Nostalgia & History > Toto Tuesday: "Chain of Command" in Emporia

It was always a big event for the Kansas Gang to get out and cover the Santa Fe Director's Specials every May. You could always count on Uncle John to produce a slick looking & well run affair. We'd get the schedule far enough of time to plot & scheme how to get the most shot locations combined with the best lighting & scenery conditions. In 1982 we had covered the initial running of the train out of Topeka but the weather was less than ideal. At the end of the system tour the train would pass through Emporia on the return back to Topeka, the home base for the passenger equipment. Funny, we never seemed to cover the final legs of the tour, just the beginnings. This particular night I got a call from fellow KS gangster Mark Simonson that the 'DSE' was called into Emporia. So I met him at the depot armed with tripod & cameras for a standard night scene. We were rewarded with an unusual & interesting shot. The general physics formula for a good night shot was "tripod + available light/ (divided by) K-64 film speed x 30 seconds = a good exposure, therefore an acceptable shot. Good composition could then turn 'acceptable' into 'outstanding'. I knew we had a good shot. But when I got the slide back from Kodak and took a close look, the shot became very remarkable for an unexpected reason! Take a close look: How often do you get 6 human beings to stand almost perfectly still for 30 seconds even when they don't know they're being photographed? Hypothetical answer: When you have the RR top dog (far left) addressing his 'chain of command' right down to the engineer (far right).

Works for me...

1. AT&SF 5996 with the annual Director's Special (DSE Y-9) stopped at Emporia, KS for a crew change on the way back to Topeka on May 27, 1982.

Thanks for the heads up!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/22 06:40 by santafe199.

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Typical consist; three suits, three rank and files to
run a neat train. God forbid the directors ever saw
the bad side of the railroad. And I'll be those
supervisors were even happier than the rank and file
when that train finally tied up.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Nailed that one REAL good, Lance! Superb shot of train and railroaders--reading the body language makes for an interesting exercise. Who was the CEO then? Thanks for a great post! Kurt.

kurtarmbruster Wrote:
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> Nailed that one REAL good, Lance! Superb shot of
> train and railroaders--reading the body language
> makes for an interesting exercise. Who was the CEO
> then? Thanks for a great post! Kurt.

>>> "reading the body language" <<< The first time those 6 guys' body language struck my attention, I had to laugh: It reminds me a LOT of that evolution chart we all saw in science class. You know... the one with a tiny ape-like animal morphing into a human being. Only THAT chart always went from left to right.... (I can't quit snickering!)

I really can't remember if John S. Reed was still at the helm in '82, but he would be my guess. I'm SURE that's not the top CEO at the far left, but the thought of it sure makes for a very intriguing, "tongue-in-cheek" what-if...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/16 14:50 by santafe199.

2nd from the right, in the blue long sleeve shirt looks like Willis Olsen, he might have been the fireman. Update: I called Willis, and he thinks he was on that train, he's gonna check later when he gets home and finds his old timebooks. Tom Facklam was the engineer, and Ron Clements was the RFE, I think that's him in the suit on the left. The crew was out of Newton, the fog was as bad as it gets, and Willis ran it in most of the way to Emporia.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/11 13:04 by ddg.

It's a cool shot.

This was one of the last of the 90mph business specials.

Bob

A very cool shot.

Good pic. Lance. upkpfan