I just got back from the Santa Fe Historical and Modeling Society mini meet in Kansas City.
I left Amarillo on Friday morning and followed the railroad all the way. I had hoped to photograph a few trains en route, but 35-45 MPH winds made that unwise (not to mention cold and uncomfortable). But as soon as I came up next to the main line at St. Francis, the memories started to flow. The first time I had seen that part of the railroad, it was dieselized for the season. Freight was pulled by blue and yellow FT’s and F7’s (tne F9’s were still in the future). The double track ABS to Pampa was semaphore country. The southern section of the Fast Mail, as well as the Grand Canyon were seen with A-B-A Alco-GE passenger diesels. If you know where to look, it still looks like the Santa Fe, and I looked right past the BNSF changes and enjoyed the comfort of my home road, which was a major part of my entire life, as well a being my employer for decades. Even without taking photos, I found it most enjoyable.
At the mini-meet, which was attended by 80 or 90 people,I encountered several old comerades from both railroad work and railfanning. There were several very nice presentations: Bob Walz presented a show on Santa Fe locomotive servicing, and I learned a lot about coal facilities. The Coast Lines, where I grew up and worked the first 25 years of my ATSF career) used only oil fired steam and the coal facility info was educational. Another presentation about the TP&W under Santa Fe ownership was also interesting. I thought I knew that topic pretty well, but found out otherwise. It included the time that the TP&W used the NKP 765 for excursions and revenue freight service for a whole month. Another presentation was stories of a fellow’s early ATSF career as a telegrapher, agent and wire chief in Kansas and Oklahoma doodlebug country during the 1950’s. My former Assistant Superintendent gave a good presentation on the Los Angeles Division in the 1970’s and ’80’s, where I worked during those years. Another nice show had a good illustration of each photo location from The east end of the ATSF-WAB joint operation in Missouri, through KC to Emporia. We closed it out with a group photograph of 260 years of Santa Fe service. Any person who can remember the Santa Fe as an adult is now 40 years old or older, and the typical attendee was over 60. Time is passing quickly.
Driving home the following day, I had hoped to get a photo or two, It was Sunday -- normally a light day on the Transcon and, in this case was very light. I waited at a bridge west of Wellington for an eastbound to come over the top of the hump. No trains. I staked out a good shop across a field which would have shown a train passing behind the beautiful old Catholic church at Danville. No trains. I found this scene with fall colors at the Medicine River bridge west of Kiowa. No trains.
I also made a record shot of the state line crossing from Kansas into Oklahoma on the Enid District. Santa Fe places these obelisks at each state line crossing. Somebody made off with the signs which identified the states. This was the route of a long-distance doodlebug that got onto the old KCM&O route to San Angelo, Texas, just a few miles down the enid District, at Cherokee, Oklahoma, until the early 1960’s.
In spite of the lack of actual photo opportunities, I “got my Santa Fe on” and will probably do it again next year, hopefully with photographs.
