Nostalgia & History > OTD 20 years ago: Amtrak 4 at Eudora

20 years ago, much like Lance's Toto Tuesday guest, I was a student at the University of Kansas. Like Lance's guest, I found my way out along the Santa Fe mainline by Ottawa - in my case, as the red/silver and blue/yellow gave way to oranges.

This day, however, the only train I caught was the eastbound Southwest Chief, which started running via Topeka and Lawrence as the Southwest Limited 20 years prior. (Things did not quite go as planned that first night, to say the least). Those single-level Heritage cars that were in use on #4 in 1979 quickly yielded to the Superliner, and the SDP40Fs likeways were replaced by the F40s.

20 years in: The F40s have been replaced by P42s, the Superliner fleet has been supplemented with a second batch of cars, and there were quite a express cars on the tail end of the train. It was enough extra baggage that four P42s were needed to get the train to Chicago.

Today: The P42s still take point, but there's usually only two engines, and they have a much different paint job. The Heritage units don't come close to the original paint scheme on these engines. All the extra cars are gone, and you'd be lucky to get three coaches on the train during the off-season. The old cantilever signal (behind the train as its heading east) finally sucumbed when the Topeka Sub became a CTC line. Those code line poles are gone too. On my most recent trip to Eudora, there was a pile of broken up code poles along the south side of the tracks (no word if anyone bothered to try and salvage a few glass insulators)

1: Four Amtrak locomotives, led by number 38, storm their way through Eudora.

2: Express Boxcars behind the passenger equipment

3: On the tail end of #4 were these roadrailers.

All photos taken October 9, 1999.

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

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How long did the express boxcar era on Amtrak last.   I can't remember the story behind that era so could someone tell the story to say what created their market and what killed it?   

Thanks for sharing these photos to remind us of what #4 looked like at that time.