Nostalgia & History > Kodachrome in the Flint Hills (one & only)

By May of 1986 I was pretty well whatcha-call "b-r-o-k-e". Working an average of 10 weeks out of the year since January of '81 I somehow managed to keep a single nose-hair above water. But 1986 was the beginning of the end for my Santa Fe employment. I had reached the end of the rope, and that rope was beginning to coil itself around my neck. In 1986 I conciously made the decision to cease making house payments. I just couldn't squeeze any more blood outta the old turnip...

With a 6-01-87 Sheriff's Notice deadline to be moved out I handed the keys & the deed back to Capitol Federal S&L in the middle of May and told them "Here ya go! My old house is located in Emporia, KS; population approx 31,000. I tried to sell it, but now it's YOUR TURN! There are only an estimated 900 other houses, condos, etc on the market in Emporia right now..." I was on my (short term) way to steady employment in South Dakota for the rest of the summer of 1987; and eventually on my (long term) way to Montana for the rest of my RR career, which ended in 2010.

Having become a victim of the early/mid 80s reaganomics recession I certainly didn't get to shoot Kodachrome at the same rate as I had in previous years. In 1980 I shot close to 400 total rolls of film, with 365 of those being mostly Kodachrome slides. In 1986 I shot through almost 40 rolls of Kodachrome, but not all of those were RR oriented.

When Santa Fe & soon-to-be-jilted partner railroad Southern Pacific started painting up engines in the "Kodachrome" scheme in earnest I was forcefully remiss in recording them on slide film. I wasn't able to shoot slide film at anything close to my previous rate. I just couldn't afford the luxury of whimsical trips out to Matfield, or where ever & back just to burn film I couldn't afford anyhow.

As a result I shot a whopping dozen (give or take) Santa Fe engines in the new paint during that brief era. And unless I discover a forgotten box of slides somewhere, down below is the one & onliest example I have of shooting "Kodachrome in the Flint Hills!"

1. AT&SF 9544 leads a hotshot intermodal (881?) over the east switch at Matfield Green, KS in May of 1986.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199
(posted from Addison, TX)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/22 21:44 by santafe199.

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Your "one and onliest" shot is a beauty however, what a Fantastic scene! Look how close that cloud shadow is to the engine!! I'm sure that you were really sweating getting some Sun on the subject. I always liked the SPSF scheme, maybe because it was short-lived or maybe because that was when my picture taking days were just getting under way:}



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/15 07:06 by SP8595.

Lance,

Not having slide film during the era of that paint scheme was a blessing.

I've got a short video of one of the GE Kodachromes leading a C&NW train on the New Line in Racine County, WI.  I'll have to dig that up.  Outstanding shot, BTW!

Jeeze, Lance, I had no idea that the recession was so long-winded for Kansas Santa Fe folks. Out in SP California, the worst of it for me was from fall, 1980 until mid-1984.

What caused the recession to linger in your kneck of the woods? I assume that Santa Fe signed-on to the 1984 crew consist agreement that allowed for the selective reduction of rear brakemen jobs, so that must have hurt you, as well. I take it that you guys didn't have system seniority like us SP trainmen.

I also didn't take many photos of the Kodaks at the time, but only because I hated them for what they portended - Santa Fe effectively taking over my beloved, disfunctional railroad.

EO

Lance,

Too bad you could not get into engine service.  I went firing about the same time you went braking and survived all the business cycles.  I only had those 9500s as relief engines on Amtrak but I thought they were pretty nice; better than the 8700s they came from.  I suppose they've all been scrapped by now.

hogheaded Wrote: > What caused the recession to linger...

From 1982-1985 I could always count on the summer wheat rush to give me 2 or 3 months of steady work. That would allow me to pay off huge chunks of a credit card bill which was run up during the furlough months. BUT... the summer wheat rush for 1986 never materialized. I did get called back for a couple of weeks that fall, but it was too late by then. Getting the house foreclosed on was no picnic, for sure. And CapFed was none too happy at having to foreclose. They knew how bad things were, especially in Emporia. But their hands were tied just like mine were. In a weird way, knowing a foreclosure was finally inevitable took away all the pressure of scraping up house payments...

I can only speculate, but I get the feeling with Santa Fe trying to marry up with Southern Pacific at the time there were certain 'changes' [shall we say] in traffic patterns that were designed to give the impression that the merger just had to take place or Santa Fe would be in trouble. I don't believe my Santa Fe was ever truly headed for trouble. The reason I think this is because when the merger was surprisingly denied, Santa Fe's business magically rebounded. By late summer of 1987 I would have been back to work, and I don't believe I ever would have been laid off again. Trouble is, I had already caved in and took a seniority buy-out the previous May...

As for going into engine service, this may the biggest regret of my life. I may have had the chance to go firing in 1979. I even talked with the RFE, but I foolishly told him I'd rather "have fun braking another summer, and maybe I could go firing in 1980..." Life's lessons are sometimes brutal. I had thumbed my nose at Santa Fe engine service with all the maturity of a grade school kid, so of course I never came close to it again. It would take a change of RRs and another 10 years before I would get another chance. That came in 1989 while working for MRL in Missoula...

Lance

WP-M2051 Wrote:

> I only had
> those 9500s as relief engines on Amtrak but I
> thought they were pretty nice; better than the
> 8700s they came from.  I suppose they've all been
> scrapped by now.

A lot of the ones that ran around in the 90's as LRCX leasers eventually got exported to Brazil.  Minnesota Commercial used to have two, and it looks like they still have MNNR 50 (ex-ATSF 9501), but the most recent photo of the other one (MNNR 56) on rrpicturearchives shows it at NRE in Silvis, IL in 2013.

Metropolitan Stevedore in Long Beach had a couple as well.  One was scrapped for a genset credit in 2009, and I haven't heard anything about the other one (9503) for a while.

The SF30C's were tied with the C30-7's for the most of any one model painted SPSF: 44 units each.  The SF30C's also became the only units fitted with RCE gear (transplanted from snoots and everything else that had it previously), so while you could see SF30C's on the southern transcon, I always think their real home was on the original main line through New Mexico and Colorado, where remote mid-train helpers were the norm.  They were used extensively on the lone manifest train running over Raton and Glorieta Passes as well as the Cochise coal train when it was loading at York Canyon in the late 80's.  I thought they looked better in SPSF than in blue and yellow, though if the merger had gone through, that narrow nose would have gotten very crowded trying to cram in both sets of initials.