Railroaders' Nostalgia > Oil at El Dorado

I’m riding eastbound at the east end of roughly 13 miles of DT ABS between Augusta & El Dorado, KS. My crew is “doubling” back home to Emporia. We went on duty there at 0150 to take train 326 M-3 down to Wellington. When we arrived at Wellington we were released from duty, squarely in line to catch an 811 train back home. But it was gonna be touch & go if we would get a full 4 hours off to qualify for a “4-hour release”. Sure enough, the 811 was making good time out west and we had to take the call with just over 3 hours of rest. That meant we would have 8’-10” against our working hours of service. The Chief DS was gambling it would be easy enough for the 811 to make the 114 miles within the 3’-50” we could work. We did! We got tied up in Emporia at 1250, with exactly one hour to spare. I didn’t note the train’s tonnage in my timebook. But I did note we had 31 cars which probably ran 1700-1800 tons. Most likely a short block of classic orange MTC reefers on the point followed by a fuller train of pigs. Add 2 or 3 big jacks and that was a standard 811 train in those days. And it was usually a 70 MPH scooter, if the Power Bureau wasn’t stingy with the horsepower....

1. AT&SF 2663 is seen switching a few tanks at the Getty Refinery complex, TT west of OD Jct and just off Douglas Rd in El Dorado, KS. I’m shooting from the cab of AT&SF 5686 on train 811 L-1 with engineer Jim Mallon at the throttle. My conductor was BC Stiner, and I can never remember if it was brother Bill or Brother Bob. (Both Stiners were SFe men, one an engineer & the other a conductor)
Photo date: April 14, 1980.

Thanks for riding along!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/24 20:19 by santafe199.

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Good one.
JB

Any chance it was Charlie George holding down the engineer job on the refinery job?  I met Charlie when I was assigned to McConnell AFB in early 1986
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Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/23 14:22 by livesteamer.

livesteamer Wrote: > ... Any chance it was Charlie George ...

I'd say it's a good possibility. I worked with Charlie at least one time for sure (without digging thru 9 years of timebooks), and it seemed like he was always down there...

Lance  

Neat picture. Let 'er eat.

livesteamer Wrote:
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> Any chance it was Charlie George holding down the
> engineer job on the refinery job?  I met Charlie
> when I was assigned to McConnell AFB in early
> 1986

> . 
  Charlie was probably on the Augusta job. Probably Russell here as Porter worked the 0630 job I believe.

Ahh, a visit to those thrilling days of yester-year!

Russel as in "uncle skin?"

Bill was the Conductor, Bob was the Engineer. They were twins. Both really great guys.

Posted from Android

atsfer Wrote:
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> Russel as in "uncle skin?"
  Indeed!

Nice photo.  Will be back some  through this iPad.  Am in a nursing home now.  This email is a little. Different.Lynn sd45