Nostalgia & History > SFe Brass! How many can you ID?

Here’s one of those photos an alert railfan, such as our good man Art Gibson will pick up from time to time. I’m pretty sure this group ‘mugshot’ is the Upper Echelon managers of Santa Fe’s Eastern Lines, which was headquartered in Topeka. I used the approximate date of this photo and matched it with an April 1966 Eastern Division ETT in my digital collection. And there is an ETT on the table in the lower right hand corner whose face page could be a dead-ringer for my ’66 ETT. Or possibly an ETT from a year earlier…

So how many of these AT&SF gentlemen can you name? I can ID one for sure: Mr Harry J Briscoe is standing in back, third from the left. I like to say I met him twice. But in reality I met him only once, and once briefly shared the Emporia passenger platform with him as he disembarked from hotshot train 881 ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3938907,3938907#msg-3938907 ). And from info gleaned from the ’66 ETT I would be willing to bet the man seated center stage, up front is the current General Manager Eastern Lines, L. M. Olson. As for the rest of them, I have nary a clue…

1. A gathering of Santa Fe ‘suits’ in Topeka, KS. AT&SF Eastern Division Superintendent H. J. (Harry) Briscoe is in the back row, third from the left. Photo date: “circa” 1965.
(From the Art Gibson collection)

Thanks for playing “name that suit”!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)

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Let's see ... front row L-R  Suit 1, Suit 2 ... am I on the right track?  ; ^ )

valmont Wrote: > ...  am I on the right track?  ; ^ ) ...

I dunno... didja take the derail off??

;^)

I don't have a clue, but the one sitting in the front center likes to be the big cheese, and he's damn serious about whatever's going on. 

Lower right seated is Larry Cena. I think that's DE Mader on Harry Briscoe's left.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/20 13:53 by LocoPilot750.

Well, Dennis and Lance, I agree on Briscoe and Cena, and seated in the middle is probably Olsen.  I don't agree with the gentleman to Briscoe's left being Mader.  I think that is Beaucamp (sp).  The gentleman to Briscoe's right looks like a young JR Fitzgearld but he didn't become Middle Div. Supt until the later '60s.  I don't know what he did before coming to Newton.  The Eastern Lines had a GM and 2 AGMs.  At this time Briscoe and Beaucamp would probably be the 2 AGMs and their position in the picture behind Olsen would lend credence to that.

I had dinner with Mr. Briscoe on his business car from La Junta to Dodge City in 1977.  I had a meeting with Mr. Fitzgearld at Newton once and also spent a few minutes with him at Abilene.  The reason I don't think the gentleman to Briscoe's left is Mr. Mader is because I've been around him a bunch of times.  I would stop by the Presbyterian Manor in Emporia each time I attended the Santa Fe Picnic and visit with him and his wife.  I never met Mr. Beaucamp but have seen pictures of him.  Don't have any idea who the other gentlemen are.

I'm sure Evan could come up with the old Santa Fe magazines and locate pictures of many of these.  Also, Aronco rubbed shoulders with some of these fellows and may be able to identify some. 
 

Where's the diversity?

HardYellow Wrote: > ...  Where's the diversity? ...

...and your point is _________________?

I never saw many happy faces in my life. Did the photographer say, "Every body say Southern Pacific"?

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

photobob Wrote: > ... Did the photographer say ................

(chuckling) Good one, Bob! But you forgot the last two words the photographer said: "..........went bankrupt."

;^)

The gentleman at the rear left does a pretty good representation of LBJ, another guy sort of looks like Ike..........to my old eyes, at least.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Mr. White, I agree with you.  I had thought of LBJ when I first looked at the picture.  I hadn't thought of Ike till you mentioned it but you are right on.  In my previous comment I mentioned a Mr. Beaucamp.  Not sure that is his correct name but it was something like that.  I think he went to the Coast Lines in the '70s so thought Aronco would know him.
Mark 

KskidinTx Wrote:

> I'm sure Evan could come up with the old Santa Fe
> magazines and locate pictures of many of these. 

*Ulp!*  Guess I should have been paying more attention to faces as I've been thumbing through those old mags! :^0 

Those short bound books on the left look like track charts.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> HardYellow Wrote: > ...  Where's the diversity?
> ...
>
> ...and your point is _________________?


My point....it's called humor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/20 10:47 by HardYellow.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> photobob Wrote: > ... Did the photographer say
> ................
>
> (chuckling) Good one, Bob! But you forgot the last
> two words the photographer said: "..........went
> bankrupt."
>
> ;^)

I dunno about that.......if you were correct, then I'd wager there would be smiles all around instead of these supreme sourpusses.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

That's got to be "Shorty" standing on the right!  Also, note the fellow sitting on the right of photo has Timetables #14 & #16 lying in front of him.  Not sure what all the documents others have, but the head guy in the middle does have a stack in front of him. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/20 21:20 by rrman6.

Only two I recognize for sure are L. M. Olsen, in the center, and L. Cena to his left.  The guy on the left in the rear looks familar but I can place him.


Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Came across this photo in the book, “Watching the Trains Go By...A Narrative of a Santa Fe Railroad Man” by Harry J. Briscoe.  For those interested, these gentlemen shown are:
(Front row, L-R):  Asst. GM F. L. Elterman, GM L.M.Olson, Asst. GM Larry Cena,
(Rear row, L-R):  Oklahoma Div. Supt. Bob Rose, Middle Div. Supt. Jim Fitzgerald, Eastern Div. Supt. Harry Briscoe, Chicago Terminal Supt. Fred Beaucamp, Western Div. Supt. Burns Kurtz and Kansas City Terminal Supt. Everett Bruce.

Oliver Barrett

Thanks Mr. Barrett for supplying the names and titles of those in the photo.  One of the individuals that I knew pretty well but did not recognize was Bob Rose.  He had really changed from the time of the picture till when I worked for him.  He stopped by my office in Marceline, MO when he was Asst. GM and I requested some time off to go to Topeka to look for a house.  He claimed he wasn't aware I was going to a different position (which surprised me) but granted my request.  He did his best to talk me out of going, saying how good of a job I was doing, etc, etc, etc.  I told him if I had known how he felt about me I would have declined the other position but had already accepted the job in Topeka and felt I needed to go through with it.

This points out how we need to let people know when they have done something above and beyond the call of duty.  How else are they going to know?

Mark