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GREAT PLAINS
DISPATCHER
The Official Newsletter of the Great Plains Transportation Museum
and the Wichita Chapter National Railway Historical Society
February 2014
Volume XIII
Number 2
GREAT PLAINS
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
The Great Plains Transportation Museum annual business meeting will be held
Friday, February 21, 2013 at 7:30 PM.
Location of the meeting:
Wichita Toy Train Club, 130 S. Laura, Wichita, Kansas.
NRHS meeting will be before the business meeting, 7:00 - 7:30 PM
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
PAGE 2
FEBRUARY 2014
FEBRUARY NRHS MEETING
THE MISSION OF THE
GREAT PLAINS
TRANSPORTATION
MUSEUM
The mission of the Great Plains
Transportation Museum is to preserve and convey the unique history
of railroading in the Great Plains
through acquisition, restoration,
research, exhibition, and education.
The February NRHS meeting will be held in conjunction with the annual
GPTM membership meeting. The program will be a review of this past year’s activities at the museum.
The meeting will be held Friday, February 21, at Wichita Toy Train Club, 130
S. Laura in Wichita. Meeting time is 7:00 pm.
There will be the 5:30 p.m. informal dinner gathering at the Riverside Cafe,
739 W. 13th, Wichita before the meeting.
NRHS PROGRAMS FOR 2014
March: We have an outside speaker
for this month. A gentleman from North
Newton, KS, Mr. Glen Ediger, has written
a book titled Leave No Threshing Stone
Unturned. Mr. Ediger’s book is about the
threshing stones the Mennonites used in
the late 1800s in Kansas to thresh wheat.
In his book is a chapter detailing how the
GPTM OFFICERS
Santa Fe railroad was instrumental in
President: J. Harvey Koehn
bringing the Mennonites, and their Turkey
Vice President: Steve Corp
Red wheat, to Kansas in the 1870s. The
Secretary: John Deck
meeting and program on this night will be
Treasurer: Gale Meek
at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on
North River Blvd.
April: Topeka Chapter Exchange
Program. Topic TBA.
May: Lance Garrels for an encore
presentation, only on a different topic,
specifically the “Rock Island Around Kansas, the Last Years.”
WICHITA CHAPTER NRHS
June: Robert Walz. Bob’s program
will be on the Santa Fe and the grain inOFFICERS
dustry.
President: David Meek
July: Platform meeting evening. LoVice President: J. Harvey Koehn
cation
TBA.
Secretary: Vacant
August: No meeting month.
Treasurer: Wes Helena
September: Annual Picnic at the train
National Director: Vacant
museum. This will be on the Saturday
Historian: Fred Tefft
following the third Friday of the month.
Editor: Fred Tefft
The Wichita Chapter will be 60 years old
this month.
The GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
October: Kansas City Chapter Exchange Program.
is the official monthly newsletter of
November: A guest speaker again.
the Wichita Chapter, National Railway
Mr.
Brian
Stucky, of Goessel, KS, will
Historical Society, Inc. and the Great
present
a
program
on early trails in Kansas
Plains Transportation Museum, Inc.
and the connection of early railroad conMembers receive the DISPATCHER
struction in Kansas to the location of trails.
as part of their membership. All mate- He will also examine the early trails
rial submitted for publication should
through Wichita. This program will be on
be submitted by the 25th of the month Saturday afternoon November 22, at the
for publication in the next months
Wichita Sedgwick County Historical MuDISPATCHER. Submissions may be seum.
December: Annual Slide Free-for-all.
sent to the editor at: [email protected],
316-744-7259 or 700 E. Douglas,
Wichita, KS 67202-3506
OTHER EVENTS
Feb. 8-9: Wichita Train Show & Swap
Meet, Cessna Activity Center, Wichita,
KS, Phil Aylward,
[email protected]
Feb. 15: Lawrence Model Railroad Club
Train Show. Douglas Co. Fairgrounds, Jan
Brocker: [email protected]
Mar. 8-9: Great Train Expo, Century II,
Wichita, KS. www.GreatTrainExpo.com
Mar. 15: Ozark Model Train Show &
Swap Meet, Remington’s, Springfield,
Mo., Dave Brashers,
[email protected].
March 15-16: Garden City Model Train
Show, Finney Co. Fairgrounds, Exhibition
Bldg, Robert Simmons,
[email protected]
ROCK ISLAND CROSSING
ACCIDENT
By Sam Andrews
Just minutes before 0700 on February
20, 1922 southbound Rock Island passenger train #23 hit a city bus at the 13th
street crossing. This was located on the
east side of the Kansas Milling Company
plant.
One person was killed with seven
injured. The crossing had been protected
by a wig wag style automatic warning device mounted on a post but it was placed
out of service after being damaged in a
automobile accident about a month earlier.
Back then over 90 years ago, houses
sat on the north side of 13th which obstructed the view from the street. Today
this spot is the south end of the Cargill
soybean elevator complex.
Eyewitness accounts of the accident
stated the train was moving at a slow rate
of speed with the whistle sounded 150 feet
and again at 100 feet north of the crossing.
For an unknown reason the bus driver
failed to hear and see the approaching
train.
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
PAGE 3
FEBRUARY 2014
LOOKING BACK
By Michael M. Bartels
40 YEARS AGO
George Theis Jr. said the Arkansas Valley
Interurban is suffering greatly from auto
and bus travel. During 1920 it carried 1
million passengers. In 1923 ticket sales fell
to 600,000. At the same time there has
been no appreciable reduction in operating
costs and taxes have increased from
$10,000 annually when the road was built
to $30,000 for 1923. Since 80 percent of
its revenue is derived from passenger traffic, the situation is acute. It now appears
the Salina extension is unfeasible. (Wichita
Eagle, Feb. 10, 1924)
50 YEARS AGO
The Wichita Railroad and Light Co. bridge
at Douglas Avenue was damaged by ice
floes through the west channel Feb. 11th,
The Feb. 6, 1924, Eagle said it is rumored which washed out seven pilings at the west
Missouri Pacific will soon establish direct end of the bridge. The old Seneca Street
bridge will probably not be repaired. It and
passenger service from Wichita to St.
the Arkansas Valley Interurban bridge
Louis, a much-talked-about-but-neverwere damaged Feb. 6th. (Wichita Eagle,
established service.
Feb. 8, 1924; Wichita Beacon, Feb. 12,
The Feb. 7, 1924, Eagle reported the presi- 1924)
dent of the Wichita Union Terminal RailThe streetcar company will install a wye at
way Co. as saying plans have been comMain and Douglas, costing $5,000, as soon
pleted and money appropriated to build
train sheds at Union Station. However, the as weather permits. When this is done it is
likely that Orient Shops cars will be relocal superintendent said that four sets of
routed. Another wye will be placed at Patplans are under consideration and he has
tie and Douglas. Whether one-man Birney
no word yet of their approval.
cars will be placed on Main Street to replace the two-man cars will be known
Federal court in Kansas City, Kan., has
ordered sale of the Kansas City, Mexico & within the next 30 days. (Wichita Eagle,
Orient to satisfy a $2.5 million government Feb. 22, 1924)
loan. It has been in receivership since
Orient locomotive No. 154 has been re1917. The sale will be in Wichita March
27th, by order of Judge Pollock. (Wichita built in the Wichita shops. (Wichita Eagle,
Feb. 24, 1924)
Beacon, Feb. 7, 20, 1924)
Avenue-Orient Shops, Friends University
and Cleveland Avenue streetcar lines. Fifteen streetcar motormen qualified for state
The Feb. 13, 1974, Eagle-Beacon had a
chauffeur's licenses to allow them to drive
photo showing workmen removing ties
buses on the discontinued car lines. Buses
from the old Midland Valley Railroad,
were being substituted to avoid rebuilding
now owned by the Missouri Pacific, between Pawnee and 31st Street South. The of the Big River bridge at Douglas Avetrack was no longer being used by the Mo- nue. (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 10, 11, 1934;
Pac and was sold to Big River Nursery of Wichita Beacon, Feb. 8, 10, 1934)
Wichita. The nursery bought about 4,200
Civil Works Administration workmen will
ties from about a mile of track. They will
start tearing down the streetcar bridge tobe sold for landscaping purposes.
morrow. (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 22, 1934)
90 YEARS AGO
The Feb. 9, 1964, Eagle had a feature article about MoPac's line from Wichita to
Geneseo, built in 1886-87. The road had
asked to discontinue passenger service
over it.
Ernest Charles Goss, 76, of Mulvane died
Feb. 7th. He started the first jitney buses in
Wichita and sold his lines to the Wichita
Railroad and Light Co. in 1928. (Wichita
Eagle, Feb. 9, 1964)
60 YEARS AGO
The Feb. 13, 1954, Eagle had an article
about the "Big Ditch" flood control project. Work began on May 8, 1950, but was
interrupted by the Korean War. It was now
expected to be completed in 1957-58. Two
of the seven new railroad bridges have
been constructed.
The Orient employs 425 in Wichita, including 267 at the shops and roundhouse,
Twenty-five passengers on a North Topeka 87 in the offices, 36 train and enginemen,
Twin Coach bus of the Wichita Transpor- etc. (Wichita Beacon, Feb. 1, 1924)
tation Co. were injured when it was struck
by a northbound Santa Fe passenger train MoPac's budget for Wichita this year calls
for a new $65,000 bridge across the Arat the 17th Street crossing yesterday.
kansas River, a new turntable at the 25th
(Wichita Eagle, Feb. 14, 1944)
Street shops to cost $37,000 and an addition of 2,000 feet of track on Tracks 1 and
2 in the 21st Street yards at a cost of
80 YEARS AGO
$12,000. (Wichita Eagle, Feb. 8, 1924)
Five bus route changes effective Feb. 11,
1934, included abandonment of the Pattie
70 YEARS AGO
The Feb. 29, 1924, Eagle had a reminiscence about early Wichita, saying Henry
Schweitzer's steam motor line ran from
Douglas and Emporia south to Kellogg,
east on Kellogg to Hydraulic, southeast on
Broadway to within one block of Hillside,
south to Levy Street, and then west to Eldredge Park, which was in plainer language, a beer garden. (Broadway is now
George Washington Blvd, south on Chautauqua, west on Mt. Vernon to the current
location of Mead Middle School. – Ed.)
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
RAILROADING IN WICHITA
FEBRUARY 1914
By Fred Tefft
February 4
City commission adopted resolution
yesterday demanding that the street car
company supply the city with a statement of its expenses and earnings during 1910, 1911, 1912, and 1913 and a
statement of the cost of the system operated in 1910. Commissioner Murry
stated that the company’s franchise
provides that when the city reached a
population of 40,000, this information
should be furnished every year.
February 7
The new depot for the Arkansas Valley
Interurban in Newton has been completed and the station moved into this
new quarters. The station was formerly
in a store building.
February 14
The Missouri Pacific recently purchased 50 Mikado type engines. While
none will be put on the Southern Kansas division, about 24 of the better engines from other divisions will be sent
to Wichita, making the number kept
here seven larger than in the past.
About seventeen of the engines now
on this division will be sent to others.
February 15
Commissioner Murry and city engineer Bert Wells propose the opening of
Mead and Mosley avenues from Douglas to Central for vehicle traffic, with
an industry track on each side of both
streets and a public driveway 25 feet
wide between these tracks. The Frisco
on Mosley and the Rock Island on
Mead have placed these avenues practically in the possession of the railroads, preventing vehicle traffic. A
switching track would have to be
placed on each street in addition to the
industry tracks, for use in moving cars
to and from the latter.
PAGE 4
FEBRUARY 2014
4014 returned to the national rail network in the early morning hours of
February 20
Jan. 26, 2014, to the applause of the
Rock Island engine No. 153 jumped
hundreds of rail fans on hand to exthe track yesterday three times.
perience the moment.
The mammoth steam locomotive
February 25
departed its former home at the Los
All passenger trains on the Missouri
Pacific yesterday were double-headed Angeles County Fairgrounds in
Pomona, Calif., at around 1:45 a.m.
because of the cold and snow.
Pacific Time, to begin its 56-mile trek
on Metrolink and Union Pacific track
February 27
to UP’s Colton, Calif., rail yard.
With 75% of the right-of-way for an
interurban line between Halstead and
"The move went off flawlessly,"
Hutchinson secured, the prospects for said Ed Dickens, senior manager of
an electric railroad connection from
UP's Heritage Operations. "We came
Wichita to Hutchinson this summer are into Covina very carefully and metip top. The company has secured the thodically. We were prepared to deal
right-of-way between Halstead and
with little issues, but those issues didBurrton, eleven miles, and about half n't materialize."
of the distance between Burrton and
While the Big Boy had been thorHutchinson. A government is now
oughly prepared and inspected prior to
afoot in Hutchinson to get the city to
the move, Dickens said there are some
vote $30,000 worth of terminal bonds parts inside the engine that are simply
for the railroad.
impossible to carefully inspect. “We
have little access to those huge roller
Dr. Edward N. Tihen's Notes from
bearings, which have been sitting since
Wichita Newspapers, Special Collec- 1962,” he said. “The good news is that
tions and University Archives, Wichita they reside in a semi-sealed environState University Libraries
ment.”
The equipment used to move the
mammoth
locomotive included two
FANS WELCOME BIG
locomotives and 10 freight cars
BOY NO. 4014’S RETURN diesel
used for braking. As part of the operaTO THE NATIONAL RAIL tion, the train also delivered UP diesel
locomotive No. 3105, a UP caboose
NETWORK
and UP boxcar to Rail Giants museum,
It was a historic day for Union
where they will become part of the
Pacific’s steam program. After months museum’s permanent display.
of preparation, UP’s Big Boy No.
(Continued on Page 5)
As the sun came
up in Covina,
Calif, the crowds
came out to welcome UP's Big
Boy No. 4014 as
it made a stop on
its way to Colton,
Calif. UPRR
photo
(Continued on page 5)
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
PAGE 5
To continue, a friend from the nonrail enthusiast/history community,
when she realized that I was “into railby J. H. Koehn
roads,” recently lent me an old Official
Guide that her father had had. After
In some recent issues of the DS
there have been some articles concern- looking only at the first few pages I
ing time zones and the railroads (Nov. realized that this was a real prize as
2010 and Nov. 2013). A side note be- this 1902 issue of the Official Guide
fore I continue: Both articles have the had some pages on railroad time zones.
same photograph of a Burlington em- (Recall that Congress did not pass legislation making time zones legal until
ployee’s pocket watch. I did not inWorld War I.) Below, for you to see,
tend to include the same picture for
is one of those pages with a time zone
both articles.
RAILROAD TIME
A FOLLOW-UP
FEBRUARY 2014
map and some tables showing the dividing points between standard time
“sections,” as the railroads then called
them. Notice particularly the three
Kansas locations: Dodge City, on the
Santa Fe; Hoisington, on the Missouri
Pacific; and Phillipsburg, on the Rock
Island.
GPTM ON THE WEB
Visit the museum website
www.gptm.us. The site has items from
the Special Collections. Timetables,
train orders and waybills are among
the items. Also there are past issues of
The Dispatcher, where one can study
and review past events.
Another item of note. The Dispatcher
is available via e-mail. Contact [email protected] to be added to the list.
Get the newsletter early and in color.
(Continued from page 4)
RETURN OF THE BIG BOY
Dickens said the crowd on hand to
see the Big Boy return to live rail operations was enormous. “The huge
crowd was literally pressed against the
chain link fence,” he said. "The mood
was very happy and very vocal, with
lots of clapping. It was really a magical
moment as the Big Boy was pulled
backward by the UP 1996, the Southern Pacific heritage locomotive, from
our holding track to Metrolink’s track."
Top speed during the move was 20
mph. Dickens said the operation was
completed by 4:30 p.m. with the arrival
of No. 4014 to Colton Yard, where it
will remain over the coming months
before its move to Cheyenne, which
has yet to be scheduled.
Dickens thanked the many who
worked first-hand on the operation at
UP’s Los Angeles Service Unit, including General Superintendent Rod
Doerr, Regional Vice President Transportation Shane Keller, the folks at
UP’s Harriman Dispatching Center and
Metrolink.
UPRR News
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
GROUP ABANDONS
PLANS FOR AMARILLO
RAILROAD MUSEUM
The board behind the push to create the Santa Fe Railway Historical
Museum voted Friday to put the brakes
on its efforts and disband.
“It’s a difficult thing,” said President Walter Wolfram. “The loss of this
museum is very hurtful.”
The group met several challenges
that threatened to derail them as they
tried to raise money and find a home.
First, they deemed the second floor
of the Santa Fe Building to be impossible to adapt to show off in a secure
environment some of the more than
20,000 artifacts donated for the museum.
Then, the city of Amarillo bought
the Santa Fe Depot before the board
could come up with the money to buy
and restore it and make a deal on it.
And now the Potter County Commissioners’s Court is looking into the
group’s finances.
The agenda for the court’s Monday meeting lists a report on the progress of an audit of the group’s books.
“On the museum, since the audit is
not complete, I don’t believe it’s appropriate to release much information
in Monday’s meeting,” said Potter
County Auditor Kerry Hood.
“Basically I will tell them that we are
actively working on the audit.”
The audit came about after questions from Commissioner Mercy Murguia.
“In September, in open court, I
began asking the organization for a
financial report of the account. The
account has received close to $400,000
of county funds in $50,000 increments
since 2006,” she said. “In the last
meeting of the Commissioner’s Court,
the president of the Santa Fe Depot
Historical Museum came to court with
an incomplete accounting which reflected half the funds had been spent,
and the president of the organization
was unable or unwilling to answer
PAGE 6
FEBRUARY 2014
questions about the county’s funds.”
It will take a month or more for the
museum supporters to shut down their
nonprofit.
“We have about $225,000 worth of
donations to give back, or donors can
designate the money to go to an account at the Amarillo Area Foundation,” Wolfram said. “We will deed the
artifacts to the county. And under our
501(c)(3), when we cease to exist, anything else we have goes to the county.”
Murguia began wondering about
the finances of the museum during
budget writing in the summer.
“I objected to annual transfers of
$50,000 from Potter County into an
account named Santa Fe Historical
Railway Museum Inc.,” she said. “No
one on the commissioner’s court could
answer questions about what was being done with the county’s money or
why the money was continuing to be
transferred since no reports had been
received in six years.”
Wolfram has hopes the idea could
be revived.
“I want, at some point, somebody
at the city to say, ‘We can’t let this go
away,’” he said. “Right now, it looks
like we’ve let a tremendous opportunity slip by.”
Amarillo News
Rock Island model GP40 locomotive #360 rests briefly in Wichita before continuing on to its destination. At this Feb. 24, 1974 date the
Rock Island was one year away from
again declaring bankruptcy and only
six years away from being shut down
and liquidated. After the shut-down,
Missouri Kansas & Texas Railroad
(the Katy) formed a subsidiary, the
Oklahoma, Kansas & Texas Railroad,
which operated the Rock Island for a
few years from Herington to Wichita
and on south to Ft. Worth. In 1988 the
Union Pacific Railroad acquired the
Katy. This marked the UP's second
entrance into Wichita, the first one
being in 1982 when they acquired the
Missouri Pacific.
More about this locomotive: (The
information is from the Louis Marre
book, Rock Island Diesel Locomotives.) This locomotive had originally
been a 2500-h.p., model GP35, carrying the number 306. During its career
it was wrecked and rebuilt, in September of 1966, as a 3000-h.p., model
GP40. It was wrecked again in December of 1970, rebuilt and returned
to service. Still another wreck happened in June of 1976. The RI retired
it in December of 1978 but kept the
frame for their slug program. The
Marre book shows no information that
the frame ever actually became a slug
unit.
Photo by Allan E. Ramsey, J. H.
Koehn collection
GREAT PLAINS DISPATCHER
PAGE 7
FEBRUARY 2014
THE GREAT PLAINS
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
Membership and Volunteer Application
Membership Categories
Regular Memberships
_____Individual
$25
_____Family
$35
Rock Island switch engine #767 rests, probably between work shifts or while the crew has "gone to
beans," i.e., to eat a meal. EMD (Electromotive Division) manufactured this 12-cylinder, 1000 h.p., locomotive sometime in December of 1948 or January of
1949. This locomotive model is the same as the Burlington Northern locomotive #421 that is on display at
the train museum in Wichita.
Photo by Allan E. Ramsey, J. H. Koehn collection
GPTM ADMISSION AND DUES INCREASES
At the January board meeting it was decided to raise admission prices effective immediately.
♦ Adult rate will be increased from $5.00 to $7.00 tax
included
♦ Child rate will be increased from $3.00 to $4.00 tax
included ages 4 to 12
Membership rates and renewal terms effective July 1,
2014.
♦ Individual Membership from $25.00 to $30.00
♦ Family Membership from $35.00 to $40.00
♦ Renewals will be due January 1 of each year.
♦ New members joining between July 1 thru Dec. 31 will
charged half price, with renewal at full price due January 1 of the following year.
WICHITA TOY TRAIN CLUB
The Wichita Toy Train Club and Museum, 130 S.
Laura, is open to the public the second and fourth weekends of each month.
Saturdays 10:00 - 5:00
Sundays 1:00 - 5:00
Adults $5.00
Children up to 12 are free.
Supporting Memberships
_____Sustaining
_____Contributing
_____Sponsor
_____Patron
_____Benefactor
$50
$100
$250
$500
$1000
I want to volunteer in the following areas:
___Shop & restoration
___Gift shop
___Interpretive guide/Tours ___Fund raising
___Displays & artifacts ___Library
___General Maintenance
___Office
___Planning & Development ___Newsletter
___Other:__________________
___Add me to your special activities mail list
___I would like to receive my newsletter via E-mail
I am paying by
___Cash
___Discover
___Check
___Master Card
___Visa
__________________________ _________
Account Number
Exp. Date
Name_____________________________________
Address___________________________________
City______________________________________
State____________ Zip_____________________
Telephone:_________________________________
E-mail:____________________________________
Signature:_________________________________
Date Received:______________
Please remit to:
Great Plains Transportation Museum
Membership Coordinator
700 E. Douglas Ave
Wichita, KS 67202-3506
February 2014
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
Museum Open
Work Day
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Evening Work
Session
9
10
11
Museum Open
Work Day
12
13
14
15
Evening Work
Session
Museum
BOD
Washington’s
Birthday
23
24
18
19
20
Evening Work
Session
25
21
NRHS
Meeting
GPTM
Annual Meeting
26
27
22
Museum Open
Work Day
28
Evening Work
Session
GREAT PLAINS
DISPATCHER
17
Great Plains Transportation
Museum
700 East Douglas Ave
Wichita, KS 67202-3506
(316) 263-0944
Return Service Requested
16
Museum Open
Work Day