Railroaders' Nostalgia > Business as usual in the Country Club

In its Santa Fe prime my second home-town of Abilene was a strategic cross roads for the Middle Division’s Strong City, Salina & Barnard Districts in north-central Kansas. Regular roadswitcher jobs were based in both Abilene & Salina, just 23 miles to the west. Most of the time regular locals serving the outer endpoints of Superior, NE and Osborne & Barnard, KS were based in Abilene. On rare occasions the Osborne local would be based out of Salina. Depending a little on the ever-changing nature & volume of local business, and a lot on AT&SF managerial whims this intricate network of branch line switchers & locals would go through regular alterations & adjustments in job descriptions, on-duty times and assigned working territories. For example: the “Abilene Roadswitcher could (& regularly did) make trips to & from Salina, while the Salina Roadswitcher made the same regular trips to & from Abilene (over the Union Pacific or “KP” main line, I might add). On select days, usually Mondays & Thursdays the Salina Roadswitcher crew would come over and take care of local industry business in Abilene, while the Abilene Roadswitcher acted as a local running out to Barnard and back, time permitting. And we haven’t even taken into account the M.O.W. work trains that would periodically prowl the area. At any time both the Abilene & Salina Roadswitcher jobs could (& often did) act as dog catchers in rescuing some other train whose crew had gone D.O.L.

Once upon a time this entire network of branch line business, trackage & inter-laced jobs had the unofficial nick name of “The Country Club District”. Most of the men who filled these jobs lived in the Abilene or Salina areas. During slack periods some of these men who were at the bottom of the seniority pile would have to go bump onto the road out of Emporia, or into the yards at Sand Creek (Newton) or North Wichita. Conversely there were peak times where the younger seniority sprouts riding the brakeman’s extra board out of Emporia would be force-assigned to “Country Club” jobs because there weren’t enough local men to fill all the positions. During peak business periods, especially during the famous Kansas summer wheat rushes, extra locals would be put on with shortened end points. Unless a new job was especially attractive to a Country Club trainman these positions were almost always filled with force-assigned youngsters from Emporia. And these temporary jobs would nearly always be based out of Abilene.

All of this business had to go somewhere. A small fraction of it was interchanged with Union Pacific which was a close companion in both Abilene & Salina. But the vast majority of this branch line business dropped south & east into Emporia, KS via the main line junction point of Neva, just west of Strong City. This is where the Strong City District got its name. There was a regular local based out of Emporia that ran through Abilene to & from the endpoint of Salina. As can well be imagined this local was usually pretty heavy both ways. But there were times when it just wasn’t possible to dump all of the traffic to & from the ‘Country Club’ on one train.

Enter train “YDW”! Santa Fe terminal yards (like all railroads) would occasionally suffer the buildup of overflow tonnage destined for certain locations. When this buildup occurs the solution was to run an extra or make-up train that wasn’t listed in the regular roster of trains. Emporia, KS had at one time TWO different sets of telegraph call initials. NR was a call sign which was strictly for business down at the mainline passenger station. But out in the yard the call sign was YD. The train you see below was one of those overflow trains and had the train symbol of “YDW J-1”. Broken down, it stands for: Emporia YarD West, with J-1 indicating it was the first section originating on day “J” in the month (as J is the 10th letter in the alphabet). This train has cleaned a healthy chunk of tonnage out of Emporia Yard. And from the looks of the consist, a lot of fresh (quarterly) inspected & serviced power has also been delivered, ready for service in the Country Club. No big surprise here. The 10th day in April in 1982 fell on a Saturday, so this power was in place to handle whatever would arise in the week(s) to come.

Nothing lasts for ever. Times & business climates changed and the “Country Club” gradually faded out of existence. Salina-bound locals began running out of Sand Creek over OKKT (former Rock Island) trackage between Peabody & Lost Springs. The line between Neva & Lost Springs fell into general disuse, and was eventually torn out. The branch from Salina to Osborne was sold off, and the branch from Manchester out to Barnard was an early economic casualty. The Strong City District itself did survive the turbulent changes, sort of. A shortened version between Lost Springs & Superior, NE via Abilene is now called the: BNSF Strong City Subdivision. As fate would have it, this line is now for all intents & purposes a secondary mainline, complete with high-ballasted & welded rail. This allows BNSF to shuttle overflow traffic such as unit coal, grain & tank car empties up to Nebraska. This routing takes some pressure off the crowded terminal in Argentine, KS. Uncle Pete even gets into the act. There has been a trackage rights agreement for Santa Fe/BNSF operation over the OKKT/UP leg between Peabody & Lost Springs for quite a long time. Also, the Union Pacific has now had trackage rights over BNSF’s Strong City Sub between Abilene & Lost Springs for a good deal of time. In an average week the UP runs more trains through former Santa Fe Country Club territory than it does into Kansas City. But the real Country Club District is gone forever…

1. AT&SF 6354 at the point of train “YDW J-1” in Abilene, KS on April 4, 1982.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/15 11:55 by santafe199.

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Just a great read, Sir L. The time period when the branches were still part of the class 1 "big picture" is fascinating. The shock of wheat (literally) feeding the main as intended. Was the Barnard district known also as the Minneapolis district during the same time period? Time to get Joe McMillan's Wheat Lines and Super Freights out for a little review... Thanks for the post!

IC1038west.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/15 07:14 by IC1038west.

IC1038west Wrote: > ..Was the Barnard district known also as the Minneapolis district...

Yessir, it sure was. My sentimental mistake. We all called it the "Barnyard" district so often (for obvious reasons) that the nick name stuck deep. In my experience it was always called 'heading up to Barnard today', as opposed to Minneapolis. Railroader DO love nicknames, and this is one that really stuck...

Lance/199

Finally got to the "library" for additional enjoyment of the country club shots in Wheat Lines and Super Freights. I am glad you got a shot on page 52 of the Minneapolis (Kansas!) depot with the ATSF 3703 anchoring the Abilene roadswitcher during beans. Thanks again for the post.

IC1038west.