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Railroaders' Nostalgia > My old yard office... missing in action!Date: 03/01/19 09:20 My old yard office... missing in action! Author: santafe199 Seven years ago my long time pal and fellow KS Gangster Bob Helling aka ‘PRose’ posted this thread: ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2686802,2687114#msg-2687114 ). He was reacting to the virtual overnight removal of a well-familiar piece of his home town’s RR history. The old Santa Fe yard office/freight depot just off N 7th Street had been in disrepair for several years. It had been under K&O operation ever since Santa Fe sold off the old Salina District, nee Salina Northern Railroad Co. The SNRR was originally a separate RR built in 1914 that ran WNW out to Osborne, KS. Santa Fe already had trackage into Salina from the east (from Abilene) since late 1887. And by 1924 the SNRR was under Santa Fe control.
The K&O boys had been using the old Santa Fe freight depot, parking their Watco power out front. But gone were the halcyon days when Santa Fe employed a regular freight agent, a train order operator, a mechanical department crew and a section crew. Under an operating agreement with TY&E employees, Salina was a chain gang terminal and even had a trainmaster stationed there. So for Bob to drive by on that morning and see a bare plot of ground where he had been used to seeing his friendly rival Santa Fe’s freight depot for 36 years was a bit hard to take. When the K&O finally decided to raze the sadly deteriorating structure it was like a death in the family. In the Santa Fe part of my career I spent many days covering outside jobs at Salina working off of the Emporia brakeman’s extra board. And when our jobs gave us convenient & overlapping time off Bob & I would go do some short term railfanning somewhere. Between my Santa Fe & his employer Uncle Pete there was always something to shoot. Bob is retired, now and living down in Great Bend, KS. So every time I drive to/through Salina I get a double dose of pure melancholy. My good friend & my old Santa Fe are now both gone. Just over a month ago I made a routine railfan pass around Salina and was surprised to see a K&O unit sitting where idle power used to sit when the old freighthouse was still standing. The unit was shut down, attached to a string of hoppers. Of course I took a few shots all the time reminiscing about my old Santa Fe days. The overcast weather was somehow perfect for the mood & the scene. Especially when I came home and compared this shot to the same scene from nearly 39 years earlier… 1. K&O 3924 sits at the former site of the Santa Fe Salina (KS) freighthouse on February 18, 2019. 2. AT&SF 3607 & 3687 sit in either side of the Salina District main line in Salina, KS on July 6, 1980. Thanks for looking back & forth! Lance Garrels santafe199   Date: 03/01/19 09:56 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: tomstp The "why did they tear it down " bunch gets larger every year. I am also a victim of the vacant lot syndrome.
Date: 03/01/19 11:20 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: PHall The only thing in railroading that is constant is change.
Date: 03/01/19 14:14 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: atsfer when did they paint it pink?
Date: 03/01/19 15:01 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: santafe199 atsfer Wrote: > ... when did they paint it pink ...
All I can tell you is some time before the date of this shot. The actual color was more of a flesh-tone, rather than flat out pink... Lance Date: 03/01/19 20:15 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: tinytrains Thanks for the update. As a kid in the 70's visiting my grandmother and seeig theose buildings. Why are they gone? Nothing to tax now.
Thanks Scott Schifer Torrance, CA TinyTrains Website Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/19 20:16 by tinytrains. Date: 03/01/19 21:39 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: roustabout In the second photo, #3607 lives on today as Portland & Western #2308. It's still in the last coat of paint that AT&SF applied.
 Date: 03/06/19 05:10 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: dcfbalcoS1 Sure can see the trackage is not kept up as it was in Santa Fe days too.
Date: 03/10/19 10:37 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: spider1319 Thomas Wolfe said it best,"You can't go home again".Bill Webb
Date: 03/12/19 09:19 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: JMaurer1 The railroads are afraid that if they let anyone know that a building is being torn down, preservationists will try and save it, so all too often, they just tear them down as fast as they can. Sometime old buildings deserve to be saved.
Date: 03/15/19 17:26 Re: My old yard office... missing in action! Author: PHall JMaurer1 Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > The railroads are afraid that if they let anyone > know that a building is being torn down, > preservationists will try and save it, so all too > often, they just tear them down as fast as they > can. Sometime old buildings deserve to be saved. Railroad pov - the fewer buildings, the less taxes to pay. You can see where this is going, right? |