Railroaders' Nostalgia > Richard L. Stephey memorial

A memorial service was held today in Wichita , Ks. for Richard Stephey who had been a yardman at Newton, Ks. at the sand creek yard.  He had hired out on the Santa Fe RR at Arkansas city, Ks. right out of high school and worked there for 45 years.  He was always fun and layed back to work with, a day working with Richard was always a pleasure.   He was a rail fan and owned a lot of model RR Locos and RR memorabilia as well.  After retirement, he worked at a model RR shop in Wichita.   He had five children with his wife Barbara and had 14 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren although two of his children and two of his grandchildren, his parents and wife preceded him in death.   He died on April 25, but they delayed the service till today, May 13 which would have been his 87th birthday.

Sad news. I never really knew Richard until we 'bumped into each other' here on TO. He went by the name "flatcar", but never really participated in any discussions. Then I posted a winter time shot from Newton and he either commented or sent me a PM (I forget which). I had to scour my timebooks, and found only one time that I ever worked with him. It was an afternoon switch job at the 'Crick (Sand Creek yard in Newton) in 1985. Early in his career Richard spent a lot of time on the old Oklahoma Division. And a LOT of that was in passenger service. After SFe passenger trains started dying, he worked almost excusively in yard service. He gave me his old timebooks, which are very detailed with train numbers he worked with the engines on those trains. His early years are fascinating!!! I tried to start a running series of trip log threads for TO's Nostalgia forum, if I could match them with a Bill Gibson B/W image of the engine Richard worked with that trip. This proved to be way too complicated to get off the ground. It would be even harder now that Bill's entire slide & negative collection has passed into the possesion of the rightful heir. A few years ago I was in Hutchinson at a gathering of some senior Kansas railfans, including a member of my infamous old KS Gang. Of the 5 guys pictured in the first image L-R: Lynn Aldrich, Richard, Gary Rich, Tony Schmitt(?) & 'KS Gangster' John Arbuckle, ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3434547,3434547#msg-3434547 ). Richard, Gary & John have now passed on...

Highball Richard! May all your switch lists now be easy, with "bean quits"...

Your friend, Lance
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/21 17:55 by santafe199.

I first met Richard when he worled the YNW202 mill job in the first half of the 1980s. I began working @ Cargill right out of high school in 1981 and soon, as Lance said, "bumped" into Richard at the mill. Watching him spot boxcars inside the mill, right up against the wheel stops, only on hand signals and no pakset radios, yet was skill and knowledge in motion. Later on in the 90s, he worked the YNW101 and every once in a while the job would come uptown to give us an extra daytime mill switch and Richard was working several of those. 
Great guy. I talk about him in my flour mill book. Only impotrant railroaders that I knew made their way into my book and Richard was one of them. 
He retired about two or three years prior to my starting w/BNSF. I believe he finished out his last few years on the rail mill pilot job YNW501
Sam 

Must have been a distant relative.  The family on my dad’s side is out of Pennsylvania, near Gettysburg.
 

I remember Richard. I'd see him at train shows and he always greeted me enthusiastically ! I 'd look forward to seeing him.
Richard told me a couple  of great experiences at the age of 18 when he first started to work for the Santa Fe.  Working out of Arkansas City , KS on one occasion working as baggageman on a southbound ATSF passenger train after finishing his work at Ponca City , he walked up to the head end and asked for a cab  ride with the crew of a 3460 class 4-6-4 ( 84"drivers) . Moving  southward after crossing the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River bridge the hogger pulled back the throttle and shortly they were up to  
90 mph for the rest of the way to Perry. Richard said it was a fast trip.  On another cab ride he told about riding the cab of an E-6 through RedRock , OK at 105 mph. 
May his soul rest in peace. 

I worked with Richard a few times early in my "career" at the Abilene & Smoky Valley in Abilene, KS.  He was showin' me the ropes of the hand signals we were to use and also demonstrated the signals he used back in his days on the Santa Fe.  He said it wasn't uncommon for him, as a brakeman, and the engineer to work a whole day together, communincating only with hand signals and never speaking a work until beans.  Soft spoken and very friendly.