Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Salina, KS ala 1966 (the UP)

Last week we left our Topeka NRHS Gangsters having arrived on the passenger platform in Salina, KS. They had just ridden Union Pacific's legendary train #17, the Portland Rose out from Topeka, taking depot & misc shots along the way (see last week's WAG Wednesday). This week we get to take a look back at Salina in the spring of 1966 through the camera of one WAG Jr, otherwise known as Art Gibson. Art is son to Bill (dec. 1983), the other half of the WAG Wednesday team of photographers. Bill was on this trip, but it is Art's black & white efforts that will carry this 3-part series.

First order of business was to shoot any interesting stuff in the depot area. That accomplished they paid a visit to Road Foreman of Engines John A. Son & Train Dispatcher Gary Crockett inside Salina Union Station. Next up was to go check out the roundhouse just down to road to the east. Also captured were eastbound freight GRX (pointed by 3 U-50's) & the arrival of passenger train #370.

Although the Union Pacific is the star of this show, next week we'll get to see a little bit of the other Salina railroads: The Santa Fe, the Mop & even the Rock Island all put in appearances...

1. UP 543 is sitting on the passenger platform.

2. & 3. Across from Union Station sits the omnipresent wrecking derrick & support cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/15 11:45 by santafe199.

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4. UP caboose 25569 is "courteously" listening to all the RR types telling their tales.

5. UP outside-braced boxcar 905059 sits looking like a modeler's dream project.

6. UP maintenance-of-way "lounge" car 902464 is on hand.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/12 04:35 by santafe199.

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7. A visit with RFE John A. Son & Dispatcher Gary Crockett takes place...
(but could it be that the guys just wanted an excuse to soak up some AC on a hot Kansas day in May? ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/22 20:42 by santafe199.

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8. Over at the Roundhouse we see UP 1153 sitting idle.

9. UP 1123 sits next to the roundhouse building while...

10. ...inside the boys get a tour of the roundhouse. Front & center is UP 196 with a number board that begs an explanation!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/12 04:38 by santafe199.

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11. & 12. Back in the depot area the guys catch the arrival & crew change of train GRX with UP 50 in charge.

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13. The scene on the depot platform as the GRX prepares for eastward departure.

14. Last shot for this week (but certainly not least) is the arrival of passenger train #370 led by UP 931. This train will have its consist re-worked and will depart Salina as train #70.

All photos taken by William A. Gibson Jr. (Art) in Salina, KS on May 15, 1966.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/22 20:50 by santafe199.

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Lance:

Do you know how many freights they ran on the KP through Salina back then when those pictures were taken.?

Randy Lundgren

texchief1 Wrote:

> Do you know how many freights they ran on the KP
> through Salina back then when those pictures were
> taken......

These shots were taken while I was in the 5th grade so I'm pretty clueless as to the UP's traffic patterns in 1966. I do know that by 1975 it was pretty much counterpart trains 117 & 118, which carried over from the Portland Rose being a mixed train in its final days. Those trains usually ran in morning hours, sometimes meeting in my home town of Manhattan. In the afternoon/evening hours there were trains 154/155 plus there was a switcher (roving local???) that was based in Manhattan. I'm thinking other locals based in Junction City and/or Topeka also paid visits to/through Manhattan. Of course, in the summertime there were always the extra grain trains to handle the wheat rush. Perhaps Mr. "PRose" can correct me or elaborate on my reply here...

Lance

(edited to add:) Growing up in the 60's I can remember the 4th of July carnivals every year in the city park in Wamego, 14 miles east of Manhattan. With the KP main just a stone's throw south of the park it was always good for seeing at least 1 freight & 1 passenger train during the evening. Same for family visits to the old Sky-View drive-in theater on the west side of Manhattan. The proximity of this now long-gone drive-in parking lot to the UP main was EXACTLY as seen in Mr. O. Winston Link's classic drive-in/N&W steamer shot from way back when. In both cases (Wamego & the drive-in) I believe the freight was westbound & the passenger was eastbound (#70?). I've heard through discussion on TO about a hot train UP ran for a time in the 60's (1966, 67?). I believe it was a Kansas City to Los Angeles manifest. I'm wondering if this was the westbound train I got to see in the 60's at the above-mentioned occasions...

LFG



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/12 08:03 by santafe199.

What a wonderful package of photos. They really capture the flavor of Union Pacific on the plains in the 1960s.
JEB

Great series Lance!!!

thanks for the memories ,I remember John Son like it was yesterday

Wonderful reflections Lance an Art. Photo #13 those units are also getting fueled at the passenger train fuel spouts located between the main and pass while the car toads do their thing. #370 arrived 200p and departed as #70 220p and one of those 1100s was usually at the west switch of the passenger platform to go out and pick up the freight cars and caboose that were cut off somewhere around State St. The lone passenger car is setting in the REA spur or mail spur and will probably go east on #18 later that night. If there was a lone passenger car set out in the spur on the east end of the platform (the one the motor car ran off the end and creased the brick platform in front of Kenefick's office) I would guess it was the Traveling Rules Inspector, and I'm not sure when that practice ended. Around that time, Salina hosted #181-182--McPherson Branch
#183-184--Plainville Branch
#158-159--Junction City Local
#157-156--Ellis Local
#154-155--a manifest drag between Denver & KC
Extra-----Solomon (Beloit) Branch turn
and quite often there was a Salt Turn to Kanopolis and
back along with a turn that might go as far as Hays or
sometimes Wilson handling grain boxes during the wheat
rush months.
Thanks for showing the great photos as it brings back a lot of standing on the platform days.
Brian Stevens

Lance,
Great pics. Enjoy anything close to home.
What is the number of the derrick and also the numnber of the caboose behind it? Have anymore cabooses with the slogan on them? upkpfan

upkpfan Wrote:

> What is the number of the derrick and also the [number] of the caboose behind it?

Thanks for asking, Marv. When I laid out the template for this thread I somehow left this shot out. Here is the derrick, numbered 903037.
The caboose behind the derrick is numbered 25549. I have none of the negatives for any of the other "cabeese".

Lance

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please, sir, may we have some more?

Nice set of photos



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/12 07:21 by rich6000.

Some great stuff there Lance. It's fun to think of the days when the KP was a line of decent importance.

I think the UP found out how important it still is summer before last, with all the flood detours....

Posted from Android

Thank you Lance for the numbers. upkpfan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/12 18:25 by upkpfan.

Nice shots! The 543 was an LA&SL car according to the Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment of 1966. Sister car LA&SL 542 is preserved at Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA.