Nostalgia & History > TF file (#3): FTs with a zebra!

In May of 1962 I was just finishing up 1st grade at Bluemont School here in Manhattan. My friend & fellow railroader, the late Tony Fey was only 3 or 4 years older than me. So he was at the end of his 4th grade year, 5th grade tops, in the key Santa Fe division point town of Newton, KS. I can picture Tony pedaling his bike down to the RR yard with a camera strapped over his back. And with maybe his meager allowance he only had enough wherewithal for a shot or 2. At that age he already had an eye for composition, even if he had no clue how precious his photo would be to his future friend from Manhattan.

In the 58 years since Tony shot this scene the color has faded badly, with the ground area shifting quite a bit into magenta. But it still has very sharp focus. I pulled out all the P-shop tricks I know, but I ended up drawing that little line around the foreground and converted it to B/W. I’m sure a pro could do better, but even faded I’m happy to see the main entrée of Blue & Yellow FTs garnished with a slightly magenta-tinged Alco S-4 Zebra on the side. Pretty tasty stuff to this Santa Fe fan…

1. AT&SF 185 L sits with the 1528, an Alco zebra at the roundhouse in Newton, KS in May of 1962.
(Photo by Tony Fey)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Tony Fey (the late “mopacrr”)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/22 05:22 by santafe199.

---

Approximately 1 month after Tony shot this scene I would be climbing aboard some covered wagon (I didn't even think about recording any information then) at the Newton, KS roundhouse to begin my fireman's student trips.  The first leg of my trips was from Newton to Arkansas City.
Could it have been the ATSF 185?
 

KskidinTx Wrote: > ...  Could it have been the ATSF 185 ...

It's a ( small ) world!! Your timebook coulda ~ shoulda ~ woulda told you...

;^)

Pretty cool !

Posted from Android

A slightly different PS massage, just for fun:

---

CLASSIC SANTA FE!  I am former NYC guy and have always loved the ATSF as much and the Central.

 

Very COOL shot Lance. Like the zebra stripes of my growing up days.

Larry

What a great shot of these rarities. 
Luckily, ATSF S4 1528 was saved, purchased from Cargill-Illinois and brought to Williams, AZ in October 2018.
Here it is being delivered and unloaded for the expanding collection of the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation.
It will be repainted into the very aluminum and black zebra scheme seen in Lance and Tony's photo.
Photo by Al Richmond
Thanks, MAPAZ

 

---

Lance, thank you for posting Tony's slides. I look forward to seeing more . Tony was a great fellow. I miss him . --Kelly

MAP1024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What a great shot of these rarities. 
> Luckily, ATSF S4 1528 was saved, purchased from
> Cargill-Illinois and brought to Williams, AZ in
> October 2018.
> Here it is being delivered and unloaded for the
> expanding collection of the Arizona State Railroad
> Museum Foundation.
> It will be repainted into the very aluminum and
> black zebra scheme seen in Lance and Tony's
> photo.
> Photo by Al Richmond
> Thanks, MAPAZ
>
>  

Is this the unit that used to be at Gilman Il?  If so, glad to see it managed to survive even longer.  Ben

MAP1024 Wrote: > ...  1528 was saved ... and brought to Williams ...

Nice! That's pretty cool how a purely randon Tony Fey image out of a large assortment of images in my "TF file" (& 100s of slides not yet scanned) can connect with another fan almost 6 decades later! Tony would have been very pleased... :^)

Lance/199 

Lance,,, thank you so much for posting that. Tony would be pleased!
Yes, that is the Gilman engine... the Cargill folks were kind to the museum foundation in helping to get it back to 'Santa Fe' country.
 

santafe199 Wrote:

> 1. AT&SF 185 L sits with the 1528, an Alco zebra
> at the roundhouse in Newton, KS in May of 1962.

The S-4 is nice, and I'm glad it got saved, but 185L was real standout among Santa Fe FT's.  It's the only known Santa Fe FT refitted with Farr grills over the air intakes.  According to Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail, the 185L got the grills as part of a wreck-repair.  The unit was also the last new FT cab Santa Fe bought - serial number 3712 built as 179C in August 1945 (four boosters had serial numbers 3713-3716, but then that was it for Santa Fe FT's).  The 179C was renumbered 185(L) in June 1947 and retired in October 1965.  Like all Santa Fe FT's, it would be traded in on new power and scrapped.