Nostalgia & History > A few - no train - views on the Santa Fe

1) June 80 - Leaving the Santa Fe station in McGregor,Tx - southbound on the Inter-American.
Just crossed the Cotton Belt line to Waco.

2) June 80 - Once again from the Inter-American at Polks ? siding in Texas.
Not sure of the location, maybe near Ft.Worth ?

3) July 78 - Just south of Augusta,Ks the Douglas District ? cut off the main to Winfield.
Didn't see any trains that day but found a few semaphores and some nice searchlight signals.
Lance - did you ever make any runs on this line ?

4) July 78 - In Augusta,Ks looking north towards Witchita on the now abandoned Frisco branch.
It is crossing the very busy Santa Fe main between El Dorado and Wellington.
AG Tower was just to the right.
A needed overpass is under construction for this busy road crossing (didn't help the ground shot locations though).

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/21 08:25 by gcm.

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Fascinating views even without trains.
Bob

I'll take "location scenes" like this everyday & twice on Thanksgiving !! ;^) Especially the shot at Augusta. It will add to my grossly inadequate photo-survey I took of the new overpass in June of 1978. (Oh you know: "I'll come back LATER and get some more shots...")

Lance

gcm Wrote: > ... Lance - did you ever make any runs on this line ? 

I was so busy downloading your Augusta shot I didn't see this one until just now. The answer to your question is a resounding YES! This is the beating heart of my old Middle Division main line territory. But I'll go out on a limb, and call this the west siding switch at Salter, KS on the old 4th District which runs SW out of AG. The telling factor for me is the orientation of the switch and the immediate curve to the northeast. Plus: If that's your car in the shot it makes perfect sense because the west switch at Salter is not at all near any roadway. So you would have to drive along an access road. Which WE ALL did back in those easier days! Salter is very easy to "stumble onto" since you were already in the Augusta area. And it's just a hop & a skip west of the Douglass* District which runs more or less true N-S. In a straight E-W line here the 3rd & 4th Districts (now BNSF Douglass & Emporia Subs) are about 3 miles apart, separated by the Walnut River...

Lance

*It's spelled this way in my 1977 ETT...



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/21 12:29 by santafe199.

Pretty cool "infrastructure" shot of the overpass construction!

> 2) June 80 - Once again from the Inter-American at Polks ? siding in Texas.
> Not sure of the location, maybe near Ft.Worth ?
>
Correct. Just south of downtown looking north towards the E Pennsyvannia/Hattie Street bridge. St. Joseph Hospital is on the left, but obscured by trees. 
The M-K-T and I-35W are on the right. 

Interesting shots, Gary!

RC Lundgren

gcm Wrote:

> 2) June 80 - Once again from the Inter-American at Polks ? siding in Texas. Not sure of the location, maybe near Ft.Worth ?

Polks was at milepost 344.9 a little south of Ft. Worth at a former crossing of the T&NO.  The bridge in the background is Pennsylvania Ave.  At one time, the crossing was protected by Tower 126, whose foundation appears behind the station sign:

http://txrrhistory.com/towers/053/053.htm

The tower was situated here between Pennsylvania and Rosedale Streets (looks like the foundation is still there): https://goo.gl/maps/3C6PFUUvpiJhUEHD9

That Texas Railroad History link indicates the tower was retired in 1961 concurrent with a relocation of the crossing, but the building remained standing into the 1970's.

Thanks to Lance, SAAP and  Evan_Werkema for info on these areas.
Gary