Railroaders' Nostalgia > Richard Stigall, who once rode the SF Chief!

As far as I’m concerned, TO.com is the best railfan website in the business! Since coming aboard in April of ’11 I’ve made more friends & contacts in 12 years than I ever did in all of the years previous, starting in the mid-1970s. But sadly, a few days ago I learned that one of my TO friends has now passed on...

Richard Stigall was a railfan & TO member living in Richmond, MO. His screen name was “richmp412”. And after I got my “TO feet” wet and got into regular posting, it was just a matter of time before I posted something I had shot in his northern Missouri neck-o-the-woods. Just a short hop to the south the Santa Fe/N&W (nee Wabash) paired main lines ran through his original home town of Henrietta, MO. Of course, these lines later became the BNSF/NS paired lines we have today. So Richard had no lack of action to observe. Although he was not at all a regular poster, he did keep regular tabs on a handful of forums here on TO. When I posted a few results from one of my first railfan expeditions into northern Missouri Richard sat right up and took notice. It wasn’t long before I received a PM from him, and our friendship was up ‘n running. In my ensuing railfan visits to that unique “paired trackage” I found myself looking forward to meeting up with Richard as much as I was to shooting on his “home turf”. We all know how grabbing a meal while out shooting can be either a delight or a disaster, depending on how your luck is running. But Richard introduced me to a couple of great places to eat in Richmond. One was a Mexican place called Tequila Jalisco just off E South St. The other was an A+ breakfast place called Daddy’s 10-13 Diner up on E Main St/MO hwy 10. So there was another reason to look forward to visiting Richard.

In the last couple of years Richard just sorta dropped off the TO radar, so to speak. In my last phone conversation with him I found out he had quit his membership on TO, and he sounded very distant. Then, just a few days ago I found out his deteriorating health was the culprit. His widow Karen had found my phone # in Richard’s cell, and remembered him talking about “his friend Lance”. I was honored that she called me to let me know. The down side was learning he spent his last days in assisted living, passing on at the age of 87.

Richard did have a short RR career in Santa Fe’s Missouri Division signal department. But he came to one of those typical choices a RR job will foist on an employee from time to time. With precious little seniority he was confronted with a choice of relocating to Illinois, or giving up his budding RR career. He quit the Santa Fe and hired right into a good job with the Ray-Carroll County Grain outfit, retiring in 2000. In our many meetings from better days past, he was always glad to hear me talk about my career stories & anecdotes. But one day he turned the tables on me, and told me a delightful story from his scant time with the Santa Fe. On one of my last visits with him I got him to dictate the story as I typed it into my laptop. Here is a link: ( Cab ride on the San Francisco Chief! (trainorders.com) ). When you read it you’ll understand why I couldn’t wait to get home and post it up on RRer’s Nostalgia. But in that visit we kept getting interrupted. Those 2 dern pesky paired RRs ran six trains at us in about 2 hours! Check it out: ( The INDY Road pt 16: Home stretch finale (trainorders.com) ). You’ll be glad you did!

Below I’ve re-posted 3 of the images from that “Indy” thread from 6 years ago:

1. BNSF 7421 is eastbound with a unit hopper train @ 8:32 AM technically on its “own” track.

2. Down below NS 7132 is eastbound with autoracks @ 10:27 AM, also on its own track

3. In the away shot we see the late Richard Stigall next to his truck, watching the action. I’m a bit disappointed to discover this is the only shot I ever took of him. I usually do a much better job shooting pics of fellow railfans... :^(
Three photos taken March 16, 2017 in Camden, MO.

Thanks for your friendship, Richard, I will miss you...
Lance Garrels
santafe199
Remembering the late Richard Stigall, aka ‘richmp412’



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/23 11:21 by santafe199.

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Good job on the tribute to your friend.I am sorry to hear of your loss.Bill Webb

Sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. My condolences to his friends and family. 

I congratulate you for the work you did to honor your friend, To often friends leave with nothing more than "Where's Bob been,,,,,WHAT",  much better to go out like David P Morgan's Mohawk in Shelby,  On Center , At  track speed. 
You  gave us all a great insight into a person, who we wish we knew,
Thank you
​dj