Railroaders' Nostalgia > I was a Lightning Slinger at 18!

I copied my very first Santa Fe train order when I was 18 years old. It was copied via telegraph down in Manchester, OK. It was my first time as a relief agent. And I didn’t have enough sense to save myself a copy. But later on through a friend, I was able to acquire the train order seen below. It was an actual train order I copied in Wellington, KS via telephone when I was 19.

Of particular interest to steam fans is the message about water tanks still in service at the locations mentioned. In 1955 Santa Fe was still running steam, but the end was near!

1 AT&SF train #201 dated July 15, 1955 in Wellington, KS. It was made complete @ 12:02 AM with my signature affixed. The initials belong to Panhandle Division Superintendent R W Prentice.

Dick Spain - ‘isinern”
“RN” was my telegraph & train order sign

Post script: Yesterday I drove over to Berryton (Topeka) to gladly help my friend Dick write up & post his very TO thread. But we ran into a snag I’ve never seen before. His scanned image of the train order was in PNG form, which the TO system won’t accept. Dick doesn’t have any photo-editing capability, so he emailed the image to me. Funny, the image arrived on my end as a J-peg. I ran it thru P-shop anyway to get re-sized & cleaned up a bit and emailed it right back to him. Over the telephone I walked him through the procedure for posting a thread. When I had Dick attach the J-peg image, the TO system once again refused to take it. I have no idea why because we doubled checked to see that his vertical image was indeed a J-peg, sized @ 700. I’ve posted a bazillion vertical images @ 700, so I don’t have a clue what we’re up against. Suggestions, anyone???

Lance/199



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/18 14:54 by santafe199.

---

WOW, you know a gazillion more things about this than I do. My new computer has Adobe Premier Elements 15 and I can, as a pure neophyte, try to help out if you wish. I have been successful doing video editing on it and posted many videos under threads containing Cheyenne Train Show.

SuperChiefDon

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I copied my very first Santa Fe train order when I
> was 18 years old. It was copied via telegraph down
> in Manchester, OK. It was my first time as a
> relief agent. And I didn’t have enough sense to
> save myself a copy. But later on through a friend,
> I was able to acquire the train order seen below.
> It was an actual train order I copied in
> Wellington, KS via telephone when I was 19.
>
> Of particular interest to steam fans is the
> message about water tanks still in service at the
> locations mentioned. In 1955 Santa Fe was still
> running steam, but the end was near!
>
> 1 AT&SF train #201 dated July 15, 1955 in
> Wellington, KS. It was made complete @ 12:02 AM
> with my signature affixed. The initials belong to
> Panhandle Division Superintendent R W Prentice.
>
> Dick Spain - ‘isinern”
> “RN” was my telegraph & train order sign
>
> Post script: Yesterday I drove over to Berryton
> (Topeka) to gladly help my friend Dick write up &
> post his very TO thread. But we ran into a snag
> I’ve never seen before. His scanned image of the
> train order was in PNG form, which the TO system
> won’t accept. Dick doesn’t have any
> photo-editing capability, so he emailed the image
> to me. Funny, the image arrived on my end as a
> J-peg. I ran it thru P-shop anyway to get re-sized
> & cleaned up a bit and emailed it right back to
> him. Over the telephone I walked him through the
> procedure for posting a thread. When I had Dick
> attach the J-peg image, the TO system once again
> refused to take it. I have no idea why because we
> doubled checked to see that his vertical image was
> indeed a J-peg, sized @ 700. I’ve posted a
> bazillion vertical images @ 700, so I don’t have
> a clue what we’re up against. Suggestions,
> anyone???
>
> Lance/199
109127
Ok, so here we go. The image size on disk is small (259.2 KB). The used memory size when displaying the JPEG is 1.87 MB. Its using 109127 unique colors to display the JPEG and color sampling is off on that picture. So simply, even though its relatively small on disk, its very intense when being displayed. I think the TO web server was probably running into a resource issue. It appears the PNG scan was very high quality and the JPEG compression was very effective but kept excellent internal quality on the image.

RickL

There is a difference between jpeg an jpg. TO only accepts jpg. Could that be the reason?

Listen guys: I do appreciate your efforts concerning the problem Dick & I ran into with his computer. But it appears I have inadvertently hi-jacked Dick's VERY FIRST posted story for RRer's Nostalgia. Mr Spain has recalled an interesting anecdote from the very first days of his long career as a Santa Fe railroader. It was my hope that TO members would respond publicly to Dick's cherished early memories and privately to our glitch. I know from a personal standpoint Dick has many, many more stories to regale us with.

It's MY fault for adding the smaller case PS. I should have directed any replies concerning the glitch with Dick's computer (server???) to be in PM form. And I really wasn't looking for a 3-miles-over-my-head, highly technical explanation of WHAT a J-peg is. I just need someone with possible prior experience with a glitch like this to give me much simpler hints as to 'what button to push', or 'what level to pull', or what 'gizmo to activate', based on that prior experience. And I also have to deal with the fact that Dick's computer is about an hour away in the Topeka area. Thanks for the help...

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/18 17:59 by santafe199.

Lance,

Thank you for bringing this back to the important topic of the old telegraph/train order operator. I had the privilege many years ago to give him a ride on my Hy-railer on a NARCOA excursion in Oklahoma. This was over territory he had worked on when he was younger. He gave a 30 minute talk on one of our stops about when he had been the temporary operator during the wheat harvest rush. It was on a line that went northeast out of Clinton, OK. Apparently the "depot" was an old wooden boxcar that had a leaky roof IIRC. A very busy station as there was another railroad that crossed or joined the ATSF. May have been located between Custer City and Thomas. Anyway the memory is fading for me. But it was a very enjoyable talk and very enjoyable hearing him talk of the older days on the ATSF.

I do hope that he posts many more of his stories. He is a very interesting man.

I was also surprised to know that he used a PC connected to his old Bug to send morse over the internet to other operators instead of a typed message like this. I would love to learn but the modern life interferes with my being able to have time to learn the code.

Mark

Mark, that was Foley, Ok I was the agent there for the wheat harvest in 1957. I had a dispatcher telephone to
the Santa Fe and a telegraph wire to the Frisco. Train orders for the Santa Fe could be copied on a typewriter but train orders for the Frisco had to be copied by hand my hours were 6pm to 3am with an hour for
lunch I usually worked longer than assigned hours until the regular agents for the Santa Fe and Frisco
came on duty at Thomas, Ok. the so called depot was an old wooden baggage car. Foley was only open during
the wheat harvest. I have fond memories of the motor car rides you arranged.
Dick

isinern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mark, that was Foley, Ok I was the agent there for
> the wheat harvest in 1957. I had a dispatcher
> telephone to
> the Santa Fe and a telegraph wire to the Frisco.
> Train orders for the Santa Fe could be copied on a
> typewriter but train orders for the Frisco had to
> be copied by hand my hours were 6pm to 3am with an
> hour for
> lunch I usually worked longer than assigned hours
> until the regular agents for the Santa Fe and
> Frisco
> came on duty at Thomas, Ok. the so called depot
> was an old wooden baggage car. Foley was only
> open during
> the wheat harvest. I have fond memories of the
> motor car rides you arranged.
> Dick

Thank you for your story Dick. I grew up in Thomas one block north of the Frisco Depot and remember an agent named Leslie Dykes. I believe his wife was also an agent maybe in Custer City or Clinton. I was 6 years old in 1957. My dad worked on the Frisco bridge gang between I believe Beaumont, KS and Vernon, TX from the late 40's to the early 60's. His uncle, my great uncle, was the bridge foreman. I remember the old baggage car at Foley that was used as the "depot". I had a friend who grew up a block east of the Thomas Santa Fe depot but I do not remember who the agent was. I spent a great deal of my childhood at the Frisco depot before they closed it and tore it down. I was always amazed at Leslie's use of the telegraph.

I also remember the Frisco running long "wheat" trains in June and doing meets in Thomas during the night. It was before air conditioning and we slept with our windows open. I could see the depot and rails from my bedroom window. The noise would wake me and I always got up and watched.

Coincidently, I spent 25 of my 30 year railroad career working for Farmrail who is operating both those lines and is headquartered in the former Santa Fe yard office in Clinton.

Thank you so much for the memories. I apologize that I got so long winded. I would love to hear some more.

By the way, I assume you were an agent for the Frisco.

RLR

Dick,

I didn't remember the name but found what I thought was the location but it wasn't listed on Google Maps. Now that you gave me the name I asked Google Maps where Foley, OK is. It took me to the spot that I thought it was.

I am so glad to have you here on Trainorders. Talks like you gave us are always of interest here, especially for those of us who couldn't/didn't work on the railroad.

I am glad that you still remember us and the motorcar trip. That was a wonderful weekend on the rails.

Mark

isinern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mark, that was Foley, Ok I was the agent there for
> the wheat harvest in 1957. I had a dispatcher
> telephone to
> the Santa Fe and a telegraph wire to the Frisco.
> Train orders for the Santa Fe could be copied on a
> typewriter but train orders for the Frisco had to
> be copied by hand my hours were 6pm to 3am with an
> hour for
> lunch I usually worked longer than assigned hours
> until the regular agents for the Santa Fe and
> Frisco
> came on duty at Thomas, Ok. the so called depot
> was an old wooden baggage car. Foley was only
> open during
> the wheat harvest. I have fond memories of the
> motor car rides you arranged.
> Dick

I was an relief agent for the Santa Fe. At one time, I had a job where I worked every fifth week at Thomas.
Ashland, Ks, Belvidere, Ks, Tonkawa, Ok, Thomas, OK and second shift at Clinton. Each of these jobs accumulated rest days by working six days a week. Every fifth week, they got Monday through Friday off and
that was when I worked there. I am familiar with Farmrail. There were several motor car trips out of Clinton arranged by "Cumbres" Mark. You are probably too young to remember but in 1957 there was so much
wheat accumulated at Thomas that they were dumping in on "school street" while I was working at Foley, there was a terrible rainstorm with high winds and intense rain. Some of the wheat in Thomas on "school street"
washed down into the gutters. The whole town stunk when the hot sun hit the wheat in the gutters.
Dick insinern

isinern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was an relief agent for the Santa Fe. At one
> time, I had a job where I worked every fifth week
> at Thomas.
> Ashland, Ks, Belvidere, Ks, Tonkawa, Ok, Thomas,
> OK and second shift at Clinton. Each of these
> jobs accumulated rest days by working six days a
> week. Every fifth week, they got Monday through
> Friday off and
> that was when I worked there. I am familiar with
> Farmrail. There were several motor car trips out
> of Clinton arranged by "Cumbres" Mark. You are
> probably too young to remember but in 1957 there
> was so much
> wheat accumulated at Thomas that they were dumping
> in on "school street" while I was working at
> Foley, there was a terrible rainstorm with high
> winds and intense rain. Some of the wheat in
> Thomas on "school street"
> washed down into the gutters. The whole town
> stunk when the hot sun hit the wheat in the
> gutters.
> Dick insinern

Yes Dick I remember the wheat piled along "school street". It rotted and smelled for a long time. Also, McNeill Grain had an elevator on the east side of Thomas on the Frisco, a block east of our house. They knocked a hole in the concrete side near the top and let the wheat run out the side and pile on the ground. They did that many times and the stains are still in the side of the elevator and you can still see where they patched the hole.

Also, I was the one who coordinated the motor car rides on Farmrail with Drake of the ORM. I always enjoyed everyone and it was great fun hosting them. I remember that during at least one of the rides it was so cold some of the car owners had trouble keeping everything from freezing.

RLR

Mark,

Sounds like you found Foley. The Santa Fe had trackage rights on the Frisco from Foley to Ewing (north edge of Clinton). The Santa Fe line was part of the Orient line that ran from Cherokee to Altus then on into Texas. It is abandoned from the north edge of Thomas north. We tried to save the northern portion sometime back on the 90's but couldn't get it done. There was no shipper or political support.

RLR