Nostalgia & History > Things to do in Dodge…

…when you’re 23 years old and your wife is 225 miles away.

In the early days of my Santa Fe employment my job situation at hand would often station me anywhere but in Emporia, KS with my wife. But that just goes with the seniority territory when a newly hired train service employee doesn’t have much of it! I spent right at 2 months, basically all of August & most of September on the switchman’s extra board in Dodge City, KS.

On September 14* my 1978 timebook shows that I worked an afternoon switch job, which was advertise to work 1530-2330. I have absolutely no specific memory details of the day in question, but an educated guess says that we got a decent early quit. And from the yard I probably spotted something of interest over at the roundhouse which compelled me to take my tripod & camera over for some investigative photography. In those days a mere GP-30 may or may not have gotten me over to the ‘house. But look a little closer at the middle of this image: There were only six of those noses ever delivered for revenue service. That is a GE U-30-CG sitting there! Of course I shot it. I’ve even posted that shot before. (Here’s a link from over a year ago: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3300743,3300743#msg-3300743 ) But that scan was with my old HP scanner [R.I.P.] One of these days I might get around to re-scanning & re-posting that shot, but first I still have a few dozen ‘current’ irons in the fire…

1. AT&SF 3213 sits at the roundhouse in Dodge City, KS in the cool of the evening on September 14, 1978.
(*It’s a safe bet to think I may have actually taken this shot shortly after midnight making the photo date the 15th instead of the 14th…)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/22 21:05 by santafe199.

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Really like this shot. Those were the days.
JB

I grew up in Dodge City and am living there today. Nice photo. That is way back when the roundhouse was actually operational. I would have only been five years old then.

Todd
Dodge City, KS

Among other things, I like the sand tower with the string of company sand hoppers beside it.  Just to make sure I've got my bearings, you're facing west with the turntable behind you?

I like the stone detail in the building, and the outside cellar doors too.

mp51w Wrote:

> I like the stone detail in the building, and the
> outside cellar doors too.

The roundhouse was made of the same stuff: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3390128

Nice shot, Lance!

Randy Lundgren

Evan_Werkema Wrote: ... Just to make sure I've got my bearings, you're facing west with the turntable behind you?

I KNEW that question would pop up. I think you're correct, and the telling factor would be the background lights coming from the city vicinity. If we were looking east it should be a lot darker in that background. But I really can't remember the orientation of the turntable*. Kathi & I passed through Dodge in 2010 and I took a brief look-see around the yard, but I hardly recognized anything...

Lance

*added later: I took a look at Google Maps and was greatly surprised to see the turntable still in place! I sure didn't see it in my 2010 look around the old yard. (Considering the mood of the car's other occupant I probably thought it best NOT to spend much time in such 'silly endeavors', if ya know what I mean... ;^) Unless the trackage west of the turntable has been greatly re-worked since 1978 (not likely) I would have set my tripod down just a few yards west of the edge of it. The slight curvature of the 4 tracks in the immediate foreground of my shot would seem to indicate this...



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/15 10:13 by santafe199.

What a great photo, and thanks for the link to your shot posted last year.  Can't recall ever having seen a good close-up of a CG before; excellent framing!

Rich

Lance,

Love your shot of 8004 in blue nose - never saw one like that.  One of those mules showed up in Richmond in the summer of 1978 and in the engine room corridor it had 6 inches deep of oil, unbelievable.  They were still using them on some sort of coal service (along with the U-28CG 7900s) when I went to hog school in Topeka in 1979 but were all junked in 1980. Too bad because they were unusual, esp. with the gyralites; the 7900s had the long 16 step throttles and the weird reversers too.

WP-M2051 Wrote: > Love your shot of 8004 in blue nose - never saw one like that.

Well, thanks. But I should let you know the blue-nose shot was by Bill Gibson (WAG Sr), who passed away in 1983. Only the night shot at Dodge is mine....

Lance