Nostalgia & History > Toto Tuesday: Matfield Green then, & REALLY then!

Anyone looking for one of my “then & now” comparisons is just plain out of luck! You’re just gonna have to make do with a couple of 36 & 37 year old color slide images from my camera. Then you’re gonna have to suffer some black & white imagery by going back another 3+ decades to look at a 73 year old photograph from an unknown photographer. A couple, 3-4 of us have a sneaking suspicion the photo might have been taken by Mr Wallace W. Abbey while he was associated with with Trains Magazine.

Some notes on the 2 color images (my shots): The 1978 shot was taken from the cab of AT&SF 8761 on an eastbound manifest. I’d been shooting in the Chase County Kansas Flint Hills all day, but the weather was clamming up. As this train stopped right in front of me at Matfield Green I was invited up into the cab by my (future) fellow brakeman R. D. “Ron” Schlessner, who had just hired on with the Santa Fe earlier in the month. I myself am just a few days from getting a call from Santa Fe telling me to report to Newton, KS for an interview with Trainmaster Tom Shalin. Funny… I never got a shot of the 8761 that day. If I did, that slide is AWOL… The 1979 shot was taken from the cab of AT&SF 8065 on train 563 A-8. I now have 16 whole months of experience in train service! I’m working this train as head brakeman with engineer G. K. “Kenny” Noce. In both cases above the vantage point for photography was from the siding down at the east end.

Image #3 is a different story. The photographer’s vantage point is a little further west and is from the main line, watching a westbound train “drag” into the siding. Note there is a 3rd track next to the siding. This is the old lead running in to the stock pens located several hundred yards north (TT east) of the depot area. I don’t know when the track was removed, but I would guess it was in the 1960s. Information with the image says the shot was taken circa 1942 which checks out. This photo was obviously taken from the cab of an F-unit, most likely an FT. Santa Fe’s first FT cab units were delivered in 1940. The image information also states that 2-8-2 3273 was on the train that day. Close examination of the image would seem to confirm this engine number.

1. AT&SF 5664 leads train 138 S-1 up the main line on May 20, 1978.

2. AT&SF 3658 leads train 315 A-1 up the main line on October 1, 1979.

3. AT&SF 2-8-2 3272 (?) leads 39 Oklahoma & Texas bound freight cars westbound into the siding in this scene from some time in 1942. The photographer is unknown, but may be Wallace Abbey from Trains.
(3 photos taken from various engine cabs at or near the east end of the siding at Matfield Green, KS)

Thanks for looking back & further back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/22 03:30 by santafe199.

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Good stuff, Lance, thanks for posting.  

Notice the third track to the left of the siding.  I'm wondering if that wasn't for some sort of
stock pen further railroad west of the train.  And of course, the unknown photographer was
in an F unit.  Your guess about Wallace W. Abbey is probably spot on.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

lovely ... just lovely ... excellent shots of railroading at its best LG ...

Really like that second shot, Lance!

Randy Lundgren

Correcy me if I'm wrong but most of those farm buildings in the B&W shot down in that valley are still there.

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cdub Wrote: > ...most of those farm buildings in the B&W shot down in that valley are still there...

Yessir! I believe most of the buildings in image #3 are still standing today. (I'm not so sure about those 2 silos waaay back there, though...) The house & barn definitely! They are now part of "Pioneer Bluffs", a non-profit attraction in the Flint Hills. There are a number of websites you can access. Just search: "Pioneer Bluffs-Matfield Green, KS"

Lance/199

I've spent many a pleasant afternoon on that hillside.  Even in between trains it's a great place just to sit and watch the world go by. What a day for a daydream.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/15 09:57 by Rathole.

Rathole Wrote: > ...What a day for a daydream...

"And even if time ain't really on my side
It's one of those days for takin' a walk 'track'-side
And you can be sure that if you're feelin' right
A daydream will last [long] into the night"

Many times I've sat back in the tall grass on that hill to the upper left and let the day pass by...

DJ Sir L

 

I vote for the really, really then!

Very nice look back. Brings back great memories from the same vantage point.
JB

Wierd Al could not have said it better!



santafe199 Wrote:

> "And even if time ain't really on my side
> It's one of those days for takin' a walk
> 'track'-side
> And you can be sure that if you're feelin' right
> A daydream will last into the night"
>
> Many times I've sat back in the tall grass on that
> hill to the upper left and let the day pass by...
>
> DJ Sir L
>
>  

If you plan to visit this area, MAKE SURE that you bring your anti Chigger lotion ( I like the Avon's Skin So Soft or Chigger-Tox) wag216 (Been there, Done that)

there used to be a track up the little hill just south of the cattle chutes, which came off the siding, you see the hill in the last photo. They would shove domestic water tank cars up to the top, and then gravity feed water to the section housing the workers lived in.

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santafe199 Wrote:

> 3. AT&SF 2-8-2 3272 (?) leads 39 Oklahoma & Texas bound freight cars westbound into the siding in this scene from some time in 1942. The photographer is unknown, but may be Wallace Abbey
> from Trains.

The KSHS shows it as a Santa Fe company photo: http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/305086 .  The caption on the back indicates the train approaching is "No. 39," but doesn't give a car count.

Abbey would have been 15 in 1942.  That's certainly not too young to be taking pictures, however his first mention in Trains appears in the June 1949 issue when he was "a journalism student at the University of Kansas."

I did a similar "Then & Now" on Matfield Green back in 2008. I found that same old photo in one of Don Ball's books. He was unsure of the location, but it was taken brom the cab of FT demo unit 103, in 1940. Of course I recognized where it was, even though it's a little different now.   http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1619955,1620077#msg-1620077

Evan_Werkema Wrote: > ...KSHS shows it as a Santa Fe company photo:
> approaching is "No. 39," but doesn't give a car count.
> Abbey would have been 15 in 1942...

Things are starting clear up a bit. The image I got was from Mr Robert Walz via email. He was also of the opinion that it was an ATSF photo. My original source for thinking this might be a Wallce Abbey shot came from Joe McMillan. He had sent copy of this image to a few fans wanting to confirm the location as Matfield Green. He just offered a guess as to the photographer, and at that time it was thought that the shot was taken in the early 1950s.

The info that came with the image in the 'Subject' box stated [and I quote]: "ATSF 3272 leads 39 Oklahoma and Texas Fast Freight at Matfield Green ca 1942." I thought it was a bit cryptic, and took it to mean 39 Oklahoma & Texas cars. I thought a train number would have had the "#" in front of it. The only nod to the KSHS is in the 'Copywright' box, and reads an equally cryptic "use fee to KSHS"...