Western Railroad Discussion > Takin' the hole at Ike

I caught a scene the other day which happens dozens of time a day all over the country. A short little local train takes a siding for a meet. Totally routine. No real story here. Well… maybe one thing. The name of the siding: Several years ago I learned of the name of this siding from my good friend and fellow retired engineer Bob Helling (PRose). When I asked about it, he told me simply “Ike”. I immediately caught the connection to the late former 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His boyhood home was of course Abilene, just down the road to the east. But railroaders will always be railroaders. I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn the crews’ mutual nickname for this siding was “dead republican”…

1. & 2. UP 1350 approaches and stops at the east siding switch with Salina-based local: LDG-86.

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3. A crew member is down at the switch, which he opens…

4. … allowing his hogger to run the short local on into the siding.
(4 photos taken at Ike siding, between Abilene & Solomon, KS on October 21, 2016)

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Dead Republican?  Too soon, Lance! ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/16 07:33 by switchlock.

switchlock Wrote: > ... Too soon, Lance! ;-)
(chuckling) Yeah... I figured somebody would take this as political, but it's really not. I HATE politics, which I've been forced to live through in the past. This is simply a series of shots of a UP local taking the siding at Ike, KS, which happens to have a nickname typical of railroaders' mass & sometimes sarcastic sense of humor. If anyone wants to take this thread as political, it's most definitely not my problem...

Lance/199

Am I correct that the line is not signaled and that the signal at the switch is only to show the condition or direction of the turnout?

tomstp Wrote: Am I correct that the line is not signaled...

The "KP" has fully functional CTC from Menoken (W Topeka) to St Marys, where it turns into ABS all the way to Salina. So what you're looking at here is a traditional ABS meet where the crew lines their train into the siding by hand. As short as the train was I'm a bit surprised they weren't instructed to line the east switch back behind them...

Posted from Android

Nice, Lance!

Randy Lundgren