LeRoy’s Railroad Pages

Areas of Interest

Background:

My father served in the 2nd Cavalry during World War II and rode in a McClelland saddle. Losing the horse, they became infantry but were still organized as and named Cavalry. After the war he hired on as a brakeman with the Pacific-Electric in California. Nine months later, he moved back home to southeastern Kansas and worked for a time on the Frisco before landing his lifelong job with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad in my hometown of Wellington, KS. He worked the mainline west to Waynoka, OK, and back. He retired from the Santa Fe as a freight conductor with thirty-five years of service.

Needless to say, this strongly influenced me as a child, and there was a lot of reinforcement too. Many times as a kid, we would go down to the railroad crossing at mainstreet and see my Dad off to work. Of course, he was already working by then, or else the train would not have left the freight yard. He would usually come out on the back “porch” of the caboose and blow the caboose’s air whistle. I will never forget that sound.

The fondest railroading memory I have was when he took me out to the yard office, after much begging, and we got to climb up into the cab of an engine—GP-7 (or 9) with the locomotive engineer and fireman (the latter is a holdover term from the days of steam). They actually let me move the locomotive, under their supervision of course, a short distance in the yard!! Those Blue and Yellow (pinstripe or book-ends some like to say) Geeps are what I remember as a kid.

Of course, there were other adventures too. Some less interesting, some forgotten, and some routine, like all the other times we would go to the Yard Office. My Dad liked to work extra hours, and would go down to sign up on the Extra Board. I don’t remember all of the details, but the railroad was Union, and therefore senority-based. My Dad would “bump” someone off of an assignment if he decided he wanted to work that one instead. Nelson (first name will come later, maybe, because that is what my Dad always called him) used to live several houses down the street from us on North Poplar St. Often times, my Dad would be or go outside the house, and see Nelson out in his front yard. My Dad would yell at the top of his lungs to Nelson, “Mainline!!!” Nelson always echoed back the same.

We also, sometimes, went to the roundhouse. Of course by that time, it was a diesel shop facility, and had evolved quite a bit, but they still called it the roundhouse. Some of the old radial engine stalls were still arranged as they had been the day they were built, just a lot dirtier and grundgier. And there were the new additions with the traditional parallel shop tracks too. All of them had pits for access underneath the engines. My Dad taught me all of the safety rules for being on a working railroad. As an adult, railroad men I’ve spoken with are more at ease when they learn that I know the “rules”. The BN Trainmaster, named Dallas, over the Denver Engine Shops gave me a shop tour. We saw an engine gutted open for repairs. HUGE cylinders!! The paintshop at that time was putting the first Paleface paint scheme on one of the old SD9’s (ex C&S or CB&Q) that worked the yards at 38th street in Denver.

Derailments and/or wrecks on the mainline, if close enough nearby, were the sources of outings too. We would take a drive just to have a look. This is where I got my interest in Work Trains. Those old silver heavyweight cars were a source of puzzlement, and a reflection on a bygone era.

I also knew quite a few “characters” around my hometown. They didn’t know me, but they knew my Dad. “Whiz” was an old steam engineer retired. I used to see him all the time sitting on the steps of the Antlers Hotel. (My Mom’s Tailor Shop was in the basement of the Antlers.) Others too. Men with missing fingers—I was just thinking the other day that a missing finger on a man is something you don’t see anymore. It is for the best though, don’t get me wrong. It is just a sign of different times that I grew up in. I suppose that is why some people model the railroads—to recall that past.

Transition Era:

A popular period to model a railroad is what is called the “Steam-Diesel Transition Era.” I suppose one reason is that if you are to stay prototypical (“realistic”) you should not have steam engines on your layout, unless you are modeling a time when they still ran. The alternative would be to have one, or maybe two, steam locomotives pulling a tourist train(s).

The result is that one of the most popular periods of time to model is during the 1940s and 1950s. The oldest of the Geeps that I grew up around, and saw as a kid, were new in the 1940s and 1950s, so it was natural that I picked for myself, the transition era.

Copyright © 2005-2008, LeRoy W.L. Guatney.

Last Update: 7 January 2008.

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