Nostalgia & History > Cause For Celebration (in more ways than one)!

October 14, 1990 was a big day in central Kansas, more specifically Eisenhower Memorial which is located in Abilene, where Centennial celebration was to take place. To help bring the many veterans and there families to the celebration, three railroads provided special trains for the occasion, the Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, and the Union Pacific.

The Santa Fe provided two brand new GP60’s in red and silver for their train which went from Kansas City to Emporia, and then up the Strong City Sub to Abilene. The BN, which did not actually run anywhere near Abilene, sent their train via the Union Pacific from Kansas City to Topeka, and then on the old Kansas Pacific (aka Salina Subdivision) from Topeka to Abilene. Power for their train was the newly rebuilt F9’s BN-1, and BN-2. The Union Pacific train was powered by the 844, and consisted of not only their own cars, but also had several CNW cars in it‘s consist.

All three trains unloaded their passengers at Abilene, and then proceeded west to Solomon where each train was turned on the wye and serviced before returning to Abilene later in the day to pick up their passengers and return to Kansas City after the celebration had concluded.

#1 UP 844 at Solomon after turning on the wye.

#2 BN-1 being serviced at Solomon after being tuned on the wye.

#3 Santa Fe 103 leads the special into Solomon after turning.

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I was there when that took place, but was working the Abilene-Superior local. Came back into Abilene just as it was all over.

Dang it John! Foamers everywhere, yet I'm not in a single shot!

Neat stuff, John. I remember seeing coverage of the event in Pacific Rail News that year, plus a few pages in my copy of McMillan's 'Wheat Lines & Superfreights' ATSF book.

Thanks for sharing these,

Rich

I live 60 miles from Abilene and didn't know anything about it. Why didn't somebody tell me? upkpfan

You forgot to turn on your cell phone that morning!!

Ian

Didn't cell phones come in bags in 1990?

* JB *

CSabresXr1 Wrote:
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> You forgot to turn on your cell phone that
> morning!!
>
> Ian