Nostalgia & History > Steam in the snow at Ellinor

It’s pretty hard to judge the lay of the land for trees & foliage, etc for a piece of ground I won’t actually see for another 29 years. So with the good Dr Gouldner labeling his slide as “Ellinor”, I have to place this location as just west of the actual crossover/junction point at Ellinor, KS. He obviously got this shot while pacing the train on the original routing of US highway 50. The distance between his car and the train would seem to lend credibility to my guesswork. The apparent thickness of the rails here could be because we are looking at the DT ABS rails of the traditional passenger route over to Newton. In in the background that dark stripe is possibly the Ellinor freight main (+ siding) veering away down into the Flint Hills. But it’s impossible to say for certain where a given line of trees might be growing 3 decades before you actually see the area in person...

1. AT&SF 3267 is westbound on the Middle Division 1st District with a manifest about a mile west(?) of the Ellinor, KS crossover plant. This train is most likely heading for Sand Creek (Newton). But it could also be heading up to Abilene/Salina via the Strong City District connection at Neva, west of Strong City. Photo date guestimation: Winter of 1947.
Original slide by Dr RR Gouldner courtesy of Art Gibson, from the James T Wilson collection

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Wilson (jtwlunch)
Remembering the late Dr RR Gouldner



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/23 02:18 by santafe199.

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<<But it could also be heading up to Abilene/Salina via the Strong City District connection at Neva, >>

Sweet. Don't forget a potential right turn at Florence, KS and wander all the way to Ellinwood. Some of the old heads would tell me stories about the almost 16 hours they would take to get there and tie up at 15'59" on duty to go back to work in eight hours so they wouldn't miss a dollar. T'was approximately 145 mile run and they mentioned it was called the "bucket of gold".
Dave in MT

monaddave Wrote: > ... > ... Don't forget a potential right turn at Florence ...

True. But that didn't come to mind because that M&M District routing nortwest from Florence was long gone before you & I ever hired out. And although I heard quite a few of the old heads call that job (#77 & #78) by many a nickname, I never heard it called 'pot of gold'. And most of those other names aren't printable here in polite TO society...

;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/22 10:19 by santafe199.

A couple of tid-bits about the old route of trains 87-88 from Emporia to Ellinwood.  Dave, I'll have to agree with Lance about what the railroaders called it, including me.  I hated that job.  When I hired out in June of '62 I only worked 2 weeks, layed off for 5.5 months, worked 2 weeks, layed off for 5 months, then started working a little more steady.  While furloughed they would call me in what they called "emergency status" for 1 round trip.  They wouldn't put me back on the extra board and I didn't have to take the call but I was always hurting for money so would go if at all possible.  And the train they would be needing a fireman on 95% of the time was 87-88.  Did I say I hated that job?  It got to where they would call me once or twice a week "in emergency".

We would usually be ordered at Emporia between 0230 and 0430 hrs. and tying up at Ellinwood around 1400 hrs.  Here's the big problem.  They only had one set of power for both sides of the local.  Once we arrived the outbound crew would take the power to Emporia and we would be stuck in Ellinwood til the power arrived Emporia and came back to Ellinwood the following day.  You always had a 24 hr. layover each trip, sometimes more.

Back in the '60s they had assigned cabooses.  The trainmen would stay on the caboose while the engineer and fireman would stay in the hotel at their own expense.  It would get pretty boring killing 24 hours in Ellinwood with no transportation to go anywhere.  I walked down to the caboose once to see what the trainmen were doing and got a sermon about never coming to their caboose unless I was invited.  The only time I was invited would be for a card game as they wanted my money.

If you were on the job regular and liked to party, you never had a chance.  You would arrive Emporia after midnight and the next evening was shot as you needed your rest for the 0230 hrs on duty time.

In looking over my time books I see where we had a pair of 3000 class (FM) every trip.  Those units had wooden framed front doors with cracks all the way around them and the fireman would freeze in cold weather.  When ever the brakeman would have to go outside I would jump into his seat and try to thaw out a little bit.  Did I ever say what I thought about that job?

I spoke with Clyde Shellenberger the other day to get his thoughts on 87-88.  He had hired out in '59 (3 yrs. before me).  He agreed with my evaluation of that local and said I was right on.

As far as the railroad between Florence and Marion goes, it was the prettiest portion of the whole trip.

Noticed in my timebook that I had made a trip to Ellinwood with RD Bush on 12-24-62 (Christmas Eve).  Upon our arrival the dispatcher said he couldn't furnish transportation for us but If we could find a way we could go to Emporia as they would not be operating the local on Christmas day.  One of the regular trainman had a 53 Chevy there so all five of us squeezed in with our grips and went to Emporia.  I think I had to hold my grip on my lap the whole way.

Dave, the "bucket of gold" you heard about was really a "bucket of something else".

The tales of a railroader.............
Mark