Railroaders' Nostalgia > Monday Meets: El Dorado east of Tower B

On this day I was part of a deadhead crew riding an empty Red Rock coal train out of Arkansas City. Out of sheer railfan spunk, I had chosen to ride a trailing unit: C&S 7803, which as I recall was 4th or 5th out in consist. It was a beautiful day and my photographer’s instinct told me I might get a few chances to burn some Kodachrome 64. In those days I would sometimes carry my medium telephoto in addition to my Nikkormat FT-3. That paid off with this shot! My C&S chariot didn’t have AC like our SFe units did. But with all windows open I could enjoy energetic air flow through the cab. We didn’t meet many trains but I shot what I could. I always used this vantage point with the realization that I was shooting stuff the average John Q Civilian didn’t have access to. This was an idea I was able to convey to quite a few of the guys I worked with, and many of them understood. So I never really had that many problems being a railroader/railfan.

About the meet: It was customary for SFe hoggers to completely douse their headlights at meeting points. That’s why you see a dark headlight. And before anybody starts screaming about some perceived close clearance, I just gave you the answer! I was shooting through a medium telephoto lens, 135mm if I remember correctly. The natural compression makes this look close. But truth is, this was a routine meet! Just like the 100s that happen every day all over the RR industry.

One final note: The fairly clean ballast is indicative of Santa Fe just having relocated the main line between El Dorado & Chelsea. This was because of new El Dorado Lake construction. After 1980 parts of the original routing are very nearly under water...

1. AT&SF 8508 is westbound with an unknown manifest (315?) at the east end of 2 main tracks at El Dorado, KS. The old ‘Tower B’ area is about 2 miles astern...
Photo date: August 29, 1980.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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OOOOOOOOOOEEEEE!! That's sweet!

Boy does that bring back memories. Nice to see a U33C leading as well.
JB

Nice shot.....always carry a camera you just never know when something like this comes along...always liked the looks of those big uboats.

Pic 1 clearly reveals the close-up viewing prism of the searchlight.
...Lorenzo

Sand or something fowling the ballast?  A lot of funny white stuff.

Josiah Wrote: > ... Sand or something fowling the ballast?

Let me amplify my 3rd paragraph:

One final note: The fairly clean ballast is indicative of Santa Fe just having relocated the main line between El Dorado & Chelsea.

 

That's nice Lance. Couldn't get any better, clean ballast and a belching boat. 

SP4360 Wrote: > ... clean ballast and a belching boat ... 

I saw clean, freshly laid ballast quite a number of times in a number of places in my career. And it was always amazing how fast it got dirty. But when you really think about it, it's not amazing at all. At the date of this shot I think we were just a few weeks, maybe even just a few days on the new trackage. I'm thinking we made the change-over in July? Maybe it was June??? Maybe Dennis or Dave or somebody else will have better memory than me... 

Lance

PS: I saw quite a few belching boats in my career, too... ;^)

I'm no help on the date for the line change, there was an "X" mile post near East Eldorado to denote a longer or shorter mile as a result of the new route through there, can't remember the MP number anymore either !

Great photo and narrative...

JG