Steam & Excursion > AFT Confidential 24- Jefferson City MO

24 Jefferson City MO Mar 31- Apr 3

I don't remember if the UP used the 6909 to assemble the train it KC. The GM assembly plant had a few lowly GP's hanging around, so with it's being 1am, and no public to impress, something a little more practical might have happened.
Not much to report about Jeff City. We were near the State Capital on a branch line that ran up and away from the river. A nice relaxed site.
About the most interesting thing that happened was that we were offered a free tour of the nearby State Prison. I'm not sure why they thought we'd want to see that, and having gone along with it, I'm not sure why I though it was something I'd want to see! Damn.

Photo 1. The State Capitol dome from the display site.
That's about the only Jeff City photos, so I'm throwing in a few Family Pics:
Photo 2. This was my boss, Greg. I don't have a clear memory of regular beatings, but it looks like that was the deal. On the right edge of the frame is Ed from Portland (some readers may recognize him) Ed ran out ahead of the train with a tape measure to make sure we'd fit!
Photo 3. Lew, the AFT's car knocker- kept the brakes and such in good repair. That's his pay check he's showing off. (I hope it was rightfully bigger than mine)

Photo 4. Al, part of the 4449 crew. He's tinkering with the MU box on the tender.
Photo 5. Rubin the A/C Mech Tech doing I-don't-know-what. (He's the guy that rode the carousel among the Indians until we got caught)

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we need Ed Immel to pull his materials from his spotting role and get them preserved......

Unfortunately for all of us- Ed didn’t really save any of his work!
I have WAY more of his maps etc than he does. When I started on this 5-6yrs ago, he wrote and asked if I could send HIM some examples of his work!
SR

SR...
Jefferson City was the stop I believe where a lifelong nickname was attached to me by Doyle. Truth be told, if you didn't have a nickname well just how cool could
you be. It applied to the "younger three" on the crew. There was R Slo, Boris, and at that point on I was PB! I remember Doyle coming into the crew car and
telling us that there was going to be some sort of function where boiler suits and 4449 Crew Uniforms would just not cut it. Now these functions with VIP's
happened a lot, but the whole engine crew did not always attend account service on the engine or shutting her down for the night, things of that nature.
  Well a loaner car was given to us to go into town and pick up some "nicer duds". We hit upon a full service Montgomery Wards if memory serves me and
started upgrading our wardrobe. I picked up a casual suit  and "period footware" of the day. Little did I know that Doyle would have a lot of fun with those
dress shoes for decades on! As I said, you really needed a nickname to be in on that crew!  Isn't that right Chief.

sp3204 Wrote:
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> SR...
> Jefferson City was the stop I believe where a
> lifelong nickname was attached to me by Doyle.
> Truth be told, if you didn't have a nickname well
> just how cool could
> you be. It applied to the "younger three" on the
> crew. There was R Slo, Boris, and at that point on
> I was PB! I remember Doyle coming into the crew
> car and
> telling us that there was going to be some sort of
> function where boiler suits and 4449 Crew Uniforms
> would just not cut it. Now these functions with
> VIP's
> happened a lot, but the whole engine crew did not
> always attend account service on the engine or
> shutting her down for the night, things of that
> nature.
>   Well a loaner car was given to us to go into
> town and pick up some "nicer duds". We hit upon a
> full service Montgomery Wards if memory serves me
> and
> started upgrading our wardrobe. I picked up a
> casual suit  and "period footware" of the day.
> Little did I know that Doyle would have a lot of
> fun with those
> dress shoes for decades on! As I said, you really
> needed a nickname to be in on that crew!  Isn't
> that right Chief.


Tell me about it!

Thanks for sharing. The hair and clothes in many of your AFT threads are so 70s! I remember that time well, including the Freedom Train. Ross sure pulled off the "greatest rail show on earth", in my opinion.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

 

So, PB, are you giving me permission to reveal what that stands for? (Doyle told me he’s keeping up on these postings- so you know he’s loving this)
Perhaps a contest!
SR

BTW: My AFT nickname was only ever “SR” (to my face, anyway). All employees wore a nametag- First & Last Name along with your home state. When Marty(?) ordered my tag I asked if it would be possible to have my first two initials rather than my first name (I thought it looked more railroad-ie). Heck, she couldn’t care less- knock yourself out.
Apparently no one else went with initials, and as there were so many of us, name tags were how we learned each other’s names. So I was forever “SR Bush California”.
I imagine there are probably plenty of AFTers who still don’t know what SR stands for.... Ah, but they probably DO know what PB stands for...

Ok ok fine. These are in the ballpark of said boots in question. It was what Montgomery Wards had. What could go wrong? We had to get something quickly. And yeah, PB stands for Pixie Boots...

Ok Chief...honesty is the best policy.

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There.
Doesn’t that feel better?

Now you don’t have to lay awake wondering when the other shoe will drop.
SR

I remember the toes having a slight curl skyward.

Here's your AFT arrival in Jefferson City March 31, 1976, passing the Missouri state capitol building. This was my first sight of the 4449 and the first time ever for me to see steam on the MoPac. I was a college sophomore at Mizzou, 30 miles to the north, and borrowed a friend's Ford Pinto to drive down and see the arrival. The sun angle was prtty nosy here, but I figured this was "the money shot" at Jeff City.

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After the AFT arrived in Jeff City, they cut the 4449 away from the train, giving me a chance to get the real reason for being here--the two MoPac Bicentennial GP18s. What I didn't know is, years later, there was a subtle irony in this picture. See that group of people next to the MoPac 1976? Most of them are members of the local media. The guy in the brown jacket is a fellow representing KOMU-TV in Columbia, MO, named Walt Williamson. Williamson was about to leave KOMU-TV for a job at a bigger station in Kentucky. The guy in the white shirt, crouched down in the grass by the fuel tanks is Paul Parisot, also of KOMU-TV. Two years after this photo was taken, I would get hired at a TV station in Louisville to replace Walt Williamson. Paul Parisot would go on to an award-winning TV news career in Oklahoma City and Dallas before joining BNSF in Fort Worth as head of video communications in the railroad's PR department, a post he retired from last year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/21 13:38 by Alco251.

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Both good shots!

    Tom

Nice photos!  Some sort of shuffling had already taken place by the time you got the 2nd shot- the Tool Car had been between the MP pair and the flats when we arrived.  It's alread been cut out to re-join the 4449.
Your friends with the press had probably arrived aboard the AFT, the scrambled to the headend to watch the switching show.
Thank for these!
SR

Okay Palmdale, they did not curve up! They were certainly in the '70 Maverick we used for our straight shot back to your house however in
Southern California. Now that I think about it; Doyle had a PB before he owned a PA! Hey, I had hostler controls to boot!

Well I wasn't there for any of this since it was a little before my time, but I came across this slide just this morning and figured it was a timely addition.

This was in Portland after the end of the Amtrak 1977 Transcontinental Steam Excursion. Okay I've got to know. Who was Boris???

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ble692 Wrote:
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> Well I wasn't there for any of this since it was a
> little before my time, but I came across this
> slide just this morning and figured it was a
> timely addition.
>
> This was in Portland after the end of the Amtrak
> 1977 Transcontinental Steam Excursion. Okay I've
> got to know. Who was Boris???

Boris was the late Tom Nosera. A damned good friend!

HotWater Wrote:
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> Boris was the late Tom Nosera. A damned good friend!

Thank you! It's kind of hard to read it, but the 3 PB drawings are signed by "Boris 3/77" in the bottom right corners.

The #1 with the stars is a reference to the T-1, I'm pretty sure.  I seem to remember these signs but not what the occasion was.  But the date hints at the crew getting back together for the Amtrak Excursion 3mo after the AFT tour ended in Miami
SR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/21 18:06 by BoilingMan.