Railroaders' Nostalgia > In the cool of a Kansas evening

By May of 1981 I was 3 years into my train service career with the Santa Fe. I had mostly learned which of my fellow train servicemen were receptive to the idea of a co-worker being a railfan and which most definitely were NOT… sometimes rudely! I would love to have gotten some kind of working portrait of everyone on my seniority roster. But between road & yard service there several hundred names to track down. (In those days there were only 3 women on the roster that I can recall.) I did what I could in my 9 year stint, getting over 100 various “portraits” of my fellow Santa Fe guys. But I fell way short. And a few of those portrait shots I had to sneak while the photo subject was unaware.

There was one man I always enjoyed working with, but never really got to know. Regular chain gang conductor Lynn C. Lyon had a quiet sense of humor with a personality that was easy to like. But at the same time he carried a dignified and somewhat unapproachable air. In my experience the man was always even tempered. I don’t remember ever hearing Lynn raise his voice. Lord knows a RR job would give the average man many opportunities to holler & scream about something, but not the Lynn I knew. I liked him a lot. So on May 14, 1981 I felt reasonably secure in asking him to “pose” for a shot at the conductor’s desk inside the waycar of a California-bound manifest. He agreed, and as I took the picture I could feel the waycar swaying through the graceful S-curve at the east end of Matfield Green.

After I got the shot with him posed at the desk I would ultimately have to beg his indulgence for one more shot. We had both ascended back to our seats in the cupola to resume the “labors” of watching over the train as we rolled on into the approaching night. There was just a scant bit of daylight remaining before night would fall. Our 309 train was all loads & met the tonnage qualification to run at 70 MPH. This made the cool air rushing in through cupola windows a much welcomed relief from a typical warm spring day in Kansas. It wasn’t quite summertime yet, so the evening air was almost as good as an air conditioner. We were watching the setting sun as we rolled over the backbone of the Flint Hills between Cassoday & Aikman. When I saw the red-orange glow defining his facial profile I knew I had to take one more shot. I suddenly dropped down to dig for the camera I had just put back in my grip and Lynn looked at me with a little question in his eyes. But when I pointed to the setting sun and explained what I had in mind he immediately understood. He even leaned back in his seat to give me a great compositional angle. Nothing more was spoken, and we both enjoyed the moment bathed in that golden light. It wasn’t be first, nor would it be the last, but I had to click my (boot) heels together 3 times and say: “I’m getting paid for this!”

With this second shot Lynn had become the central figure in one of my more favorite working photographs. I look at the image and many pleasant memories of riding trains through the Flint Hills come rushing forth. This scenario remains as one my most cherished memories from 32 years in train service. And as fate would have it, Lynn would also be my conductor for one of the absolute best working (if not over-all) photographs I ever shot. I’ve already posted this shot with an accompanying story (see this recent thread: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3937717 ). How could I have known the May 14 episode was just a dress rehearsal for something even better just 2 weeks later…

1. Meet Santa Fe Middle Division conductor Lynn Lyon, who graciously posed at the conductor’s desk as we were about to roll through Matfield Green, KS.

2. Lynn leans back in the right-hand seat of the cupola to take in a Kansas sunset from atop the Butler County Flint Hills, while rolling @ 70 MPH through Aikman, KS.
(2 photos taken inside AT&SF waycar 999165 at the rear of Argentine ~ Northern California train 309 N-1 on May 14, 1981)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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