Nostalgia & History > Low Light @ KCUS

…the story of a boy & his tripod!

In January of 1979 fellow Santa Fe brakeman Dave Franz & I were in the midst of the usual winter furlough for those with little or no seniority whiskers. We were both in our mid-20s, just embarking on parallel careers in train service. Over a phone chat we pondered our current mutual situation and decided by gum maybe we should get some really nasty, yet necessary train service qualification items out of the way. As Santa Fe extra board brakemen we were required to know how to work the Amtrak flagman & baggageman jobs over our territory.

We were expected to notify the crew office when, what train & territory we would be riding for a given qualification trip. The really brutal part was that we absolutely weren’t allowed to buy a ticket. We were expected to just show up and ride. In order to help alleviate this crushing disappointment we picked a day together to make our "initial" flagman qualification trip. And we both brought our Kodachrome-loaded cameras. I even dragged my tripod along, just in case…

1. Smack in the middle of one of the most brutal winters in recent memory here is a heavily misted, just-about-to-snow scene at Kansas City Union Station. N-scale AMTK 256 makes an appearance between a pair of S-scale passenger cars down on the platform. While waiting to embark on a qualification trip on train #3, the “Southwest Limited” my trusty tripod got a pretty good workout. Between a few extra trader slides and a handful of different angles & views I probably shot at least a couple dozen slides.
Photo date: January 7, 1979.

Thanks for keeping me company!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/23 04:10 by santafe199.

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Lance,

Thank you for letting us have a look at this nice shot.  In this era, as you may recall, Amtrak would regularly drop cars at Kansas City Union Station from Chicago, in order to forward them on the Amtrak "National Limited" train #30, from Kanas City, Missouri to Indianapolis, IN for Beech Grove Shops.

Hubert

First-rate low-light photo.
Bob

BuddPullman Wrote: > ...  as you may recall, Amtrak would regularly drop cars ...
I have to confess I don't remember the interaction between the 2 trains all that well. My normal freight working territory started at Emporia, 111 miles to the west. And ran even further west. So I really didn't get to Kansas City very often...

refarkas Wrote: > ... First-rate low-light photo ...
Thanks Bob! I think the heavy humidity in the night air gave me some extra light to play with that I wouldn't normally have had. Of course, home photo-editing helps a bunch, also... :^)

Lance/199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/20 15:04 by santafe199.

In the background was Kansas City's new Hyatt Regency Hotel where a time bomb was ticking.

On July 17 1981, two of its three "floating walkways" collapsed, killing 114 and injuring 216 with the injuries particularly serious in many cases. It was the worst architectual disaster in U.S. history. 

Sure looks like Crown Center rather than the Hyatt Regency to me.

Yeah, the former Hyatt Regency was a block east of Crown Center. 

Just how did we get to KC that trip? Did we drive up? 
Davein Msla

monaddave Wrote: > ... Just how did we get to KC that trip?

I think we (heh heh heh) "worked" #16, the Lone Star up from Emporia. I know that's what we did a few days later for that marathon baggage trip out to La Junta (Trinidad, actually) & back. The trip that JAA came along on. But after working #3 out to Newton I don't remember how we got home. Unless #4 was running late? Hmmm...

Bubba-loo #2

This was the real ticking time bomb for KCUS!  Pershing Square development and Trizec corporation!
Thanks to them, Amtrak got the shaft, and passengers have had to endure a long walk(outside) to get to their trains!

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