Nostalgia & History > GP30 Thursday: Cabless horsemen!

I knew when the “GP30 Thursday” series got started it would have ongoing popularity. And I’ve been happy to contribute a few shots from both my Santa Fe & Union Pacific collections. But I’ve found a slight twist to the theme. I love having an off-the-wall sense of humor! And I’ve successfully inserted it into many of the threads I’ve posted, especially in RRer’s Nostalgia: ( How a flagging job turned into a Toga Party! (trainorders.com) ). But having an off-the-wall sense of humor also means having off-the-wall brain waves, so you’ll have to indulge me:

While scanning through Jim Watson’s sizable collection I was into his UP GP30 slides. And when I got into his GP30B slides I got a mental flash of the classic story of the Headless Horseman from “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by author Washington Irving. I had no plans to inject this zaniness into a thread until I scanned the 715B below. I took the dark, storm-looking sky and the intense sun glint as a sign! So now I pass this zaniness on to you... ;^)

1. UP 708B in Marysville, KS on August 21, 1977.

2. UP 711B in consist at Orrick, KS on October 22, 1980. (At the time, Orrick was the west end of 2 main CTC tracks coming up out of Marysville. The CTC controlled switch was a bit over a mile west of the US hwy 77 crossing. The installation of DT CTC completely eliminated Orrick)

3. The spooky looking 715B at North Platte, NE on July 7, 1978. Heavy dark sky & brilliant sun glint courtesy of Mama Nature...
Three original Kodachrome slides by the late James W. Watson

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/22 06:49 by santafe199.

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Those are all nice ones Lance, but that last one is definitely outstanding. All by itself.

You sir are quite a post production wizard!!! I love what you did with the third shot! Great way to give homage to a very unusual unit.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Roadjob Wrote: > ...  quite a post production wizard ... love what you did with the third shot ...

Thanks! But I really can't take any credit other than a slight crop job. This image is pretty much the way Jim shot it with his Nikon F. It's actually what gave me the idea for my 'poking-some-fun' thread title. And to be truthful... I had an alternate title: "Cabless horsepower", but I went with the Sleepy Hollow tie-in... :^)

Lance

And you can order HO versions from ScaleTrains, due around the end of the year.