GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER The Official Newsletter of the Great Plains Transportation Museum and the Wichita Chapter National Railway Historical Society MAY 2012 Volume X I Number 5 LOOKING BACK By Michael M. Bartels 40 YEARS AGO The May 27, 1972, Wichita Eagle- Beacon had an article about restoration of a portion of the first Harvey House in Florence, Kan., which opened in 1876 and has since been moved to 204 W. Third and purchased by the Florence Historical Society. It will be turned into a museum. Although it was the first actual "Harvey House," it was originally known as the Clinton Hotel. The last train fed there was No. 17, which was served on March 31, 1900. 50 YEARS AGO Former President Dwight Eisenhower dedicated his presidential library in Abilene, Kan., on May 1, 1962. He and his wife, Mamie, had come from Southern California on a private business car attached to Union Pacific's City of St. Louis, while a 10-car Santa Fe special train brought dignitaries out from Kansas City April 30th. The special returned to Kansas City May 1st, with the Eisenhowers' car added. They continued on to their farm in Gettysburg, Pa. 70 YEARS AGO Workers were trying to prevent the Arkansas Valley Railway bridge east of the Seneca Street bridge over the Big Arkansas River from being washed out by floodwater and debris. (Wichita Beacon, May 7, 8, 1942) 90 YEARS AGO A May 3, 1922, Wichita Beacon article said details should be completed in 60 days for a Wichita-Salina railroad involving the Arkansas Valley Interurban, with eight or more trains daily. The AVI station dining room will soon be extended the entire length of the building. The soda fountain in the southwest corner room of the ground floor of the station was moved today to the drugstore of the Broadview Hotel. (Wichita Beacon, May 4, 1922) Frisco engine No. 523 had to substitute for the motor car one day this week. No. 529 was used as a stationary boiler until the new stack on the boiler was completed. Orient engine No. 252, formerly used on the Mexico division, has been assigned to the Texas division. (Wichita Beacon, May 7, 1922) An order was placed for 15 Birney streetcars at a cost of $105,000. They will replace nearly all of the older equipment now used. Wichita will then have 52 Birney one-man safety cars and within a reasonable time the company expects to have all the streetcars in Wichita of this type. (Wichita Beacon, May 8, 1922) The Midland Valley is speeding up freight service to Fort Smith and southern points beginning May 14th and has purchased three new Mikado engines to maintain this schedule. The new freight train leaves Wichita at 7:30 p.m. (Wichita Eagle, May 12, 1922) The new 240-room Broadview Hotel began accepting guests May 15, 1922, with formal opening June 1st. It was connected to the AVI depot with an arched corridor. (The former depot would be razed for hotel expansion by early 1961. The hotel reopened as the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview on Oct. 19, 2011, after a $25 million renovation.) (Wichita Eagle, May 14, 1922; Wichita Beacon, May 28, 1922) A May 19, 1922, Eagle article said plans are under way for the Rock Island to make Wichita a division point between Herington and Caldwell. Regarding the charge that streetcar service has been curtailed the past few months, Superintendent H.W. Patten said there has been no change in service since it was increased last November on the following lines: Stock Yards and South Main, Topeka and University, College Hill, Cleveland and Mt. Carmel, Fairmount and Bitting, Orient Shops. Last November service on the West Riverside and South Emporia line was increased from 10 minutes headway throughout the day to eight minutes during rush periods. After a six-month trial it was found this was not justified and Riverside service was again placed on 10-minute headway until 7 p.m., with a 12-minute headway the balance of the evening. (Wichita Eagle, May 25, 1922) Frisco's Wichita-Ellsworth motor has been transferred to Tulsa, Okla. Local engine No. 669 is being converted into a yard engine. Orient engine No. 142 will be stored until the wheat movement starts. The Orient's new motor car went out on May 25th for Alpine, Texas. (Wichita Beacon, May 28, 1922)
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER PAGE 2 MAY 2012 THE MISSION OF THE GREAT PLAINS TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM To be THE Railroad Museum Of Kansas. Dedicated to record and exhibit the importance of railroad transportation in the human, agricultural, commercial and industrial heritage of Wichita, Kansas and the Great Plains. To showcase that heritage with an Action Display of rail equipment operation. Giving visitors an exciting learning experience through motion, set in an unique, historic and scenic urban location. To enhance the action display with significant and appropriate railroad locomotives, rolling stock, equipment and structures; through interpretive displays, dioramas, exhibits and media; and educational and community programs. The GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER is the official monthly newsletter of the Wichita Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, Inc. and the Great Plains Transportation Museum, Inc. Members receive the DISPATCHER as part of their membership. All material submitted for publication should be submitted by the 25th of the month for publication in the next months DISPATCHER. Submissions may be sent to the editor at: editor@gptm.us, 316-744-7259 or 700 E. Douglas, Wichita, KS 67202-3506 MAY NRHS MEETING The May meeting will be held Fri., May 18, at the Great Plains Transportation Museum, 700 E. Douglas, Wichita. Meeting time is 7:30 pm. The program will be a video. There will be the 6:00 p.m. informal dinner gathering at the Riverside Cafe, 739 W. 13th, Wichita before the meeting. NRHS PROGRAMS FOR 2012 June program: Typically has been the annual chapter picnic month. Any takers to organize the picnic? July: Platform meeting maybe.somewhere. August: Any takers? September: Banquet month. Will there be a banquet? Stay tuned. October: Kansas City Chapter exchange program November: Dr. Chris Gabel, Professor of Military History at the Army Command and General Staff College (and a PRR fan) will be speaking on Civil War northern railroad generalship. December: Annual slide free-for-all. TRI-CHAPTER MEETING June 02: We will be hosting the annual quad chapter meet. While the Southwest Explorer wasn t powered by the hoped E- unit. In its place is Amtrak 145, painted in heritage colors. Photo at Lawrence, Ks on May 4, 2012. Photo by Lance Garrels The topic will be the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway. John McCall, coauthor of the book The Orient, will be the guest speaker. OTHER EVENTS May 26 Cherry Valley Model Train Show, Phillips Recreation Center, Broadway &Heacock, Parsons, Sat. 9-5. Free admission. www.katydays.com June 23 - Kansas City Area Narrow Gaugers, 9:30-5, Antioch Branch of the Johnson County Library, 8700 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Merriam, Ks, captlalfred@gmail.com June 18-24 - NRHS Convention, Cedar Rapids, IA. www.nrhs.com June 19-24 - Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society Convention, Temple, TX. www.atsfrr.com July 14 - Turkey Creek Division Meet and Train Show, Sat. 8-3, Shawnee Mission North High School, Overland Park, KS. www.tc-nmra.org Aug. 1-4 - UPHS 28th Annual Convention, Sandhill Convention Center, North Platte, NE. www.uphs.org Dec 1-2 - Oklahoma City Model Railroad Show; Travel and Transportation Building at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER PAGE 3 MAY 2012 FROM THE MAY 1962 ISSUE OF THE DISPATCHER There was an announcement that on July 15, 1962 the Wichita Chapter NRHS and the Great Plains Railway Museum will observe Railway Day with an open house plus other exhibits of interest to the rail fan and the public alike. Santa Fe No. 1, The Cyrus K. Holliday will be on display at the Union Station as will the Wichita Chapter s Frisco caboose. The Santa Fe, The Wichita Union Terminal Ry., and the Frisco Railway are co-operating in this endeavor and the chapter will conduct tours through the museum, the caboose, and up to the Cyrus K during the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. - - Sunday, July 15, 1962. It is necessary to note here that the coaches of the Cyrus K. Holliday will not be open for inspection because of the fragile condition of the interior of the cars. There were other items of interest in this issue of the DS, but in total they were too lengthy to include in the May 2012 Great Plains DS. In short though the stories covered D & RGW s standard gauging of the Montrose branch in Colorado, some basic information about the prairie-type steam locomotives on display in Coffeyville, Lawrence, and Dodge City, and an account (over 1 ½ pages worth) of an Appreciation Day trip on the Kansas City Southern from Kansas City to Neosho, MO and back. RAILROADING IN WICHITA MAY 1912 By Fred Tefft May 3 Grades have been completed for the two miles of additional track which the Wichita Terminal association is constructing. Tracks should be completed by June 1. May 8 A party of seven surveyors started work at Halstead this morning on the Arkansas Valley Interurban line to Burrton and Hutchinson. May 10 The Wichita Railroad and Light Company is spending more than $11,000 to complete its part of the work now being done at the intersection of Main and Douglas. The street car company is putting in two new curved tracks at the intersection. One of these is at the southeast corner, where there will hereafter be two tracks instead of one, and the other is at the southwest corner, where there has never been a track. All the old track had to be torn up and the special work put in new. The grade at the center of the intersection is also being raised seven inches so that water will drain off after a rain instead of collecting in the slight depression that has previously been there. May 13 Photograph of booster train leaving from the Rock Island station. Eight car train including three drawing room Pullman sleepers -- the Maricopa, Malinta, and Ben Venue. May 22 Long article about agreement by Santa Fe to lower the grade of Wichita and Western tracks in West Wichita, in return for which the city has vacated an alley and a street May 23 Missouri Pacific is proposing to build large car repair sheds in the 25th street yards May 26 Article about Missouri Pacific plans in Wichita include a six stall brick addition to the round house, to cost $5000. Harvey Koehn took this photograph of an old wooden maintenance of way car on the Santa Fe in Augusta, KS 30 years ago, on May 19, 1982. It looks as if the railroad has retro-fitted the car with a metal roof, however there are still many old remnants remaining, such as the roof walkway, the brake wheel accessible to a brakeman on the walkway, and the friction journal bearing trucks. May 29 Ordinance passed yesterday by commission requiring Wichita Railroad and Light company to pave its right of way between Main and Santa Fe tracks. The street car company will lay new tracks and raise them five inches above the present level and will raise intersections seven inches higher than at present. New fenders are being put on the Wichita street cars as fast as they are taken to the machinery shops for repairs. The fenders that have done service for several years are most of them broken and bent and new one will be substituted for them. These old fenders were made by a company in the East that had a patent on (Continued on page 4)
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER PAGE 4 MAY 2012 RAILROADING IN WICHITA (Continued from page 3) them, but the new fenders are made in the company s shops in Wichita. They look a little heavier than the old fenders but they are more durable. They are all iron and have hinges that will enable the car men to fold them back when necessary. Car No. 201, which is one for the first large cars brought to Wichita, will be taken from the shop tomorrow and placed in service. It has been thoroughly rebuilt. Instead of being green, as it was originally, it is painted in the new colors as adopted by the company. This is two shades of yellow, striped with gold, and with the company monogram on the center side panels. Dr. Edward N. Tihen's Notes from Wichita Newspapers, Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita State University Libraries PICNIC: THE MOVIE By Sam Andrews Hollywood came to Kansas in 1955 with the filming of the movie called Picnic starring William Holden and Kim Novak as lead figures. Filmed on location in Nickerson, Hutchinson, Halstead and Salina, the byline was a romance flick. However, several train scenes, plus inside and outside views at one of the terminal grain elevators in Hutchinson made this a movie worth watching. The night scene in Halstead Riverside Park was scheduled to be shot on the night of May 25th. That work was forced to be postponed due to a severe tornado outbreak across the plains which included tornado sightings in Harvey County. Turner Classic Movies hold the rights to Picnic and is scheduled to be shown on the network during June. A little known spinoff CBS movie, given the name Parade, was made in 1984. This was also a romance setting taking place in Kansas with railroad scenes blended in the production-- starring trains of the Cotton Belt. BNSF NEWS: SPECIAL TRAINS By Jayhawk BNSF ran a real unique train this month. Train J-CBLALA1-18 ran from the UP at Council Bluff s, IA to Albia, IA. The train had BNSF ES44DC 7810 leading one car, the KRL 152 loaded with a SP Rotary Snow Plow heading for Albia to be re-built. The rotary originally came from Roseville, CA. The rotary is lettered SP 221. It should also have SP F9B 8207 moving on its own wheels for Albia to be rebuilt also. Departing Belen, NM on March 5th was train O-BELRIC2-05 (Officers special from Belen, NM to Richmond, CA) with BNSF ES44DC 7373 leading cars 66 (Sleeper Cajon Pass), 50 (Power Car Stampede Pass), 67 (Sleeper Trinchera Pass), 65 (Sleeper Raton Pass), 60 (Sleeper Stevens Pass), 8 (Business Car John S Reed) & 32 (Theater / Lounge William Barstow Strong). The train arrived in Richmond the next afternoon at 16:23 after spending the night in Barstow, CA. It laid over in Richmond and then departed on the 13th as train O- RICWIN2-13 departing Richmond at 09:00 on the morning of the 13th. It had the same 7 cars as the train that had arrived in Richmond on the 6th but had BNSF 7332 for power. It arrived in Winslow at 13:34 the next afternoon again after spending the night in Barstow. After it arrived in Winslow, it departed as a deadhead move for Topeka s train O-WINTOP1-14. I believe one of these trips was an executive trip and the other was for the engineering department, but I am not sure. BNSF ran another unusual move on March 11th. Train O-LACBAR1-11 ran from Los Angeles to Barstow with BNSF ES44DC 7756 & 7806 for power leading BNSF business car 6 (Topeka). After this train arrived at Barstow, the 6 was added to the O-RICWIN2-13 and deadheaded back to Topeka. BNSF ran another business car train on March 18th out of Topeka. Train O- TOPWLM1-18 departed Topeka at 09:15th with that same BNSF 7332 that had brought the O-WINTOP1-14 to Topeka. It also had 6 of the same 7 cars with only the 65 (Raton Pass) not making the trip. The train ran east out of Topeka to Willmar, MN via Galesburg, IL. It arrived at Willmar on the morning of the 19th at 08:34. This too was a deadhead move. The same consist departed Willmar as train O-WILDOC2-20 heading west for Donkey Creek, WY. It arrived in Donkey Creek at 09:10 the morning of March 22nd. The train almost immediately departed Donkey Creek as the O-DOCTOP1-22 running south to Alliance, NE and Denver, CO then on to La Junta where it ran east via the former Santa Fe to Topeka arriving there late on the evening of March 24th. The UP is giving wind mill trains to the BNSF at Vaughn, NM to take to Garden City, KS. The trains run as the U- VAUGDN1-xx from Vaughn to Amarillo then north on the former BN to Trinidad, CO where they go east via the Santa Fe to La Junta and Garden City. The trains are running with UP power with one engine on each end. A recent rain ran on March 29th as the U- VAUGDN1-20 with UP 7386 up front and 31 cars followed by UP 7612 as a DP unit. The empties run back from Garden City to La Junta where they swapped ends with the DP consist. The lead unit became the DP unit and viceversa. The train then departed east out of La Junta to Las Animas, Jct and south on the Boise City Sub to Amarillo where it went back to Vaughn as train U-GDNVAU1-24. Several more of these trains are supposed to run. The trains come from the Port of Long Beach on the UP to Vaughn where they go to the former Santa Fe. At least 4 of them have ran since late in February.
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER PAGE 5 MAY 2012 UP 844 Union Pacific Railroad is celebrating it s 150 year anniversary this summer. One part of this celebration is centered around a train powered by the venerable steam locomotive, UP 844. The tour departed Cheyenne March 22 headed east to Omaha before covering the southeast portion of the system. All went well until the train was near Mount Pleasant in east Texas. There a mechanical problem occurred on April 16. 844 is equipped with a control stand for operation of trailing diesel locomotives. UP 1982 (the Missouri Pacific Heritage unit). While making a stop the diesel failed to power down, resulting in a heavy air application which flattened the driver tires. The special nears Alta Vista, Ks May 7, 2012. Photo by Lance Garrels This required a major change in plans. The train would proceed with the E units, while the steam crew made emergency repairs, grinding the corners on the drivers. 844 then proceeded, at reduced speed, to the Georgetown Railroad Shops between Dallas and San Antonio. Arrival at Georgetown was April 19. Things didn t get any better on the 20th. While switching the auxiliary tenders, the tool car rolled away, stopping in the path of a loaded rock train. Thankfully no one was injured, but the tool car is now bound for the scrapper. At the GRR shop, the drivers were removed. Two sets were trucked to the Strasburg Rail Road shop in Pa., and two sets went to the Tennessee Valley Railroad shop. All drivers were turned, trucked back to Texas, and 844 was back on the road April 30. UP 844 puts on a good show for those gathered at the train museum in Wichita, Ks on Sunday, May 6, 2012. Photo by Dalene Deck Read carefully. The sign does not specify the locomotive type. Topeka, Ks, May 8, 2012. Photo by Lance Garrels Under overcast skies, UP 844 charges north through Furley, Ks. Pulling 2 auxiliary tenders, 3 E-units and 15 cars is no problem on Monday, May 7, 2012. Photo by Fred Tefft
May 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Mother s Day 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Memorial Day GPTM BOD NRHS Meeting GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER Great Plains Transportation Museum 700 East Douglas Ave Wichita, KS 67202-3506 (316) 263-0944 Return Service Requested