Railroaders' Nostalgia > Morris, KS: a train-nut goes to work for the RR!

This thread started out in life as an extensive “Depot Friday” then & now comparison. But unexpected memories came flooding forth and my two fingers started flying over the keyboard. Images were added as a new memories emerged. The story is now so filled with deeply personal nostalgia I had to shift completely over and post this on the ‘RRer’s Nostalgia’ forum*. I beg your indulgence: I’ve inserted lots of personal memories & some current commentary into the many brackets with italics inside…

My very first service for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe was [a lifetime ago] in the summer of 1974 as a trackman [what’s a trackman?] on extra gang #57 [what’s an extra gang?] on the Eastern Division of Santa Fe’s Eastern Lines. In early 1974 I had a post- 1973 high school graduation part time job on a pine tree farm down near Alta Vista, KS. I had been working with a guy who had worked the previous summer “on the RR”. When he discovered I had been a train-nut as a kid [I still was, dontcha know!] he suggested I go and try to get on with the Santa Fe. Since Topeka was part of the railroad name, that’s exactly where I headed […made perfect sense to me]. I drove right down 4th Street in Topeka, parked and marched right into what I later found out was only the local yard office. I asked a man about 10 years older than me with gloves & grimy overalls if I could apply for a job. He just sorta chuckled [in a friendly manner] and said: “Kid, ya gotta go down to Emporia!”. So away I went. I had been to Emporia only once before, attending a HS basketball tournament in the spring of 1973. So I knew I could find the town, but I was secretly hoping this wasn’t turning into one of those classic “snipe-hunts” we used to tease the Tenderfoot kids with on Boy Scout camp-outs. Not only did I find Emporia, I also found the RR station. I was immediately blown away! I had never seen a train station up close & personal that was this big! Nor this beautiful. Two-stories of red brick construction, trimmed with native Kansas limestone. And a sprawling platform made of the same color red bricks, with 3 more red-brick platform fingers between the tracks. And just look at all those tracks in the yard, and a real-life roundhouse! And holy smokes, Batman: real-life, overhead signal bridges! I was completely overwhelmed. [...the Santa Fe had nothing like this in my 2nd hometown of Abilene]

1. AT&SF/Amtrak depot/Eastern Division Office Building [upstairs] in Emporia, KS.

2. “Eastern Division Offices” [green door, with psgr baggage room doors on right].
(2 Kodachrome 126 Instamatic slides taken August 14, 1976)

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I picked my lower jaw up off the platform and found the little sign that read: “Eastern Division Offices”. I was hired on a Friday afternoon in April. I had to pass a physical given by one of Santa Fe’s local Emporia doctors [no sweat, I’ll be 19 years young in June]. When Mr. Homer X [I forgot his last name…] hired me in the DOB in Emporia he had provide me with directions to my new place of employment out in the field. He turned to confer with a very elegant mother-figure looking lady named Christine [I forgot her last name too…] Together they produced some hand-written driving instructions to an obscure place called Morris [never heard of it…] just outside of Kansas City [I do know where that place is…] I was told to bring an extra pillow & blanket if I wanted and to find bunk car #203501 [what’s a bunk car?] which should be right behind a small depot. You’ll report to Foreman Salvador Vega bright & early @ 7:00 AM Monday morning. On the ensuing Sunday evening I left Manhattan, Kansas [in my rear-view mirror…?] and drove east, into an unknown future which would ultimately become my life’s vocation. It would turn out to be an adventure of a lifetime for a kid train-nut who had yet to become a railfan photographer. By some miracle, and in complete darkness I found Morris, KS! […surely the railfan gods were looking out for this future photographer].

As instructed I found Metropolitan Ave in Kansas City, KS [oops… make that Argentine] and followed it west through a real boondock-looking woodsy/hilly area that [as predicted] deposited me down onto Holliday Drive [a name I would come to hold dearly]. I turned my 1970 Maverick onto S 74th St and cautiously drove north through the inky darkness. I passed through a tight and very ancient-looking overpass opening which looked like it might have a RR track on top. Passing through that opening presented me with my first view of the Morris, KS depot. It wasn’t very impressive. A single hanging lamp light illuminated only the front left corner of a bright orange structure [hey… that’s Floquil’s reefer orange!] as I crossed over 3 main-looking tracks [WHOA… 3 main tracks? And what’s that track up there on that embankment?] I did find a shadowy silver RR car marked with: “ATSF 203551” on the side [sure looks like an old passenger car to me]. But there were no automobiles sitting around the darkened depot. Finding absolutely no sign of life I parked my Maverick [now there’s a name for the occasion…]

3. AT&SF Morris [KS] depot on august 14, 1977. (This is exactly what my first sight of the depot looked like in 1974.)

4. AT&SF ‘living car’ 203551 taken in March of 1977. (This Photoshopped version is about how my 1970 Maverick’s headlights found on that April night in 1974.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/17 21:04 by santafe199.

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Alrighty then, the bunk car number is correct. So this must be the place [but what have I gotten myself into?] I found the step ladder leaning up against the car and cautiously entered my new home [for the next few months]. I found a light switch that actually worked. I chose a bunk bed on the side next to the tracks [naturally!] and stashed the blanket I brought from home. I went back out and walked around, exploring my new home. I was deeply intrigued by the prospect of 3 [count ‘em, THREE] main tracks so I made a bee-line for the crossing. I stood there and gazed around in every direction. I became aware of the crickets and a few birds performing a classic background concerto. Looking back toward the big city I saw 3 red lights in a far off horizontal pattern. Looking the opposite direction I found 3 similar red lights much closer [maybe a quarter mile?] and a lot brighter. It suddenly crashed down upon my inexperienced head! These must be the same kind of signals I had seen in the daylight down in Emporia [duhhh, ya think…….] I stood there completely enthralled. Those 3 bright red lights were a lot different at night, They had an almost hypnotizing effect, especially with the red glow shining off the rails underneath. When my gaze shifted up & to the left I spotted a fourth red light [FOUR main tracks???] This is getting to be too much…

I knew I should be laying down, trying to get some sleep. But suddenly the middle red beacon snapped to a bright & friendly green! [Did that mean a train was coming?] Now I wasn’t about to go anywhere. Several excruciating minutes passed before I could make out a distant, but familiar rumble. I looked toward the big city. Finally [it seemed like hours…] the glow of a headlight coming out of Kansas City [later known to me as “Argentine”] could be seen around the corner at a place I would come to know as Turner.

Then, the headlight. It’s glowing aura was as bright as the sun. I could hear 4 blasts for the Douglas Ave crossing maybe ½ a mile to the east. It was getting closer, and I then was blinded & deafened by light & horn blasts for the crossing I was standing at. Then a tornado of thunder exploded out from the utterly black void behind that blinding light. My God!!! What was THAT?? It sure wasn’t those round-nosed engines, nor the boxy little pups I was used to seeing. I only spotted partial engine numbers in the feeble light from the corner of the depot. But I thought I saw an 87-something leading a couple of 55-somethings. [Hey Dorothy, hey Toto! “We’re not in Abilene, Kansas anymore!!!”]

I did lay down and try for some sleep. But 16 more trains rumbled through my new front yard that night. Do ya think I got any sleep? (heh heh heh…… ;^)

5. & 6 The scene at 2124 South 74th St in Morris, KS. Aka the AT&SF Morris depot & bunk car 203551 + my 1970 Ford Maverick. This depot was just painted in February of 1974, so I’m here to tell ya: This vibrant orange was indeed the original color, NOT the pink that has been erroneously reported 2 or 3 million times…
(2 126 Instamatic color prints taken in May of 1974)

7. Your truly before everything went south. Jeepers, Wally! I used to have hair AND a flat tummy…. (sniff… ;^)
(126 Inst color print photo taken by fellow trackman Kenny “Smitty” Smith in June of 1974)

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8. My old bunk car as it looked on December 31, 1982. I think the car might have already been pending a final disposition by 1982.

9. AT&SF 3661 crosses S 74th St, passing the Morris depot with train 305 I-1 on April 9, 1977.

10. The Morris depot as it sits now at the “Ag Hall of Fame” up in Bonner Springs, KS on March 6, 2015. Sorta fitting that the building is only in shadowy profile. Symbolic of the shadow of its former glorious service for Uncle John Santa Fe…

Thanks for listening!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*Stay tuned: I’ll still get those “Depot Friday” then & now comparisons posted today… Some time… [I hope…]

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Well, Lance, 41 years will do wonders to a man's body, but you were quite a stud in those days.

HA !!! when i first got hired on Amtrak i was told i would be working away from home 4 days a week ... home for 3 ... my intial hiring was in Philly but i was told I'd be working in Connecticut ... staying in camp cars or a hotel ... i moved the new pregnant wife and one child to the shore area to be near her parents if i was going to be away 4 days ... low and behold ... i worked in Philly my whole career never having to travel at all ... the hirees right after me weren't so fortunate having to travel for a couple of years before finding local Philly jobs ... some guys chose to work away from home their whole career ... i'm glad i didn't have to ... the furthest i had to work was an one way hour drive but even those few times it was my choice just for change but i went right back to Philly after a month or 2 ...

Lance,
 that was some good reading. Thanks for putting it down in words.
Robert

Truly intersting, areyou going to add more?

vegasrails Wrote: > ...are you going to add more?

Thank you,sir! I did go ahead and post that depot comparison thing I mentioned. Here is a link:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3807111

Lance

Did those bunk cars have showers and laundry facilities?

DFWJIM Wrote: > Did those bunk cars have showers and laundry facilities?

A shower, yes. Laundry, no. It also had a fully equipped kitchen. Well... it had a gas stove & oven and a working refrigerator. The shower [water also heated with gas] got quite a bit of use, but there were only a couple of us using the stove regularly. I was never brave enough to use the oven, but I quickly learned how to slave over that stove and whip up a MEAN pot of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, complete with ground beef. Um-um-um! Petty good stuff for a 19 year old...

Lance

I remember meeting Salvador Vega In Osage City Kansas some time in the late 70s I think at the time he was the Foremen on a tie gang that was working from Emporia to Topeka replacing ties.
I met him at the Santa Fe Depot along with countless other railroaders who I have forgotten most of there names my favorite thing to do was to go to the depot and hang around at the time the depot agent was M.C.Morton he was not from Osage City but some where in southern Kansas. 
Some of the guys would go to the local school and play Basketball in the evenings it was a lot of fun I was maybe 14 or 15 at the time but my favorite thing was being around the
trains and the depot i have lots of good memories from that time in my life. 
David Colstrom
 

I kinda like that vibrant orange .... been thinking about it for a few days since this was posted, and also saw the depot link.

Loving this stuff !

I remember reporting to work in a bunk car as a first railroad job and also going railroad job hunting in Colorado and Wyoming before the days of centrlized hiring and HR and this brings back memories. I had rather poor luck circa 1977-78 as they had by then began to look for diversity in hiring - women and minorities. I lost out on the C&S pretty much due to that according to the Trainmaster in Cheyenne who I was talking to trying to get on. I went to the BN, C&S and the D&RGW in Pueblo with no luck. Got an interview with Union Pacific in Cheyenne for mechanical department but they had a hold on hiring for the position.

To this day I have no idea why I never tried the Santa Fe in Denver, and I never looked up the ROCK, maybe I just thought the ROCK was too much of a long shot,
Great Western was not doing much, and I did go to Loveland to see what they might have which was nothing. Eventually wandered back East. A couple of high school buddies from New York hired on the UP steel gang after graduation but I was looking for train / engine service or mechanical. They made money and I ended up painting houses and working in a funeral home for a while.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/15 11:21 by train1275.

dpc37 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember meeting Salvador Vega In Osage City
> Kansas some time in the late 70s I think at the
> time he was the Foremen on a tie gang that was
> working from Emporia to Topeka replacing ties.
> I met him at the Santa Fe Depot along with
> countless other railroaders who I have forgotten
> most of there names my favorite thing to do was to
> go to the depot and hang around at the time the
> depot agent was M.C.Morton he was not from Osage
> City but some where in southern Kansas. 
> Some of the guys would go to the local school and
> play Basketball in the evenings it was a lot of
> fun I was maybe 14 or 15 at the time but my
> favorite thing was being around the
> trains and the depot i have lots of good memories
> from that time in my life. 
> David Colstrom
>    I think Morton was a clerk at Emporia for a while before he retired, He drove the van hauling crews around the yards. Wasn't Sal Vega the track supervisor that was struck & killed by an eastbound train on the curve west of Merrick in 2008?

ddg Wrote:
Wasn't Sal Vega the track supervisor that was struck & killed by an eastbound train on the curve west of Merrick in 2008? 
Yes that is correct.

That's sad to hear, great story Lance and do you still have the Maverick?

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