Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Salina, KS ala 1966 (the other 3)

For the past 2 weeks we here on TO have been able to follow the Topeka NRHS Gang from back in 1966 on a very interesting fantrip. 2 weeks ago we got to ride with them on UP train #17, the "Portland Rose" from Topeka to Salina. And last week we watched them touring the Salina Union Station area & the UP Salina Roundhouse. This week we get a brief tour of the other 3 railroads also taking up residence in Salina. The Santa Fe provides most of the 'alternate' RR action, but the Rock Island & the Mop also put in brief appearances. Once again, we are looking through Mr. Art Gibson's camera loaded with black & white film.

Our first stop will be to pay respects to the past by visiting an old steam friend. "Git yer tickets at th' station..."

1. UP 2-8-0 #477 resting in Oakdale Park. It's still there today.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/15 11:41 by santafe199.

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2. Over by the Missouri Pacific's modest facility we see switch engine 1189 is tied up on this Sunday Afternoon.

3. Just west of the Mop's engine shanty their line through town runs across a blizzard of UP industry tracks. Somewhere in this mess o' tracks lies the UP branch leading down 4th street & eventually on to McPherson, KS.

4. A little further west & slightly north we see retired Rock Island box car 134043 at 8th & Pine Sts.
(Ya know.... that car is STILL there today, just a wee bit faded though)!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/15 11:41 by santafe199.

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5. We've travelled over east to take a gander around Santa Fe's small yard. First up is former passenger chair car 1296 with a new M.O.W. number 199010.

6. The Salina Yard switch job has AT&SF 2840 on hand, along with...

7. ...caboose 1608 in pre 1968 paint & lettering.

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8. & 9. Over at the Salina Freighthouse the gang catches a pair of FM motors, 3016 & 3007 doing station work.

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10. & 11. The 3016 & crew are putting blocks of cars together for their train west.

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12. & 13. The train is together crossing 12th Street & passing Salina Union Station for the day's finale.

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14. Here's the group posing for a mug shot in front of UP caboose 25565. From left to right are: Art Gibson (WAG Jr), UP RFE John A. Son, UP car foreman (name unknown), Bill Gibson (WAG Sr, dec.), Walt Evans (dec.), Howard Killam (dec.), unknown, unknown, Gerry Mason (dec.) and 2 unknown kids. (picture taken on self-timer)

all photos taken by William A. (Art) Gibson Jr. on May 15, 1966.

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/22 21:30 by santafe199.

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Enjoyed seeing the FM shots. When I was a kid in the 60's, I'd see or hear them through Pauline everyday or night.

You're up early fer a retired guy! Those are great. I loved workin' the Salina jobs even though things were a lot different by the time we showed up.

Wonderful images. Keep 'em coming.

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Wow. UP 477 in Oakdale Park. Another little milestone in my railfanning life. Back in 1961, we moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Salina, as Dad worked for Utah Construction Company, and they were involved with constructing the missile silos around Schilling AFB in Salina. Quite a shock for a Bay Area kid to go from where, if the conditions were right, there might be frost on the lawns, and you could leave your footprint in the frost to, well, Kansas winters. However, when we first moved there, before we got a house, we lived in an apartment very close to the park. I would look at the 477, and wanted so badly to be able to climb up in the cab, but it was fenced off, so all I could do is look.

One Saturday, the entrance gate was unlocked and open, and someone was inside doing some maintenance on the locomotive. He invited me inside and up into the cab. Other than the SP 0-6-0 at the zoo in San Francisco, this was only the second steam engine cab I'd ever been in. Pretty heady stuff for a 9 year old. And another "hook" was set in me to be fascinated with trains.

There was one other set of rails in that city park in Salina. Someone had a loop of track for a live steam locomotive that I saw operate a couple of times. When I visited Salina years later, that ride and those tracks were gone. Whatever happened to them?

And where has the time gone?

Lee Hower
Sacramento

YG Wrote:

> Wonderful images. Keep 'em coming...

Thanks, Steve (on behalf of Art). This ties up the Salina 3 part series, but Art has some more B/W goodies in store. Next week we'll be getting back to the usual color gems from the Bill Gibson collection...

Lance

mcfflyer Wrote:

> Wow. UP 477 in Oakdale Park. Another little
> milestone in my railfanning life......

> There was one other set of rails in that city park
> in Salina......
> Whatever happened to them?

> And where has the time gone?

What cool story! Part of the romance of being a railfan are those cherished memories from the events that put that first "hook" in all of us!

I vaguely remember that "train-in-the-park", but cannot say when it was dismantled. Art will be away most of today, but will check in on this thread later. If nobody else can answer your question before then, I'm sure he'll do so.

Time? Good grief, I still clearly remember the day I got hired by the Santa Fe in May of 1978...

Lance

Wow - Santa Fe roadswitcher FM's in Salina. Dang I have a hard time taking that in! Great photos for sure!

Salina is area I wished I had spent more time around I rode the Portland Rose in and out of there a couple times and the mixed train to Osborne, but Salina is one those places you pass through. Usually nothing was happening when I was there. The shot of the H-16-44's passing the Gooch Mill is the best. Gooch passed from the flour processing scene in the 80's I believe and think all that left is the pasta division.It hard to believe that icon of the Salina skyline is wasting away empty. Sometimes its not just the train , but whats in the back round that makes the picture.

I spent Thanksgiving 1966 in Salina. I remember Gooches Feeds. I was a freshman at Wichita State. Went home with my room-mate. He was killed in Viet Nam in early '68.

Don't think I have ever seen a diamond in the middle of a switch!
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:

> Don't think I have ever seen a diamond in the
> middle of a switch!

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that! It looks to me like a modeler's challenge (or nightmare...)

Lance

In looking at RR pictures over the last 68 years, I don't believe I have ever seen a diamond in the middle of a switch, even on English routes.

Tom

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mcfflyer Wrote:
>
> > Wow. UP 477 in Oakdale Park. Another little
> > milestone in my railfanning life......
>
> > There was one other set of rails in that city
> park
> > in Salina......
> > Whatever happened to them?
>
> > And where has the time gone?
>
> What cool story! Part of the romance of being a
> railfan are those cherished memories from the
> events that put that first "hook" in all of us!
>
> I vaguely remember that "train-in-the-park", but
> cannot say when it was dismantled. Art will be
> away most of today, but will check in on this
> thread later. If nobody else can answer your
> question before then, I'm sure he'll do so.
>
> Time? Good grief, I still clearly remember the day
> I got hired by the Santa Fe in May of 1978...
>
> Lance


Lance, when we first moved to Salina, I'd walk over to that park, and follow those live steam tracks around and around just waiting for the train to run. A typical live steam park train, but it was something that reminded me when I was a child of riding the train at Disneyland, at San Francisco zoo, and at the famed Nut Tree in Vacaville, a necessary stop whenever going from San Francisco to Sacramento.

Yeah, moving to Salina was a big change for me, if only because of the weather, and how I wish I'd have been 19 instead of 9. Just imagine what I could have seen!!

Hope Art chimes in tonight with the rest of the story of the park train in Salina!

Lee Hower
Sacramento