Nostalgia & History > Toto Tuesday: Eastern Kansas Semaphores

In the summer of 1981 I was on some forgotten chase with fellow KS gangster John Arbuckle. I'd have to dig around to find out what our main chase actually was that day, but as is often the case we stumbled across a couple of mini chases within the grand scheme of the day. Late in the afternoon we came upon Santa Fe local train 1234 doing its thing north of Humboldt, KS. The 1233/34 was a mainline local between Argentine & Chanute, KS on Santa Fe's Eastern Division 2nd District (Argentine-Ottawa) & 3rd District (Ottawa-Chanute). This main carried passenger service right up Amtrak day 1 in 1971.

We snagged a shot off an overpass somewhere south of Iola, KS. Then we were able to catch a few scenes as they switched in Iola. We caught the train in two more locations before breaking off for the evening. The sun was setting so we emulated a Simon & Garfunkel tune and became "Homeward Bound".
Here is little photo-log:

1. AT&SF 3056 is leading local train 1234 J-1, approaching Iola, KS.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 00:13 by santafe199.

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2. 3. & 4. The 1234 has cut away from their train and entered town to service a grain elevator in Iola.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 00:07 by santafe199.

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5. The 1234 has their train back together and is crossing the Mop in Iola.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 00:09 by santafe199.

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6. & 7. The 1234 is near Colony, KS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 00:10 by santafe199.

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8. The 1234 is just south of Garnett, KS.
(all photos taken July 10, 1981)

Gotta love those semaphores!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 00:11 by santafe199.

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what a brilliant set of photos documenting bneat stuff at a neat time! thank you for sharing.

2, 7, and 8 are killer shots!

Russell Honey
Springfield, MO
My Flickr page

Great shot in Iola - wish I could have seen both routes (MP and ATSF) before they were ripped out. If you're ever back in Iola, the big Conoco station on the east side of town has superb beef brisket sandwiches!

Great chase.
JB

Hard to believe none of this exists anymore. Thanks for sharing.

When I was on the Durand TSE in early 73, I would see 1234 in the late afternoon, and caught it coming into Iola once. However, I didn't stick around long enough to photo it north of Iola; something I regret. Iola was home to three railroads, Santa Fe Mopac, MKT, and an electric interurban line,Iola electric I believe. Mopac and MKT depots stat right across the street from each other, or I should say across the tracks. Too bad the Santa Fe depot was preserved as it beautiful station.I am not sure when the interurban line was abandoned, but the MKT came out in, 1958,the Mop in 1983

When I was much younger and living in Riverside, CA I remember that the PE used cantilevered semaphores to protect the UP crossing in the the middle of Magnolia Avenue, I never saw them function and they were always red owing to the fact that the PE line was a freight branch crossing the UP mainline. They were gone by 1957!

Tom

Are you refering to May Tower area ???

PE crossed the Santa Fe there


Jay

No, that crossing was much closer to Corona--actually--Home Gardens and was protected by distance signals and target signals until the end. The semaphores were in Riverside proper in an area still known as Magnolia Center! May interlocking lasted at least twenty years longer before the rest of the old PE branch was removed! I was able to buy one of those Adlake distance signals from the SP. I still have it and it comes on every night with a 12 volt auto bulb instead to the 2.5 track battery light!

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Very nice pics Lance.

I see the SK&O only goes as far north as Humboldt now.

The ex-MP through Iola must have been the branch from Ft. Scott to El Dorado, Wichita and beyond...


Allen

It's amazing how many semaphores the AT&SF had in the '80s, both in ABS and CTC territory.

1. The Northern District -- New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas.

2. The Gulf Lines.

3. The Valley Division.

At the start of 1980 all were T-2s except, I believe, the Valley Division which had Style-Ss.

Now they are down to just a handful in New Mexico, which, from my understanding, are the last operating semaphores in North America.

mopacrr Wrote:

> Too bad the Santa Fe depot was preserved as it
> beautiful station.

Was it already gone by the time these photos were taken? I think it would have been just out of the frame to the left in photos 2 and 3 and blocked by the train in 4. It was there but closed in July 1981 in these photos Lance posted previously:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2816095,2816099#2816099

> I am not sure when the interurban line was abandoned,

Iola Electric shut down in 1918 and was torn out in 1919, see:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2818883

BCHellman Wrote:

> It's amazing how many semaphores the AT&SF had in
> the '80s, both in ABS and CTC territory.
>
> 1. The Northern District -- New Mexico, Colorado,
> Kansas.
>
> 2. The Gulf Lines.
>
> 3. The Valley Division.

There were still some semaphores on the double track east of Amarillo into 1979 - some views of them are in the video "Santa Fe Odyssey V.2." Not sure how much longer they lasted after that. I've seen some steam era photos showing Style-S's interspersed with the T-2's in Oklahoma, but I don't know how long they lasted.

Thanks for the photos, Lance. Don't get to see that part of the Santa Fe very often, and pairs of cantilevered semaphores are off the scale on the coolness meter. The picture below shows what that set in the distance of shot 4 looked like by the time I got to Iola in 1995, and Google Streetview provides the even bleaker scene today: http://goo.gl/maps/5SlKL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/12 17:36 by Evan_Werkema.

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Great trip Lance and lots of treasures there. Seems odd to see a piggy-back in a local train but I think it most likely was one of the "longs" to be left at Chanute and the Chanute local would deliver it to the TOFC ramp at Coffeyville Industrial Park. Thanks for the great shots.
Brian Stevens

That is a neat set of pics. We have had the opportunity to ride motorcars on that line after it became SKOL. Obviously a nice RR. I too would have loved to see it in its prime. There was a video titled "Last train to Cherryvale" that was a news documentary by one of the KC TV stations. The Heart of the Heartlands have had permission to reproduce it and have had it on DVD. It makes a nice sidebar to your story on the freight end.

SCKP187 Wrote:

> Thanks for the great shots.
> Brian Stevens

Thanks for the kinds comments Brian, & all the rest of you guys. I figured I'd get some reaction, and I'll take all the discussion that got stirred up as
an honor. I wish I'd have chased that mainline more than just this solitary time in 1981, and even this chase was an accident of good fortune. And Brian:
This train was eastbound heading for Argentine, so that pig must been shipped FROM Chanute...

Lance