Railroaders' Nostalgia > How a flagging job turned into a Toga Party!

At 4 AM on October 24, 1978 my telephone in Emporia, KS rang, waking me up. “Garrels?” [yeah] “On duty for a 5 AM deadhead to Abilene. You’ll be on duty up there at 8 AM for work train #3." [um… ok] “Congratulations son, you now have a regular job ‘cause you’re force-assigned!” (click)

OMG!!! (a few decades before it actually became OMG!) I’m on a work train! I had NO idea what to expect, contemplating all sorts of unpleasant physical labor. I had toted crossties & driven steel spikes for the Santa Fe during the summer of 1974, but I thought I was done with anything of a purely physical nature. Although Abilene was only a 90 minute drive from Emporia I checked with my Grandma in Abilene to see if it was OK to stay at her place, at least for a few days. And did THE most loving, Christian Grandmother in the world say no? Not a chance! Of course, I could stay. In my mind I would be staying the same house in which I did so much growing up in during the 1960s in my 2nd hometown of Abilene. The very same house that had the Rock Island’s Herington to Salina branch running [almost literally] through the backyard. The very same house which afforded a view [across the Catholic School parking lot] of the Santa Fe depot, now the place I would be reporting for work as an adult. Turns out I needn’t have worried about lodging, but I’ll explain that later on.

I checked my grip and packed some extra clothes. I also checked my cameras & stock of Kodachrome 64 slide film. I was on the road to Abilene with plenty of time to stop in Herington to see what the Rock Island had going on. This would become a welcomed ritual that gave me numerous chances to shoot the Rock. Any deadhead between Emporia & Abilene or Salina would cause me to drive through this very familiar Rock Island crew change terminal. I made that DH trek many times before the Rock went under in 1980. As a result I now have dozens of Kodachrome slides of Rock Island subjects in my collection which the Santa Fe paid me very well to shoot! I arrived in Abilene to find a Rock Island train passing through eastbound. Click! This would be the ONLY Rock Island train I would ever shoot in my 2nd hometown.

1. CRI&P 358 passes along SE 5th St between the Eisenhower Center & Old Abilene Town (out of frame to the left) in Abilene, KS

2. AT&SF 2802 poses with my new assigned job, the weed-sprayer work train in the yard in Abilene, KS
(2 photos taken October 24, 1978)

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On the 3rd day of my new work train odyssey our crew was transported down to the main line at Strong City. My memory is kinda hazy, but I believe our engine [2802] was used over-night in a pinch-hitting capacity to help get some tonnage from Abilene down to Emporia. It was fueled & turned at the Emporia roundhouse, then brought right back out of Emporia, probably on a 304 train. It was then set-out at Strong City where we were sent to retrieve it. Our conductor T. T. (Teddy) Gfeller’s personal vehicle was also at Strong City. Again my 37 year memory is hazy, but I think Teddy had his live-in girlfriend drive out to meet us with his truck and had arranged for a ride back into Emporia. Now this was an interesting conflict. We had to run the 2802 back up to Abilene. Engineer L. M. (Lynn) Hohne would of course occupy the engineer’s seat. Conductor Teddy would occupy another. So far, so good. But that left one remaining seat for fellow brakeman J. E. (Jeff) Commerford & myself. Hmmm… But Teddy neatly took care of that dilemma by asking me if I wouldn’t mind driving his truck up to Abilene for him. I thought about the camera and hefty stock of K-64 I had in my grip. I asked Teddy if I would be able to take my grip along with me. He looked at me like I was a brand-new idiot brakeman (I was… :^). When he answered yes, it took me all of .006 of a second to say: “Surrrrre, I’ll drive your truck for you!!!” It goes without saying that I would need to carry the portable RR radio so they could call me in if they got in a pinch somewhere. I knew we were slated to pick up some misc M.O.W. cars in a couple of places on the way up, so I was confident I had plenty of time to “accidently get lost” on the back roads between Strong City & Abilene. It also goes without saying that those treacherously unknown back roads were highly likely to be in the same vicinity as the Rock Island’s 2 main lines & the Mop’s west main line out of nearby Herington! (mama didn’t raise no dummy…)

Sure enough, I ran into unit grain train running the Rock’s south main toward Wichita, BEFORE I even had a chance to ‘get lost’. So I had to shoot the train south of Lincolnville from just off of US hwy 77, after which I drove on up to Herington to look around. I grudgingly bagged another train coming into town from Topeka, shooting it off the US-77 overpass north of town. All along I had heard nothing out of my crew, but I kept my ears tuned just the same. A little later I saw another train in Herington yard making motions to depart, so I got into position. When I saw it was heading out of Herington over the GSR I finally got my chance to get hopelessly lost down by an old Rock Island location called Rishel. I was forced to shoot my 3rd perfectly lit Rock Island train for the day. And ya know what? It’s a miracle!!! As soon as this train passed I found my bearings again.

I moseyed on up to Abilene and waited at the depot for less than 30 minutes before my portable radio crackled to life with evidence that my crew was getting close to town.

3. CRI&P 4307 has a unit grainer rolling south of Lincolnville, KS.

4. CRI&P 4464 drifts into Herington from Topeka.

5. CRI&P 4795 is westbound with a manifest on the Golden State Route near the old station of Rishel, KS.
(3 photos taken October 26, 1978)

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The next day weed-sprayer/work train life was back to normal on my new assigned job. We went on duty and proceeded north of Abilene spraying line-side weeds & foliage from the I-70 overpass (see image #6) to Oak Hill, KS where our day had to be cut short. We had to meet a train coming down from Superior, NE (local train 1344?). I was sent on foot west up the line out of Oak Hill to provide flag protection against this opposing train. In those days train order operation was still king on the dark territory of the Strong City District. For this brand new experience I actually dug out my rule book along with a red flag and the required number of fusees & track torpedoes, and started walking along the track to the northwest. When I had walked the estimated distance (1.5 miles?) I planted 2 torpedoes and walked about half-way back with my red flag. From my estimated ¾ of a mile away I could see my train and could sorta hear the engine revving, but it didn’t appear to be moving. And I was NOT being called in with 2802’s whistle. I could just make out the figures of my crew mates walking around the 2802. Then I could hear the engine revving again. This routine was repeated a few more times with no results. I didn’t know what was going on, and briefly thought I might be the victim of some prank. Sorta like some frat initiation ritual, or something. But it didn’t seem likely my guys would pull a stunt on a brand new brakie, so I “stuck to my guns”. Then the 2802 disappeared backwards, to the southeast! In a minute I could hear more determined revving, which was followed by the 2802 re-appearing. This time the entire train had made it further ahead. I immediately saw the headlight go out and heard 4(?) long honks on the horn, calling me back in. Later engineer Lynn Hohne explained how the weeds had really covered the seldom-used track we were to tie up on. The 2802 was losing her footing trying to drag 10 cars (a heavy weed spray car and at least 7 loaded tanks) into the clear. Lynn backed out of the track laying down a heavy stream of sand. The he got a run at it, finally getting the entire train in the clear.

6. The 2802 is at the point of my weed-sprayer work train. Photo taken from the cupola of waycar 999264 just north of the I-70 overpass at Abilene, KS.

7. The 2802 is seen at the end of the day parked in a ‘back’ track in tiny Oak Hill, KS.

8. Here is the [former] Santa Fe depot in Oak Hill now being used by the Kuhlmann Grain Co. in Oak Hill.
(3 photos taken October 27, 1978.)

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I can’t recall where we spent that night. But Santa Fe had been putting us up in various motels as the week progressed. It wasn’t out of kindness, they were contractually obligated to do so, so I needn’t have bothered my sweet Grandma about staying at her house earlier in the week. The next morning we repeated the on duty stuff and sprayed further up the Strong City District toward Concordia. But trouble struck us in tiny Aurora, KS. Our tired old 2802 was being worked pretty hard and some of the insulation inside one of the hood doors caught fire. I was in the waycar unaware of the calamity. All I saw was engineer Lynn running back my way, yelling for a fire extinguisher. I scrambled from my perch and grabbed the extinguisher and started running forward to meet him. He was plum tuckered out, so I just kept running forward. As I got closer to the 2802 I could see what was happening. I hoisted the extinguisher up to conductor Teddy who quickly put the small fire out. There wasn’t a whole lot of damage, but it was enough to affect the engine. In a repeat performance from Oak Hill, we had to struggle to get our train into the clear at Aurora. After a long while some transportation finally showed up and took us on up to Concordia. We were put up at the one & only “Thunderbird Motel”! It was a Saturday night…

It would be safe to say that after our going-off-duty difficulties 2 days in a row, the crew was ready to just relax. Supper in downtown Concordia was duly consumed, and the 4 of us made our way back to our estimable motel. Saturday night. It just so happened that the Thunderbird had an on-premises club serving ice cold beer & mixed drinks. And we were allowed to go into this club by virtue of our patronage with the motel. It didn’t matter to them that the Santa Fe was paying for said patronage, we just had to show our room keys. We knew it would be about noon or later before another train (local train 1343 up from Abilene?) could deliver another geep for our weed-spraying work train. Saturday night. It just happened that our motel’s club was having a costume party/contest this particular Saturday night…

I’ll pause here, because 2 pieces of information crucial to the story need to be put on the table: [#1] Conductor Teddy’s girlfriend (who drove his truck out to him at Strong City) would be up to Concordia later in the evening to be with him for the weekend. [#2] This was the fall of 1978 and just in the previous month or so the movie parody “Animal House” had been released. One of the more memorable sequences in this zany movie was an outrageous fraternity-sponsored Roman-style Toga Party. Back to the main story…

The 4 of us were ill-prepared to participate in any costume contest. But on the other hand we were more than prepared to imbibe at a somewhat prodigious rate, especially since we didn’t have to be back in good shape until about noon! Saturday night. Let the imbibing begin! The club was well full of local people coming out on a Saturday night to escape their weekly toils and just have some fun wearing their costumes. Most of these costumes generated reactions which ranged from “hey, that’s really clever” to “oh geez, you gotta be kiddin’ me!”. The 4 of us tried to fit in the best we could. No matter; we were well on our way to becoming a ‘well-oiled machine’ when Teddy’s girlfriend made her expected appearance. She immediately noticed the costumes everyone had on and then looked us. She bent over and whispered something to Teddy and they both got up and left the club. We thought we were down to a 3-some, but Teddy soon poked his head in the door and motioned for the 3 of us to come on out. We followed him to his room where his girlfriend was sitting on the bed digging through her purse. When we all got inside the room she asked us if we wanted to go back to the club “in costume”. We all sorta mumbled something positive, so she told us to go rip all the sheets off of our beds and bring them back to Teddy’s room. When we did she had emptied her purse out. She must have dug 4 or 5 dozen safety pins out of that thing. When we saw the pins our 3 dim light bulbs lit right up. She was very talented, and soon had all 4 of us done up in Roman Togas. Of course, one of us got the bright idea to go out in the vacant lot next door and extract a goodly number of green weeds to act as wreathes around our heads.

Picture this [if you will]: 4 out-of-town, Toga-clad railroaders [already half lit up] marching into a club full of local people having a costume party. We immediately ordered ourselves more imbibing fluid. To-GA, To-GA, To-GA!!! We became the life of that party. We had injected into it a brand new level of zaniness I doubt many of the locals had ever seen. As the party wore on it became more & more difficult to buy our own drinks. Saturday night. All good things must come to an end (Toga parties, too!). 3 AM was that end. Picture this [if you dare]: 4 out-of-town, Toga-clad railroaders [now completely lit up] marching up & down the Thunderbird Motel club’s parking lot at 3:30 in the morning loudly chanting “To-GA, To-GA, To-GA!!!”

Somewhere during the course of the night I remember thinking to myself: So THIS is what Santa Fe work train service is all about! True story…

In June of 2014 I was with my faithful shooting partner, mg8711 chasing a grain empty northwest out of Abilene, KS. When we set up to shoot the train at tiny Oak Hill a flood of younger-day memories came rushing over me, which I hope I haven’t just bored you to pieces with. Fast-forward 37 years into a sterilized future at Oak Hill. The depot is gone, the elevator tracks are gone. In fact all tracks are gone. Only memories remain…

9. Here’s Oak Hill 37 years later. The old wooden depot is long gone (razed or moved?) and so are all elevator and auxiliary tracks. This was my angle of view as I was walking back from my 1978 flagging position, which…

10. …is somewhere this side of that tree line way back yonder. That’s BNSF 4194 & 4890 toting empty grain cars north-northwest (TT west) toward Superior, NE.
(2 photos taken June 17, 2014)

Thanks for listening!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Great story, work trains with a capable and fun crew are the best. I am on one right now. A lot has changed since 78 but rest assured there are still plenty of shenanigans in 2015.

Great story. You and your compadres are lucky you didn't spend the rest of the night in the
Concordia gulag.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/15 06:39 by The_Chief_Way.

Work trains. Ya' gotta' love 'em. Great stuff Lance.

The_Chief_Way Wrote: > ... You and your compadres are lucky you didn't spend the rest of the night in the Concordia gulag.

Here, here! I'll drink to THAT!

;^)

"Green weeds for a wreath".  Lance , you  put me on the floor with that one!

I finally have stopped laughing harder than I have in months, and am (barely) able to catch my breath to type this....
Wait...I have to stop typing because I am laughing again at the sight in my mind's eye of toga-clad railroaders marching around the parking lot of that motel....
Oh Lance, you outdid yourself with this story, one of the funniest I've ever read.
And to think that Concordia, Kansas was never the same again.

MC
Columbia, Missouri

 

Great story!  Thanks for sharing - and all of the photos you post here, Lance!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Love the old shots, great memories.
JB

I thought it was going to be a risky click of the day involving images of railroaders in toga attire...(I have one of me on a caboose in a toga somewhere too, sadly).
"work" trains were always the most incorrectly named trains anywhere on the network!  I caught the tail end of the work train era at CSX, and would perfer to work them over any other train...the variety of situations and days at work keep you on the toes...plus, there were shenannigans galore.  Perhaps sensing that we were having too much fun, our division abolished the work trains in favor of Brandt trucks (hi-rail heavy-duty trucks that have couplers, and air compressors for 24L brake systmes.) and they gave the work to the track department...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/15 15:18 by DrLoco.

Classic railroad tale !

''For shame! Lance, I'm surprised at you!''

NathanNon-Lifting Wrote: > ... I'm surprised at you!''

Er... umm..... We were all in our 20s back then, and [thought we] were bullet-proof! Probably a good thing I never told my Grandma about it...

:^p

Great story Lance!

Great story and shots. Thanks for sharing !

The work trains I caught up the branch were not that much fun, but I never was sorry to catch one. Each one I worked was kind of a plesant break from regular railroading. There was always lots of time for driving around,  walking the streets of little towns like Concordia, laying over in different hotels for a change, and trying out different eating places. I remember a few guys talking about a club up there where everything was upside down. The tables and chairs were all screwed to the ceiling, and the pictures were upside down too.  When you came in the door, you felt like you were already drunk. I never saw it, and you may have heard of it. Ted passed on to a better place a few years ago. Before that, he took a buy out on the railroad, and started a womens lingerie store in downtown Emporia, something he said he knew more about. (It was called "Teddy's" of all things)  Of course that flopped, within a year. The poor guy had a weaknes for huge amounts of Crown Royal whisky, and he kept all the little purple pouches. He ended up staying back at his mothers place, and he had so many of the pouches accumulated, his mom made him a quilt out of them. I think he was a nurses aide or something like that at the hospital in Emporia when he died.

Thanks Lance, great story.

Tim Costello