Western Railroad Discussion > The Old Ellinor Shuffle (vol #4)

Ellinor, KS, now on the BNSF Emporia Sub has been a strategic junction point ever since the Santa Fe acquisition of Kansas City, Mexico & Orient’s incomplete attempt to build a line between Emporia and Wichita, KS in the 1920s. Once Santa Fe had a line in place down to El Dorado the dots were quickly connected on through Mulvane turning south to the Texas gulf, bypassing the roundabout passenger main between Newton & Mulvane through Wichita. Those dots were also connected southwest down to Wellington and on through Amarillo & Clovis to the California west coast through a re-connection with the passenger main at Dalies, just west of Belen, NM. For the entire system this line breaking south-southwest from Ellinor became Santa Fe’s main freight line to both Texas & California. Today’s La Junta Sub still breaks west from Ellinor. West of Newton it continues to accommodate Amtrak's Southwest Chief and what little traffic there is between Argentine and Colorado.

During my way-too-short 9-year stint in Santa Fe train service I saw plenty of action in & through Ellinor, KS. And of course, I saw a good deal more as a railfan photographer. For train dispatchers Ellinor has always been a natural holding point for lower priority traffic. You could watch (or ride) “dog” trains that got held for meets or runarounds by hotshots. Even more so after Emporia was eliminated as a crew change point. With crew districts now roughly twice as long between Argentine and the Arkansas City ~ Wellington ~ Newton trifecta (Texas, California & Colorado bound traffic respectively) you will see Ellinor as a runaround point, or a crew-relief point a lot more often. You will even see ‘lukewarm’ intermodals getting run around by other, higher priority intermodals in either direction.

Last August I caught yet another one of the ol’ Ellinor runarounds. It was shot near the west end of the Emporia Sub main/siding combo after it has broken away from the La Junta Sub. And here’s an idea what this latest runaround might have looked like from the rear end 38 years ago: ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4390304,4390304#msg-4390304 ).

1. 2. & 3. BNSF 7369 is “clipping” a crew-less BNSF 4578 on a westbound manifest with the usual intermodal heat at Ellinor, KS.
(3 photos taken August 29, 2018)

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/18 12:13 by santafe199.

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I believe Mr. Garrels may have been with Joe McMillan and me the day in 1983 that I stood in a farmer’s field at Ellinor as 250 hungry chiggers invaded me. Took five gruesome days to learn how to end my suffering. Rx: Fill a bathtub with hot water, empty a jug of Clorox and ease in.

Thanks for posting, Lance. 

Fred

frailey Wrote: > ...  I believe Mr. Garrels (>> call me Lance <<) may have been with Joe McMillan and me the day ... 250 hungry chiggers invaded ...

Hi Fred, sorry about all those chiggers! I have heard numerous railfans bemoaning the chiggers in and around Kansas and the Flint Hills. Even some guys who are more or less 'local' to the area. I've never once been bothered by chiggers. I guess I'm just lucky. But if you mention occasional gnats & skeeters, then all bets are off. By the way, I was with you & Joe that day. Kinda-sorta. Here's the story in a nutshell:  

Early that morning (7-16-83) John Arbuckle felt the need to give me a call. I believe he was working his Amtrak ticket agent job at Hutch (maybe Newton??). He had noticed his train manifest showed a "J McMillan" riding #3. He thought Joe might be disembarking at Emporia, and thought it was important enough to wake me up about 7:30 AM (I was already awake). But the only other call I got was from the SFe crew office putting me on duty for a 324 train @ 1:20 PM. We left Emporia and stopped at Strong City with instructions to make the side trip to Cottonwood Falls to pick up a hopper. It was while at C Falls I spotted a car with an antenna & 2 figures with cameras around their necks. I was sure it was Joe so I got on the engine (#3628) radio and blurted: "Joe M, is that YOU?" Sure enough, you guys came right over to our consist which I think was still in the elevator track. That was when I met you Fred, and learned you guys were gathering photos for an article on the Middle Division. You met us again a whole mile away up at Strong City getting back on our train. Because of that 5 MPH spur we had taken so much time making the 1-car pick up the DS now had to run the hot 194 train around us through the siding. I had my camera and took a sequence of shots of my braking partner handing up some needed drinking water to 194's waycar crew. That sequence ended up in one of my very early TO threads: ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2449151,2449151#msg-2449151 ) That was a fun little surprise rendezvous with you & Joe! I was even more surprised when Trains used a few of my slides in your great article. Ahhh.... the good ol' days working brakeman's extra board out of Emporia!

Lance Garrels
(now back home in Manhattan, KS)