Railroaders' Nostalgia > ...the stories a passenger platform could tell!

Prologue: I have no idea when the bricks were laid down to build this Union Pacific passenger platform in Abilene, KS. I’m sure most, if not all of the skilled craftsmen who were took part in constructing this piece of Americana have long since left this world. Would they be surprised to know their work still exists more than 46 years after it last served the purpose of its creation? Would they be proud? I’m betting the farm that they would be!

Short of jumping into Sherman & Mr Peabody’s time machine we have no way of knowing how many tens of thousands of human footprints have been left behind on this platform. But I know mine are there, yesireebob! And so are my father’s. When I was 6 or maybe 7 he treated me to my first-ever passenger train ride aboard Uncle Pete’s train #17, the famed Portland Rose. Up to this point in my short life I had already seen plenty of yellow passenger trains from the family wagon during chance miscellaneous trips around my hometown of Manhattan. I had also seen a few UP passenger trains up close & personal down at the depot when we would put my paternal Grandmother on the early morning eastbound City of St Louis. But this time I was excited out of my adolescent mind knowing that the next huge yellow round-nosed Union Pacific diesel I saw would be all mine!

My father was a life-long aviation fan similar to the way I would go on to become a railfan. Just out of high school he served a 3-year enlistment in the US Army-Air Force (1947 ~ 1949) similar to the way I would end up with a career in train service. He was never anything close to being a railfan, but with a father’s wisdom he could see early on that I was headed in that direction. So when we were making one of our countless family trips over to Abilene to go to my maternal Grandma’s house he had Mom drop us off down at the Union Pacific depot downtown. Then she drove my sister over to Abilene and they waited at the very platform below so I could take my first steps on it. I’m sure I alighted from that huge yellow passenger coach with a beaming smile on my face. I must have been in a state of elation so powerful my feet hardly touched those bricks. And at the same time I remember being saddened, almost to tears, because I didn’t want the trip to end.

After that very first adventure I was fortunate enough throughout the 1960s to make 3 or 4 more trips over those same UP rails while they were still carrying passenger traffic. My last trip involving the UP platform in Abilene was in May of 1970. The United States was threatening to come apart at the seams: The massacre at Kent State was absolutely dominating the news, Viet Nam was raging, and Apollo 13 was just around the corner. The Pop music scene was seemingly ALL about girls. A Canadian band called The Guess Who were in Billboard’s #1 spot, bitching about some American Woman, a Pop vocal group from The Netherlands named Shocking Blue had recently been in that same #1 seat extolling the virtues of a mysterious girl named Venus, Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel were climbing the chart, harmonizing about a girl name Cecilia and for good measure Mr Norman Greenbaum was mildly attempting to save our mortal souls by educating us about The Spirit in the Sky.

And at 14, all by myself I had made the most wonderful discovery ever! Girls in general weren’t really those lumpy sacks of coal I had known from my grade school years. Holy moly, they actually had shape & form! (And my-oh-my what form… ;^). I was about to turn 15 and I was literally bursting with… umm… oh yeah, the train trip in May of ’70: I was making another trip to Abilene on what would be my last Portland Rose. I was well on the way to becoming a full-fledged railfan, but hadn’t yet learned that I didn’t need permission from the railfan gods to pick up a camera. But dontcha know, as I sat in that Manhattan waiting room before the arrival of my last Portland Rose, railfanning was THE LAST thing on my mind! Ya see, there was also another passenger waiting to board the same train. There could have been a hunnert-eleventy-seven other passengers a-waiting, but all I noticed was This Girl that I just couldn’t quit glancing at. She had to have been at least high school, if not college aged. And boy howdy, did she ever have a form that… (ah geez, here I go again!)

By the time it arrived I was almost oblivious to my Portland Rose, or what was left of it. By 1970 it had been downgraded to a mixed train. Gone were those elegant round-nosed diesels I had known from my earlier trips. In their place were the same ol’ boxy looking diesels I had mostly been seeing on freight trains the past several years. It would take me a more few years to learn they were the special, dual purpose 1400 Class SDP-35 diesels. Then there was the train: Yikes!!! It had only 2 passenger cars, and it had a real freight train tacked on behind. And there was scuttlebutt in the airwaves about some kind of new nation-wide passenger train outfit. But I scarcely paid attention to these grim facts because I was trying not to trip over my tongue as I boarded the coach. Ya see, there was This Girl…

A few epilogue notes here: My father never once showed any disappointment that I didn’t fly along in his Air Force footsteps. He was never anything but unquestionably proud of my career in railroading, especially when it elevated to promoted engineer status in 1990 in Montana. In my railfanning life I have acquired quite a few good friends who have also left footprints on the platform in Abilene. One in particular is UP engineer, now retired, Mr R. E. Helling. He is better known as Bob, also known as “PRose” (for my same Portland Rose) here on TO.com. We met in the summer of 1980. This would be the very last time I left footprints on the Abilene platform while it was still a functioning Union Pacific building. But that’s a great story that can be told some other time…

1. As a consequence of a gentle summer rain the glowing head & ditch lights from UP 6817 shimmer across this old passenger platform in Abilene, KS. I believe UP train #10, the eastbound City of St Louis was the last regular service UP passenger train to visit this platform. It departed Abilene in the early morning hours of May 2, 1971. The platform has held up reasonably well in the 4½ decades since Amtrak’s inception left the KP high & dry for passenger service. A bit of obvious crumbling, a little bit of miscellaneous debris scattered around and what looks to be a post-slow order, resume-regular-speed sign adorn the platform on this drizzly July 26, 2017.

Thanks for listening!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/17 13:09 by santafe199.

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Great story, Lance. Thanks for taking us back to those days.

Great story and wonderfully told, but what about "That girl?" You left us wondering.

John

wa4umr Wrote: > ... You left us wondering ...
Don't feel too bad! That whole episode left me wondering, as well.
Good thing I was only 14 years old ONCE in my life...   :^)

Oh yeah, THAT GIRL.  I remember her.  In my case, spending the summer of 1972 with my dad in a rented house in Greenfield MA.  He spent his days rebuilding a nearby power plant, I spent mine fishing and hanging out at the abandoned B&M station, right where the Conn River Line broke off from the Fitchburg main.  Yup, 14 years old, I wouldn't wish that again on anybody.

The landlord's daughter lived with her dad downstairs.  I was being formed into a railfan that summer, she already had the "form" part pretty well established...

Ohhhhh..... Lance....... I just absolutely LOVE
your story! You are so honest about being 14 and
full of, well......everyone know what. I am very
surprised you didn't miss your train!!

I love all the wonderful details in your story --
it really captured the times very well. And your
photo is beautiful. I am glad it rained a bit, as
that did very much add to the photo, with the
lovely bricks glistening in the light.

Your father was to be highly commended for not
forcing you to follow in his footsteps. You had
a great childhood, with a good family and lots of
exposure to the many trains of yesteryear. I really
wish we had every single one of those trains back,
but at least we here can read the wonderful stories
that you and others tell of days gone by.

Thank you.

march_hare --
Thanks so much for your story, too! I do not know
how you managed to concentrate on school or trains or
anything else other than GIRLS.

You guys are soooo funny -- but I am laughing WITH you,
not AT you.

Teenage boys do have a lot to cope with. Fortunately,
we all get older -- and some of us even manage to learn
a few things along the way. I wouldn't want to be 14
again, either. (Methinks 35 or 40 would be about perfect.)

Nice story, Lance! One I can easily relate to! My footsteps are in the platform to the west in 1961 when we first visited, then moved to Salina. Quite the change for a fifth grader who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. First time I ever experienced living in snow - and sub zero temperatures!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Hi Lance, I worked with you once. I like your stories. I joined after reading your post about D.C. Patterson and a comment by a person whom worked with R.D Brown and J.K. Buddy Tucker. That guy was working in my place for some reason. I was forced on Disability in 1993 after 6 back fusions. I retired after 20 years.
Conductor/Brakeman Fred Puttroff

Posted from Android

Good to see you on here Fred. Last time I saw you was up at KU when your son and mine were in Navy ROTC. Early 90's ? (Dennis Garrett)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/17 06:27 by LocoPilot750.

Winchester-92 Wrote: > ...  Hi Lance, I worked with you once ...

Wow, the world just got a little bit smaller! Good to hear from you, and I remember you. But after 30+ years the visual recognition part may be a bit shaky! I don't know 'bout you, but I fooled around and got a whole lot older looking in 23 years up in Big Sky country. Welcome aboard this TO express. I'm sure you'll enjoy the ride...

Lance/199 (my favorite train ride!)