Nostalgia & History > SW Limited enshrouded at KCUS

In the winter of 1978-79 much of the Midwest was brutalized by record blizzard conditions. As a railroader in train service it was NO picnic having to work out there in those conditions. As a railroader young in seniority it was a mixed blessing to be furloughed from active rosters during those blizzard conditions. Digging out frozen switches at 3 AM doesn’t exactly bring the same kind of job enjoyment as riding trains through the lush, green Flint Hills in sunny May.

However, I did perform some RR service right in the middle of that blizzard-plagued era. Sorta. Along with fellow furloughed Santa Fe brakeman Dave Franz (‘monaddave’) we took the opportunity to get all of our required Amtrak student flagman/baggageman trips out of the way. We were both dedicated to getting completely qualified at these passenger jobs. Even to the point of taking a few extra trips. No sir, those extra trips didn’t have nuthin’ to do with Dave & I being camera-totin’ railfans. Not a bit (wink, wink… ;^)!

Unfortunately I never kept a timebook record of the student trips I made for Amtrak qualification. The only thing I have is the date(s) I recorded for the slides I shot. This particular trip I believe Dave & I were making another student flagman trip between Kansas City & Newton. Mercy sakes, it was cold! And I seem to recall #3 had some sort of problem with one of its steam generators, which resulted in more lost time at KCUS. This gave me time to bag several 30 second slide exposures on the tripod I just happened to bring along. There was already a light blanket of fog in downtown Kansas City. But add in the steam vapor surrounding the train and it made for very interesting results. 39+ years later home photo-editing can work wonders with Kodachrome 64, especially in correcting that nuke-green tinge. I’m betting you’ll be enjoying this ‘79 blizzard in complete safety from your warm, dry perch in ‘18…

1. AMTK 527 at the point of train #3, the “Southwest Limited” at Union Station in Kansas City, MO.
Photo date: January 7, 1979.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/22 21:08 by santafe199.

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A really neat photo!  Marty

Cool shot.

Very neat photo. Thanks for sharing.

Was there really a train behind this loco? : >)

I like the ghost engineer with his grip!  Cool shot Lance!

Nicely done. 

Excellent!
Gary

Lance

You just keep bringing out great shots!  Your "bag of tricks is very large".

Jeff N

sfn2633 Wrote: > ... Your "bag of tricks" ...

Thank you, my good man! But I have to confess  -like many photographers should-  my "bag of tricks" is aided greatly by modern home photo-editing software. With the dreaded, omnipresent Kodachrome nuke-green tinge in the original slide image you probably wouldn't have looked twice at it... I'm just glad my love of night time, available light shooting overrode the ghastly color results which were the rule rather than the exception with Kodachrome as a medium! I kept right on shooting at night whenever I got the chance. And I wore out more than one tripod in the process...

Lance