Nostalgia & History > Toto Tuesday: Cowl-to-Cowl

I’ve already posted lots of images from the brutal Midwestern winter of 1978-79. And there is so much more! Although this famous winter produced countless hardships for thousands of people, it also produced countless photographic opportunities for railfans who were foolhardy enough to get out in the cold. There were a couple of us Santa Fe brakemen/railfans living in Emporia at the time willing to do just that. We would occasionally get called “FRNs” by some of our co-workers, but it was always in fun. (If they wanted to get really nasty with the name-calling, ‘foamer’ was the the deadly serious insult of choice.) Were we younger & dumber for getting out in the nasty weather? Probably. Older & wiser now, after 36 years? I dunno, how about just ‘older & SLOWer’!

Dave Franz (‘monaddave’) & I were very young in seniority that winter. We had ample opportunity to go out and shoot because we were both furloughed from the active roster. During that whole stretch he & I were partners several times, bagging all sorts of interesting RR images dealing with blizzard conditions & very late Amtrak trains. There were so many late Amtrak trains it almost got boring. But I believe the energy of youth often kept us up to the task. On January 4 of the new year Dave & I were in position down at the station to shoot another late Amtrak, which I believe is #3, the Southwest Limited. We also shot #15, the Lone Star several times, so without sneaking a line-up copy from the wire office it was a toss-up as to which one we were shooting on a given day. With the idea the train you are about to look at is indeed #3, I’ll let the captions keep the story going. (I’ve no doubt John Arbuckle [‘The Chief Way’] will check in after awhile and render his expert judgment as to which train this is.)

1. & 2. AT&SF 5923 is easing this westbound coal empty to stop on Yard track #3 at the Emporia passenger station for a crew change. As you will notice (in image #1) there 3 sets of train orders hung out for delivery. (I believe the 3 sets of orders is further evidence this is train #3)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/22 22:14 by santafe199.

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3. & 4. “Now arriving on track #1, Amtrak’s (very late) train #3, the Southwest Limited, bound for…..”

5. We’re suddenly presented with a unique sight: An Amtrak passenger cowl side-by-side with a Santa Fe freight cowl. And what’s up the their respective left-hand number boards? The 526’s is hand-scrawled while the 5923’s is just plain AWOL…

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6. There’s my partner, Dave walking back from getting his inbound shots. What am I standing on? (answer) Just about the biggest pile of snow I ever saw on the Emporia platform. The M.O.W. boys plowed it all into a huge mountain so lil’ old me could get some rare elevation. (yeah, surrrre…. ;^)

7. There’s our intrepid Amtrak ticket agent doubling as the baggage master. This poor guy should have already been home & in bed HOURS ago!

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8. & 9. I’ve slalomed down off my snow mountain (back there in image #9) to grab a few shots of the coal empty leaving the station. #3 is also just seconds away from departure…

10. …and there she goes! Farewell #3, I hope your passengers can find a teeny bit of enjoyment during their rare daylight view of the Land of OZ…
(10 photos taken January 4, 1979 in Emporia, KS)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/22 22:19 by santafe199.

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great shots

good stuff LG ... i miss the steam in winter scenes ...

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When I think of Emporia, that's kind of the way I visualize it. Tons of activity not just at that moment, but almost all the time. In the 3rd photo, it looks like the Middle Div. Road Foreman, George Guthrie stepping out of his office to smoke one, and to watch all the action out on platform, and on the trains. I see a white hard hat and tool bag too, possibly an ASDE from KC (or machinist Dale Hitchcock from Topeka) that just got off the train and is headed for Guthrie's office or the motel van. They rode Amtrak trains quite a bit to keep the worn out steam generators working a while longer. I did a craft transfer, and started Firing right there at Emporia five days later. We left town in a similar, or worse blizzard, even became snowbound for a short time, and was gone almost four days on my first pay trip.

Thanks Lance, great set of photos.

Tim Costello

Like the 1st one the best ,as it has the T/O's in the photo; something that isn't usually depicted in photos.

Now this is a neat series--features trains of the past and the people that made the RR work successfully. And the steam on the rear car is just as we remembered in our youth days---baggage? car on the rear--was that normal?
Brian Stevens

The orders must have been for #3, because engine crews on 3 & 4 were running ID between Newton & KC, and there was no reason for the crew to get off, walk back to the office and get their orders. #15 & 16 changed crews at Emporia, and the crews were always called on duty 30 minutes before expected arrival. Erma Lee, (or whoever the operator was), would have laid their orders out on the counter for them to collect, instead of hanging them. Still, I think it would be awkward for the engineer to try and snag his orders on the fly, while trying to make a spot stop at the same time.

Three sets of orders? One each for the engineer, conductor, and rear brakeman? I never had to hand up more than two sets on the CB&Q.


Marty Bernard

ddg Wrote:
<<think it would be awkward for the engineer to try and snag his orders on the fly,
while trying to make a spot stop at the same time.<<

You would think the fireman would do that out the side door.

Yes, baggage on the rear was normal, especially in winter. This was a sealed through mail car, CHI-LAX. No need to have it hogging the steam lines on the headend during winter.

Yes Marty, three sets of orders. On Santa Fe, we called the rear guy, the flagman. As DDG pointed out, the train crew worked KC through to Newton on that train. This was on the Eastern Div.'s Second District via Ottawa, KS. The train baggageman worked KC to La Junta, CO.

Thanks for the memories, LFG. And I think the Amtrak clerk was Bob somebody, not Marvin.
Dave in Missoula

Edit: See Chief Way's note below about NYC-LAX mail. I think that is correct, not my CHI-LAX above.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/15 13:09 by monaddave.

Yes, that looks like Bob Barton, the long-time Amtrak ( former ATSF ) lead ticket clerk going out to work the baggage.
Note the canvas sack on the baggage wagon; no doubt that is ATSF company mail .
Train 3 has long ago lost its diner and Pleasure Dome; folks had to go into the ( horrors ) coach section to get to
a diner. In its place is an ex-NP dome sleeper providing a bit of First Class lounge space.

Monad is correct on the delivery of train orders; the high set is for the engine crew, the middle set is
for the flagman riding a conventional-height passenger car, and the low one was for the conductor
in one of the hi-level car vestibules. It worked fine.

I think the rear baggage car was mail from NY to LAX added at KCY off the National Ltd at this time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/15 10:37 by The_Chief_Way.

ddg Wrote:
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> I see a white hard hat and tool bag
> too, possibly an ASDE from KC (or machinist Dale
> Hitchcock from Topeka) that just got off the train
> and is headed for Guthrie's office or the motel
> van. They rode Amtrak trains quite a bit to keep
> the worn out steam generators working a while
> longer.

The 500s were what, 5 or 6 years old at the time of the photo, and the generators were already worn out? How long was a steam generator expected to last under normal maintenance?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/15 12:14 by BCHellman.

Very neat series of photos Lance!

BCHellman Wrote:
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> ddg Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > I see a white hard hat and tool bag
> > too, possibly an ASDE from KC (or machinist
> Dale
> > Hitchcock from Topeka) that just got off the
> train
> > and is headed for Guthrie's office or the motel
> > van. They rode Amtrak trains quite a bit to
> keep
> > the worn out steam generators working a while
> > longer.
>
> The 500s were what, 5 or 6 years old at the time
> of the photo, and the generators were already worn
> out? How long was a steam generator expected to
> last under normal maintenance?


When I worked Amtrak, most of the time we had three units, and we were lucky to have two generators of the six working at any one time. And it required at least two on line. It was very common to have an ASDE riding, that stayed back there all the time. I've spent a lot of time back there myself trying to get one started only to have the other one go out. I remember being told "never try to light one with a burning fuse" And if you looked, every one of them had several burned out fusees laying in the bottom. Might have been part of the problem. And they plagued with steam and supply water leaks too, from who knows where. If I remember right, the train was restricted to 45 mph if the fireman was not in the cab, but most of the engineers didn't observe that one, or didn't know about it.

The hole where the train order pole was still there up until the platform was torn up shortly after the depot was gutted by fire and torn down in 1999.

Russell Honey
Springfield, MO
My Flickr page

Great pictures, Lance. Brings back fond memories.

My 2 cents worth concerning some of the comments. Picture 4 shows the outbound baggage with the train approaching the depot. Picture 7 shows the same baggage with the ticket agent still watching for the open baggage door. Because of this I would guess the train is coming to a stop or just stopped. Consequently the ASDE (the man with the hard hat and tool bag) would probably be preparing to board the locomotives for departure. Also, the ticket agent (baggage man) just doesn't appear to have the slender physique that Bob Barton had. I think perhaps it is a relief agent.

If anyone doesn't agree I'll take my "2 cents" back.

Mark Cole
Temple

2nd to the last photo, if you look closely through the steam, you can see the ASDE climbing abord the rear of the lead unit, or the 2nd unit.

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