Railroaders' Nostalgia > Lone Star Nights #6: No Sunshine

In the fall of 1971 Rod Stewart was causing a copious horde of red-blooded American males to have fantasies about some girl named Maggie May. Karen Carpenter sang about her own fantasies for some mysterious Superstar guitarist, while well on the way to becoming a superstar in her own right. Joan Baez swiped a song from The Band and sang about riding the Danville train (until Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again). Three superstar Dogs sang about an Old Fashioned Love Song, which came down in 3-part harmony. On a sadder note Bill Withers bemoaned that there “Ain’t No Sunshine” especially: anytime she goes a way…

In the fall of 1971 after work at Dillon’s grocery store in Manhattan’s Westloop business area I was spending many nights with my high school pals cruising around the roads between downtown & Tuttle Creek. We were rocking our brains out to The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again (among other great tunes) blasting forth from my ’62 Valiant’s AM radio. In 1971 I had no idea what to do with a camera and I certainly had no idea I should have been paying closer attention to the RR scene, even if it was just around my ‘home turf’.

In the fall of 1971 Newton, KS High School graduate Tony Fey was attending college 73 miles up the Santa Fe main line in Emporia. He was already a full fledged, camera-totin’ railfan who had been shooting RR pictures virtually since childhood. Tony was already well versed in night time photography having paid ample time-exposure dues on the passenger platform at Newton in the days both before & after Amtrak took over. So going out to shoot when there ain’t no sunshine was already second nature for him. Good thing too, because the available light at the Emporia passenger platform wasn’t near as plentiful as it was in Newton. Tony was able to record early versions of Amtrak’s eastbound train #16. It was still the “Texas Chief” in those days and yes, Red & Silver Santa Fe Fs still graced the point (see image #1 below).

By the late fall of 1977 I was less than 2 years into railfan photography. But I had learned enough about night time exposures to feel comfortable in just about any shooting situation. I wouldn’t meet Tony for another 3 years, but I was already emulating his tripod efforts on the platform in Emporia. Indeed, since there ‘ain’t no sunshine’ at #16’s scheduled arrival time of 11:35 PM it was a good time to go tripod shooting. Although still living & working in Manhattan, I would shoot my 1st portraits of train #16 just after fall became winter in 1977 (see image #2 below). I instantly fell in love with this real-live Amtrak passenger train! By then the Texas Chief name had been remorsefully reclaimed by the Santa Fe. The Texas state nickname of “Lone Star” rose up in its place and the legendary F units had been replaced in 1973 with modern 6-axled cowl units. Tony was now fully into a long train service career with the Missouri Pacific (& later the Union Pacific). My love affair with the Lone Star would reach new heights when I established train-service seniority status with the Santa Fe in June of 1978. Now living in Emporia I would ‘drop down by the depot’ and shoot #16 many times. But it was destined to be a short love-affair…

In the fall of 1979 my railfan heart (along with many, many others) would be broken with the brutal discontinuance of trains #15 & #16 because of budget cuts. The Lone Star had gone away. And this time she’s gone to stay*…

1. AT&SF 314C on Amtrak train #16, the “Texas Chief” at Emporia, KS on October 27, 1971.
(Photo by Tony Fey)

2. AMTK 501 on train #16, the “Lone Star” at Emporia, KS on December 27, 1977.

*Wonder this time where she's gone
Wonder if she's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Anytime she goes away
(lyrics paraphrased)

“Ain’t No Sunshine” was Bill Withers’ first chart success, breaking into Billboard’s Top-40 in August of 1971 for a 12 week stay. It rose to #3 before fading off the chart by Thanksgiving.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Tony Fey (mopacrr)



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/15 21:28 by santafe199.

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Question: While you were listening to Ain't No Sunshine, what radio station were you listening to it on?

Ooooh.  1971.  Year of my first cross country road trip chasing trains.  That trip took me through Salina.

Lee Hower - Sacramento

mcfflyer Wrote: > ...what radio station were you listening to...

(chuckling, but meaning no offense) As crazy as it sounds, to answer your question I would have to know what time of the day you were asking about. The correct question to ask is: "What radio station was the tune NOT playing on?" Once a tune broke into the Top-10 it went into heavy rotation EVERYwhere. That's seemed to be the standard AM radio formula in those days. Growing up Manhattan in the 60s & early 70s AM radio was mainstream stuff. FM was around, but for some reason hadn't really caught on..... yet. But: AM radio was sorta weird. In daylight hours about all us kids could rely on for the Top-40 pop/rock 'n roll stuff was WHB out of Kansas City 120 +/- miles away. Then at night WHB's signal would fade and we couldn't tune it in as strong as in the daytime. But at night we could pick up 2 other slam-dunk great Top-40/pop stations: WLS out of Chicago & KOMA out of Oklahoma City. And the reverse was true here. We had difficulity picking up either WLS or KOMA during daylight hours. Go figure...

DJ Sir L

"With a heave and a ho, and I just couldn't let her go."

Tiny Bradshaw, 1951
The Yardbirds, 1965
Aerosmith, 1974

Train Kept A Rollin' (all night long).

IC1038west Wrote: > ...Train Kept A Rollin' (all night long)...

Nice! :^) I have 2 outta the 3 versions you listed. It shouldn't be too hard to figger out which version I DON'T have... :^/

(2/3) DJ Sir L

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IC1038west Wrote: > ...Train Kept A Rollin' (all
> night long)...
>
> Nice! :^) I have 2 outta the 3 versions you
> listed.

I started to include Sugarloaf in the group, but their version was instrumental only, and I cannot remember the year of their release.

Very nice shots, Sir L. Thanks for the chance to enjoy the moment(s).

IC1038west.

IC1038west Wrote: > ...I started to include Sugarloaf in the group, but...

Awwright! You got me ta diggin'...
I actually have 4 versions in I-tunes
:
Yardbirds 1965
Todd Rundgren (w/ his 1st group 'Nazz') 1968
Sugarloaf (instr) 1970 &
Aerosmith (live) 1974

The version we both missed was Johnny Burnette in 1962 (embarrassment courtesy of Wikipedia)

DJ Sir L (back to full status ... ;^)

PS: The enjoyment here is very much courtesy of Mr Tony Fey. His fantastic (& extremely rare) Red & Silver night shot at Emporia set this whole thread into motion!

:^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/15 19:06 by santafe199.

santafe199 Wrote:

> The version we both missed was Johnny Burnette in
> 1962 (embarrassment courtesy of Wikipedia)

Wow, I'm fired. Back to the penalty (juke)box.

> PS: The enjoyment here is very much courtesy of Mr
> Tony Fey. His fantastic (& extremely rare) Red &
> Silver night shot at Emporia set this whole thread
> into motion!
>
> :^)

Yes, great catches!

IC1038west.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mcfflyer Wrote: > ...what radio station were you
> listening to...
>
> (chuckling, but meaning no offense) As crazy as it
> sounds, to answer your question I would have to
> know what time of the day you were asking about.
> The correct question to ask is: "What radio
> station was the tune NOT playing on?" Once a tune
> broke into the Top-10 it went into heavy rotation
> EVERYwhere. That's seemed to be the standard AM
> radio formula in those days. Growing up Manhattan
> in the 60s & early 70s AM radio was mainstream
> stuff. FM was around, but for some reason hadn't
> really caught on..... yet. But: AM radio was sorta
> weird. In daylight hours about all us kids could
> rely on for the Top-40 pop/rock 'n roll stuff was
> WHB out of Kansas City 120 +/- miles away. Then at
> night WHB's signal would fade and we couldn't tune
> it in as strong as in the daytime. But at night we
> could pick up 2 other slam-dunk great Top-40/pop
> stations: WLS out of Chicago & KOMA out of
> Oklahoma City. And the reverse was true here. We
> had difficulity picking up either WLS or KOMA
> during daylight hours. Go figure...
>
> DJ Sir L

AM radio.  I grew up just outside Bangor, Maine.  In the early 60's I was about 10 years old.  Remember "skip?"  I could listen to the AM station WPTR from somewhere in New York most evenings from Bangor, Maine.  Listening locally I remember "Mighty John Marshall" as the local on air guy playing the top 40 on WGUY.  Thanks for the looking back reminders.

Keep posting your pictures.  Greatly enjoy them.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Growing up Manhattan
> in the 60s & early 70s AM radio was mainstream
> stuff. FM was around, but for some reason hadn't
> really caught on..... yet. But: AM radio was sorta
> weird. In daylight hours about all us kids could
> rely on for the Top-40 pop/rock 'n roll stuff was
> WHB out of Kansas City 120 +/- miles away. Then at
> night WHB's signal would fade and we couldn't tune
> it in as strong as in the daytime. But at night we
> could pick up 2 other slam-dunk great Top-40/pop
> stations: WLS out of Chicago & KOMA out of
> Oklahoma City. And the reverse was true here. We
> had difficulity picking up either WLS or KOMA
> during daylight hours. Go figure...
>
> DJ Sir L

At night we listened to KOMA out here on the coast in the L.A. area, came in quite nice on our cheap early radio.

mapboy

Extra fine slides , Lance !  Thanks for posting.   --Kelly