former NYC "Lake" series 6 bedroom lounge built by PS in 1949. And, I believe it is still in the employ of GE to this day.

Nice streamlined dome.

That dome looks like someone stole it from a steel caboose.