Nostalgia & History > Working on the Santa Fe - in Kansas -- July 78

(1)  A Santa Fe crew has pulled a few tank cars out of the yard just north of Augusta,Ks on the busy line south of El Dorado.

(2)  GP20 #3104 is working the area this day. They will shove the cars to Augusta and the crew was nice enough to grant me a cab ride.

(3)  Heading south-the signal bridge looked like it had a semaphore earlier.
AG Tower can be seen in the background.
This line was extremely busy. Finding time for a local to work between trains was not easy (at least they had a double track main to work with). This particular time I was shocked - not one train passed the entire time I was in the cab.

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(4)  About to pass AG Tower and the crossing of the Frisco.
The Santa Fe-Frisco connecting track is to the right.  
The crew will go past the bridge to drop off the cars.

(5) Now headed north back to the tower having switched to the other main.

(6)  In this shot the Frisco line can be seen. This was the now abandoned Wichita-Beaumont line. The line lasted to the BNSF merger (thanks to The_Chief_Way and skinem for that info).
The tower itself lasted to the early 80's.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/16 07:06 by gcm.

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(7)  Approaching the same signal bridge we have switched over to a siding - freeing up the main lines.

(8) Back at the yard again north of town.
It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

(9) Here is a shot looking west towards Witchita on the Frisco. The overpass will certainly help with all the auto traffic delays with the high rate of rail traffic.
The Frisco had passenger service on this line till around 1960. 

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Thanks for posting these gems, Gary. The BN's Wichita line did last until after the BNSF merger in 1996.

Nice photos. There are others here that may chime in, but it looks like Doc Davis in #2 walking to the left. The old Frisco line wasn't abandoned until after the birth of the BNSF. The combined seniority of that Augusta switcher was waaay up there. 

Nice bunch, that cantilever lasted until just a few years ago. Amazingly the westbound interlocking signal on the old Frisco was still there just last year.
JB

You just took me back home, Gary! June & July of 1978 were my first months in train service with Santa Fe. Your coverage of the new US hwy 54 overpass being built is a priceless snippet of Augusta/Santa Fe Middle Division history. Love the look down the Frisco track as well. Many kudos!!!.

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/16 12:19 by santafe199.

Sounds like you made a few runs through Augusta ?

Gary

gcm Wrote: > ... you made a few runs through Augusta? ...
Oh... only a few hundred times during my Santa Fe train service years. This was my working territory during my 1978 ~ 1987 employment with the Santa Fe. Same for "skinem" up above (who is still working), and for "monaddave" (retired off MRL) who will hopefully chime in if he sees this thread. And "The Chief Way" is also very intimate with this territory, even though he was an Amtrak agent...

Lance/199

gcm Wrote:

> (1)  A Santa Fe crew has pulled a few tank cars
> out of the yard just north of Augusta,Ks on the
> busy line south of El Dorado.

Is that a switch point indicator for the spring switch in front of the fellow in the foreground?  I've seen those on the Coast Lines but never ran into them anywhere else on the Santa Fe until after the merger.

> (2)  GP20 #3104 is working the area this day.
> They will shove the cars to Augusta and the crew
> was nice enough to grant me a cab ride.

Interesting signal on the left, seen again on the right in photo 8.  Looks like they are about to replace that semaphore with a searchlight, but I'm surprised that the searchlight head isn't turned to the side or bagged or something.

Evan_Werkema Wrote: > ... Is that a switch point indicator...
I'm sure it was. The east end of the eastward siding had a spring switch well into the 1980s (I think). And I vaguely remember that semaphore signal, but it was retired early in my SFe career. We used another spring switch that was technically in Eastern Division territory. At the west end of the westbound yard lead in Emporia Yard there was a trailing point spring switch leading out onto Yard Track #3, which then ran all the way to Merrick and became the TCS (CTC) South Main on out to Ellinor. Middle Division territory didn't begin until Merrick...

Lance/199

Looks like "Doc" to me also. The hogger was usually Charley George. I can not get the name of the foreman(Cutter?), but all three of the regular crew were modeler; "Doc" was HO, Charlie was / is a 12" live steamer and the third follow was a tin plate man. Memories are nice. wag216

wag216 Wrote:
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> Looks like "Doc" to me also. The hogger was
> usually Charley George. I can not get the name
> of the foreman(Cutter?), but all three of the
> regular crew were modeler; "Doc" was HO, Charlie
> was / is a 12" live steamer and the third follow
> was a tin plate man. Memories are nice. wag216

I think the foreman's name was Scudder,  I worked with him the one and only time I worked the Eldorado job off the Emporia extra board.

I was westbound through there one day, and noticed a GP35 laying on it's side in the middle of the road, just west of the Tower. It was turned loose in R-8 at the east end, roared down the siding which was normally lined for the BN connection. It hit the derail so fast it blew it right out of the way, spikes and all, and turned over on the curve at about 50 mph. It slid on it's side and almost hit the pie shaped building where the bridge scaffolds are in the photo. I heard about it from a train ahead, and took some quick photos, but can't fine them at the moment.

It seems the other one on the job was Brownie ? The road guys had a habit of raiding the swicher's food from the fridge in the shanty when they got the chance.

ddg Wrote: > ... I think the foreman's name was Scudder...
BINGO!!! Mr Scudder was the foreman on my very first Santa Fe paytrip: a day switching the Mobil Refinery at 77 highway. That refinery is now long gone, taken completely out some years ago. C. J. Leckington was the hogger, and equally brand new Eugene Anderson was the other switchman...

Lance/199

Looks like a Ford Maverick or a Mercury Comet at the tower.
That junction shot is a great perspective shot of transportation infrastructure!

Interesting that AG tower has train order stands on either side of the main lines but no orderboards.  The tower was torn down in September 1980.