Railroaders' Nostalgia > Abilene, Ks., night shot with snow

Taken on January 15, 1984, with EPR 64 which brings out the green of a mercury light near the elevator, and the red light atop the elevator adds a nice touch.  Probably about f5.6 for around 30 seconds I think with my Pentax ME super.  I found that night shots were best with all the light you could get, the busier the better.   I was a fireman at the time, and had been left at the west end of the ATSF yards to secure part of our power(with b23-7 6382 in the shot)after a trip to Superior, Nebraska I believe.   The white glow on the left is the rest of our power returning down the mainline with engineer Dick Lyon running around the train.   A winter shot obviously which given the time of the year I thought appropriate.  Maybe I qualify for the low light sweepstakes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/20 12:09 by atsfer.

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Brrrr!

Yes, I would say you qualify for the low light sweepstakes.  Good Shot.

Your mention of Dick Lyon reminded me of an incident in January 1975 in Salina.  We were living in Salina but I had been working the engineer's pool out of Emporia.  My wife was expecting our first child so I bid in the Salina road switcher.  Dick had bid on the job also and thinking he was going to get it had already travelled to Salina.  When he found out I had outbid him he decided to just go firing for me.  The next day my wife went into labor about 4 am.  Took her to the hospital (through the snow, it was Jan 31).  At 7 am I called the freight house and got ahold of Mr. Lyon, telling him to cover for me for a few hours.  About noon with mother and daughter doing okay, I went  to work.  That was the only time I ever had a fireman on those outside jobs but saved me from getting into trouble with the wife and the railroad.  I couldn't have planned it out any better.
Mark

I didn't spend a lot of time working those "Country Club District" branch jobs around Abilene & Salina. Younger seniroity guys were usually furloughed over the winter months. So I don't have much experience with snow on the ground. And your frigid-looking shot here makes me glad I missed so much of it.

Brrr is RIGHT!!! :^)

Lance 

Was only layed off once in my career, from January to March of 1975 when I was still a trainman.  But, came close to being layed off in the early 80's when every engineer turn on the mainline had a fireman on it and so did almost all the other jobs as well.

I got tangled up in that, February of '82 I think. Everytime I came to town I found out I'd been bumped again. My last stop was the only thing left that had a Fireman vacancy, a 3rd shift switch engine at Sand Creek, 80 miles from home. I worked one night on that job, got bumped again, with no place left to hide out, so went home for two weeks. Then they added a couple of turns to the pool, everybody moved up a couple of notches and I got back to work, but I don't remember now what job.

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