Western Railroad Discussion > Road to Pueblo (pt #2): Down the CVR

At my motel in Dodge I slept in a bit longer than I had planned. I got up, skipped breakfast and got loaded up, gassed up and ready for another tag-team railfan session along another RR track. But it turns out I never saw my tag-team partner again. Until Pueblo. Nick had taken off early and gone down the CVR. But he veered west at Satanta. On the other hand I was determined to see ALL of my old branch down to Boise City, OK. And for the second time in 2 days, I do believe I made the better decision. Now solo, I wandered aimlessly around the streets of Dodge. I was trying to recognize anything from the 2 months I worked out here in summer of 1978. I was literally a stranger in a strange land! I found the old Santa Fe roundhouse and took a quick look.

Hey, my shotgun seat is open! Hop in, and lets’ go explore this Cimarron Valley outfit, while I look back 41 years…

20. Good morning from the Dodge City roundhouse! I found the consist from that westbound train I had shot at Strong City and again at Elmdale right at 24 hours earlier. BNSF 9237 is the trailing unit for the inbound HKCKDDC. The Pueblo-bound symbol will be HDDCPUE

21. I stumbled into finding the badly fading DCF&B Alco #6601 that once upon a time ran excursions down the old Rock Island branch to & from Minneola. It’s tucked into this fenced-in spot right at the angled intersection of Sycamore St & Sunnyside Avenue. I had no idea this old veteran was still around.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 10:10 by santafe199.

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I barely got to the edge of town when I found one of the two CVR units I most wanted to shoot.

22. & 23. An ex-CSX engine now running out mileage as CVR 7522 is pointing a train tied down next to J-A-G Construction at 109 & McArtor Rds. I was really glad to get a shot of its trailing unit…

24. …CVR 4052. One Santa Fe throw-back paint scheme down, one to go! When I worked/chased locals out here in my Santa Fe days 6-axle power on this branch was unheard of! Things sure have changed…
(Photos 20-24 taken in, or just outside of Dodge City, KS)

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I couldn’t know it at the time, but I had just shot the only actual train I was going to see all day. And it was parked. But there would be plenty of miscellaneous “stuff” to see. There was also plenty of visual memories from working Santa Fe locals three times in the summer of 1978 and from chasing one particular Santa Fe local in March of 1979.

25. First up, here’s former SW 1502 now performing critter work for Pride AG Resources in Ensign, KS. In 1978 the Santa Fe local performed any & all switching done at all of the many elevators down & up this branchline.

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26. There was no activity to be seen in Montezuma, KS. But this original Santa Fe station signboard, and the one just down the road…

27. …in Copeland, KS sure brought some memories flooding back! During my chase in 1979 the depots were still standing in both places, as well as in numerous other towns along this branch!

28. Looking west from the Hawes “Avenue” crossing at Sublette, KS. Working the brakeman’s job on Dodge City ~ Boise City locals 1581-82 during a Kansas Grain Rush was an extraordinary experience! Just about every little town had an elevator, and we worked ‘em all! And oh my… the smells drifting around those busy elevators! Any veteran farm hand or elevator employee will tell you “…it smells like money.”

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Satanta, KS is home base for this dynamic little shortline and its fleet of engines. It is also where the old branch out to Springfield, CO veers off more or less due west.

29. This is the east edge of the modest yard at Satanta. Remember this image: I have a long and complicated personal saga circa 1978 to regale my TO cousins with from this very spot on God’s good Earth. Far too long & complicated a story for anything but Railroader’s Nostalgia, but it’ll be a dandy!

30. On November 26, 1989 I worked Montana Rail Link (BN overhead) train 01-121-22 from Missoula, MT to Spokane, WA as a locomotive engineer trainee. Our consist was all-LMX: 8535, 8501 & 8522. Could my middle unit from 1989 now be mostly powder blue, working as CVR 8501? Right here in this image at Satanta? (Enquiring, ex-engineer trainee minds wanna know… ;^)

31. And lookie-here! Also sitting in Satanta was CVR 4053, the other half of the 2 CVR units I most wanted to shoot. So from this point on to the end of the day any further images I acquire will be pure icing on the cake!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 10:19 by santafe199.

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32. & 33. As I recall Hugoton, KS always had a lot of station work. The presence of yet another elevator ‘critter’, ULEX 3090 tells me there is still plenty of local business to deal with.

34. Did somebody say: “Pitstop”??? (You bet!)
(Photos 32-34 taken in Hugoton, KS)

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35. To be quite truthful, Feterita, KS is one location I really don’t remember working back in ’78. But here it is, with an ancient elevator structure still hanging around. Rusted wheels on that tank tells me this is now just a parking lot…

36. This BNSF grain hopper in Elkhart, KS sure didn’t have a very long post-merger life. It looked like the trackage west of Hugoton is used very infrequently, if at all. This sure is different from the old days…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 12:25 by santafe199.

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37. The last time my eyes absorbed this scene I was riding a short string of Santa Fe hoppers in for spot. All 3 times in the summer of ’78 I had the good fortune of having a braking partner who was an old pro at working this branch. Because in the summer of ’78 I could no more read a Santa Fe switch list than I could a NASA Skylab wiring diagram. But I DID know how to say: “Yessir, I can get a good hand brake on that car right there, yessir!”

38. Speaking of 1978, here’s another old Santa Fe friend from over 4 decades ago.
(Photos 37-38 taken in Keyes, OK)

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Just one more:

39. I got all the way to the bottom end of the branch at Boise City, OK (pronounced ‘Boyz’ City). A thorough pitstop, and a bite to eat and I was ready to chase new territory. Through a text message I knew a stack train was on the way down from Las Animas, CO. I thought with any luck I can make it to Springfield, CO to shoot it, which I did. At Springfield I also shot this string of autoracks, stored indefinitely on the western end of my old Santa Fe branch over from Satanta. I worked this branch only once, and it sure didn’t look like a huge parking lot back in ‘em days…
(20 photos taken July 23, 2019)

Thanks for riding along!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Very nice Lance. Two observations:
-Western Kansas(unlike Eastern) is flat. The pioneers, traveling the Santa Fe Trail, could see 2 days ahead.
-the winter wheat harvest appears to have been a good one based on the pile outside the elevator.

BB

     The DCF&B S-1 was retrucked a number of years ago since I ran it and I don't think it was ever operated with these roller bearing trucks on it. All that work and those paint jobs on engines and cars down the old toilet. Had a good time and enjoyed it however.

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote: > ... Had a good time and enjoyed it ...

Howdy Harold, we were hoping you would chime in here! Can you give us an approximate date this old Alco was last used, or the last time an excursion was run? TIA...

Lance/199

      Mark ( son ) and I think the DCF&B was probably shut down in 1994 and the Alco may have been used to move some equipment to Bucklin, Ks in 1995. It was retrucked out at the Wilroads elevator 4 or 5 years later maybe, different owner.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dcfbalcoS1 Wrote: > ... Had a good time
> and enjoyed it ...
>
> Howdy Harold, we were hoping you would chime in
> here! Can you give us an approximate date this old
> Alco was last used, or the last time an excursion
> was run? TIA...
>
> Lance/199
  
           At best I can recall the last dinner trains were in late summer of 1993 or early summer 1994. With the horrible mistake of a poorly written letter to the SP to get hopper cars and a botched working relation with the ATSF local trainmaster as I understood any chance of getting freight cars would require a large amount kiss a** and/or large volume of suction to get anywhere. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin. The dinner trains werent enough to sutsain a complete operation and with Richards age and health the decision to shut down was made and it seem like the Alco was used to move all the equipment to Ford for a huge auction in 1995. I had always hoped that something would come along and save the line but it just wasnt meant to be and later in possibly 2007 about 19 miles of the 25 total were scrapped by the A&K for the Wright Brothers CooP that had purchased the line. There is about a mile of track past the Wilroads elevator and the rest is mostly used for car storage now. The Alco sat out at the elevator for many years and was heavily vandalized. I think it has been sold again and is probably just taking a rented space where it sets. As for the other equipment everyone knows the Filmore and Western purchased the steam engine and thank god as it probably would have went to scrap like many of the items did. Most of the cars were sold and have gone to museums, restored etc. The Ford depot had been painted inside and out and was in great condition and last I knew was purchased, moved to Dodge City and turned into a hair salon. The Old RI baggage that sat in Liberal forever before the DCF&B and was used on a few Santa trains never was purchased and was scrapped in Ford. 
      A few cars and the little GE Center cab went to the Oklahoma RR musuem in OKC. There were many numurous items and equipment ( HI rails, motor cars, regulators etc) and I just lost track of everything.                                                                                            Mark

Thanks for the interesting tour Lance! Saw lots of those grain lines back in the late 70's and 80's, By 1990, lots of track sadly being removed.

Larry
 

Great shots! Concerning Photo 36-the BNSF grain hopper on stilts--what was it used for? How does it work and is it still there? Thanks!

RRBaron Wrote: > ... Concerning Photo 36 ... what was it used for ...

I'm quite sure it's still there. I just shot it a month ago. But what it's used for I can only guess. A WILD guess, at that! It looks to me like the hopper would be perfect for storing sand, which would gravity-feed into highway maintenance, sand-spreading trucks. Especially handy in winter time with iced-over roads. If the hopper is for some other use, I'm not smart enough to figure it out... ;^)

Lance/199

Several elevators around use the elevated grain car to store feed in and a truck just pulls in under and gets loaded that way. There is another one in Southern CO. and Bavaria, KS  used to have one and a place down South of Salina had one also. Don't know if the one down South of Salina is still in use or not. upkpfan

A good roaming railfan that does attractive write-ups with a great amount of excellent photos is really worth reading every entry. Many thanks Lance, you make my evening entertainment.

Don Allender
 

ATSFSuperChief Wrote: > ... you make my evening entertainment ...

Thank you, sir! You're very kind... :^)

Lance