Nostalgia & History > Mop Monday: N Newton, KS

I didn’t shoot the Mop very much in Newton, KS. Mainly because the lure of my Santa Fe was so strong. Plus the fact that the Mop ran their local through town at seemingly sporadic times. In the summer of 1978 my brand-new employment in Santa Fe train service was slowing down. My timebook shows that I was cut off the brakeman’s extra board at Emporia on July 12. But I could still hold a job on my seniority district as a switchman. I worked the switchman’s extra board at Sand Creek (Newton) between September 13th and the 28th. This allowed me better opportunities to shoot the Mop. And on July 21 I did indeed catch the Mop coming into town from McPherson. As I look back I wish I had chased that local out of Newton to the southeast! But railfan wiseness was not exactly my long suit in 1978. Today of course, that old branch is long gone...

1. MP 1575 leads the local over the N Main St crossing just below North Newton, KS* on September 21, 1978.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*I am told the actual boundary for "North Newton" is a bit north of this crossing. But I use North Newton as a location for Mop (now K&O) photos taken in this area...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/24 07:38 by santafe199.

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I like that shot....ran over that track some going to McPherson with our trackage rights.   North Newton had the distinction of declaring itself a "nuclear free zone"....!  Also had to be careful as the local PD in Hesston would use radar on you to see if you exceeded through their town and turn you in if you did.

Nice shot, classic midwestern railroad scene...

JG

atsfer Wrote: > ... local PD in Hesston ...

Since coming home to Kansas in 2010 I've chased the K&O between McPherson & Newton a few times. It seems the small towns on that stretch of "old US 81" between the 2 are a community all their own. I definitely get the feeling you can't push the speed limit very much anywhere on that stretch. And I can remember working the Santa Fe local over the Mop a couple of times in the mid-1980s. I never made the complete trip up to Salina, though. It was only as far as McPherson...

Lance

Very enjoyable scene!

Larry

Great look back, Lance!  Were those McPherson based local crews and if so do you know how far they went?

texchief1

texchief1 Wrote: > ... Were those McPherson based local crews ...

I really don't know much about the Mop crew districts throughout Kansas. I had such a hard time shooting that blankety-blank drab dark blue. So I never bothered to learn much about the outfit. Nearly all of the Mop slides in my collection were shot only because of opportunity, not purposeful chasing...

Lance

You chose the scene well.
Bob

A lot of propane traffic comes down that line these days!

The composition is spot on. Thanks, Lance.