Nostalgia & History > Toto Tuesday: F is for Freight!

Last Thursday at the monthly Roundtable dinner in KC I got another interesting batch of slides from Tony Fey, aka ‘mopacrr’. The previous month I had put a bug in Tony’s ear about late Santa Fe/early Amtrak passenger slides around the Middle Division, especially Emporia. I knew Tony had attended Emporia State for a short time during that era and was hoping he had gotten out to shoot a few passenger trains. I was pleased when he handed me 9 slides, 7 of which deal with passenger trains on both sides of that Amtrak coin in Emporia & Newton with a single stray from Florence, KS showing Amtrak’s short-lived “Chief”: train #19.

I’ll be posting all of these gems in the next couple of weeks, but first I’m running the 8th & 9th slides Tony gave me for Toto today. Some years ago I remember reading an article with the same title as my thread: “F is for Freight” (Trains magazine??). Apparently I’m third in line with this thread title. A short Google search provided me a link to a 2007 thread with the same title by TO member “Uncle Joe”: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,1504720

Tony’s slide images below are of Santa Fe origin and but are heading freight trains. One is in the standard Blue & Yellow freight scheme and the other is in the standard Red & Silver passenger scheme. In an ironic twist both slides are of the same “SKE” make up train, about three months apart. SKE stands for “Sand creeK East”. This was a semi-regular train made up from overflow eastbound tonnage that tended to accumulate in Sand Creek Yard over in Newton, KS.

1. AT&SF 259C on train SKE N-1 just out of Newton, KS. That’s the I-35W overpass back there. I-35W of 1972 is now called “I-135”. Note the train is on the second main line which is still in place, but it’s on short time! Just a few days after Tony took this photo Santa Fe began the project that made single-track/TCS out of the traditional double-track/ABS passenger main between Ellinor & the MoPac crossing in Newton. Photo date: October 14, 1972.

2. AT&SF 342L has just pulled up for a crew change at the Emporia passenger station with train SKE P-1. By 1972 Santa Fe’s once proud Red & Silver passenger Fs were running out mileage in lowly freight service. This scene was surely fresh in many minds: Red & Silver on the main at the station was a time-honored scene. Not quite so common was seeing an SKE train in a mainline crew change at Emporia. But once in a while the amassed eastbound tonnage out of Sand Creek was all Argentine-bound. So the train came rolling into Emporia and, just like the the “big dog” hotshots, changed crews at the station. Note the 3 red-brick platform fingers still in place between the 3 tracks. Photo date: January 12, 1973.
(2 photos by Tony Fey)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Tony Fey (mopacrr)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/22 03:50 by santafe199.

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I wish I could redo my 60s and early 70s and take the photos I never thought were important.

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote: > ..I wish I could redo my 60s and early 70s...

Oh my... don't we ALL!!

:^/

But if we are going to redo those years, we would need to take a digital camera with us!!!

I am sure glad Lance has knows how to use photo shop effectively as the first slide east of Newton; isn't all that good as it was cloudy overcast day.  I tried to get shots of trains on locations where the double track was to come out ,but I am not sure I was all that successful. 

That's an outstanding pair of trains.
JB

Thanks to Tony and Lance for the Middle Division memories !

I'm glad to see I was being prototypical when I was 9 years old, running my Athearn Hi-F Warbonnet F7's on freight.

The AT&SF 325 class of F7s were built for "multipurpose" service. i.e. Passenger in the summer; freight in the winter  Evan, are you there?. wag216

Lance,
I am Uncle Joe from that old post.I know Buck Dean,who knows Tony and also Kevin
noted in the old post.

Uncle Joe,12 miles east of Tampa near exACL MP 870.4

Outstanding pair of shots!

Thanks for posting these great shots, Lance!

Randy Lundgren
 

Wunderbar !  (as the Germans say ).