Model Railroading > Santa Fe steam help in Abo Canyon - 1950's

No, this is not Abo Canyon.  It's on the Blissfield Model Railroad Club layout about 1500 miles northeast of Abo Canyon.  But the train represents the type often seen in Abo Canyon near the end of Santa Fe steam.  2-10-4 5014 is assisting FT 130 with a reefer train of California produce of some sort.  
 

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At first I started to say "trees in Abo"?  Then read your post.

Nice looking layout.    By the way lots of trees in Upper Abo,  Pinion Pines etc.    Love the train, Santa Fe All The Way!    

tomstp Wrote:
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> At first I started to say "trees in Abo"?  Then
> read your post.

Hah hah, made me perplexed at first too.  And ... made me look!

Stan Kistler included a track of just such a train as this in one of his LP records, pehaps "Steam Echos".
A 2-10-4 leading a set of F units is heard working upgrade through Mountinair and whistling.  Both the steam and diesel exhausts are heard.
But then the head end passes under a road overpass, first the steam exhaust is silenced and we hear the 567 EMDs, then they are under the bridge and the steam comes back to temporarily dominate the sound.

I had some of the 2-10-4's helping out 4 unit diesels.  Or rather in this case just pulling the idling diesels and train.  Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 in front of 4  F-7's in Big Spring, Tx waiting for the passenger train to clear.  This is a scene I witnessed many times in 1950.    But, by Aug 1951 all the 2-10-4's were gone.  Santa Fe fans still had 4 or so years to go.

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Those Santa Fe Texas 2-10-4's were the biggest engines I ever saw out in the flatlands of Kansas.  During the floods around the Kansas City area in 1951 a lot of transcontinental freight on the Santa Fe was detoured across the Southern Kansas Division through Winfield, KS (my home town).   I was at the SK depot when an eastbound manifest departed with a Texas on the point.  Every window in the depot was shaking.   I think a lot of S.K. division crews got some experience they hadn't planned on.