Railfanning the Kansas City area (1960-1970) - MRH Theater Video

Railfanning the Kansas City area (1960 - 1970) NEW!

Here's some vintage prototype railroad images from the 1960s taken in and around Kansas City. This special video is extra large - sweet!


MRH Theater video!

NOTE: Be patient - it can sometimes take 60 seconds or more for your browser to cache the video before playing it. You may also need to allow popups for the video window to come up.

Video playback issues?  See these debugging notes.


Click to play railfanning Kansas City area. (you may need to allow popups)Railfanning the Kansas City area circa 1960-1970 (5:34) Enjoy some vintage images of the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, and the Frisco in and around the Kansas City area in the 1960s. As a special treat, this video slide show is extra large so you can see more of the detail in these images! The photos were a surprise find by Tom Wilson and they're now part of his collection. (If you'd like a copy of any of these images, contact Tom.)

 Playback problems? Try playing this video from our mirror site.
 Or download a copy (20MB) and play it back locally.


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Comments

jeffshultz's picture

Some of those first ATSF Shots....

...look an awful lot like a model railroad! 

Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.

Jeff Shultz - My blog index
MRH Technical Assistant

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/jeffshultz

Silver/Red War Bonnet F's on Freight Trains

I was amazed to see a few scenes of red & silver "warbonnet" F consists leading freight trains.  Being from the East Coast, I always believed those were only used on passenger trains (different gear ratios, etc.)...

Very high quality video work for that period, it rivals anything Emery Gulash ever did!

Ken Larsen

bobcatt's picture

terrific slideshow

ditto: using SF F units on freights. I always thought they were passenger only.

Amazing variety of shots. Thanks for posting this! It was really entertaining and educational.

Chris

 

bobcatt
Visit the S Scale Workshop blog
Visit my MRH blog
Listen to the Model Rail Radio podcast
Jurgen Kleylein's picture

Super C

I noticed that A-B-B-A set on the freight, too, but figured it was just something to do with all those surplus F-units as passenger service was on the outs. Running them like that would not pose problems except they couldn't pull as much as freight F's and couldn't achieve their top speeds in freight service. As long as they didn't mix them with freight power the gearing wouldn't be an issue. This is about the only way Santa Fe could use them until the CF7 program turned them into road switchers.

Now there was one train that was pretty famous in the 60's which was called the Super C; it was a hotshot piggyback express between Chicago and LA. It always ran with warbonnet passenger F's because they were the only power that could keep up to the schedule. I don't think that the train in the photo was that hot, though.

Jurgen

HO Deutsche Bundesbahn circa 1970

Visit the HO Sudbury Division at http://sudburydivision.ca/

The preceding message may not conform to NMRA recommended practices.

ChrisNH's picture

Cool pics but..

Those are cool pics.. not at all my "prototype region" but interesting.

However, I don't really feel the flash movie format is good for this sort of thing, even "extra large". Pixelated images just don't do it for me. I hope MRH theater sticks to movies and leaves still photos for a more appropriate format. Maybe I have just been spoiled by all the excellent images available on the net these days.

I dont wan't to appear ungrateful, I appreciate the sharing, just wish they were regular jpg images.

Regards,

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog

cduckworth's picture

KC in the 1970's

I started with the Mopac in the 1970's and KC was my headquarters for a year.  Remember the local railroaders nicknamed the KCS the 'haywire' due to their (light) rail used in earlier years. 

Was fun to see the Milwaukee and Frisco again, the KCS and Milwaukee shared a yard north of Mopac Neff Yard.     

Charlie Duckworth (for information on the Missouri Pacific, Texas & Pacific go to 'Mopac.org' for MP history, employee stories, modeling information, company store, how to join the MPHS and convention information).

quadk's picture

Fantastic!!

Thanks for sharing those pictures, they are just fantastic!!!

I can never get enough of looking at the pictures of the glory days. When each railroad was proud of themselves and there heritage.

 

Thank You!!

Kenny Ravenscroft
Pilar Valley Railway
 
Facebook Pilar Valley Railway Group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/433572426727477/

www.freewebs.com/quadk/

Frisco Pictures on Slideshow

As a matter of reference, most of the Frisco pictures on the slideshow were taken on the Wichita Subdivision at the small rural towns of Severy, Beaumont, and Leon located between 50 ad 70 mile west of Wichita. This is the line that I am currently modeling and my wife is from near Severy. The shots at Beaumont have a special point of emphasis as the water tower in the background has been completely restored and put on the National Register of Historic Places. One can even fly into there (on a small plane), taxi up a street right past the tank, and have a meal and /or stay at the historic Beaumont Hotel which has been converted into a Bed & Breakfast. http://www.hotelbeaumontks.com/

The tracks a long gone, but the atmosphere is still there. Even into the early diesel days when these photos were taken there was a small hose by the main line and on hot days sometimes it was necessary to "take on water" on some of the old geeps that were converted from their boiler equipped days.

Thanks for the wonderful memories brought back in these pictures.

Bob Hoover

FriscoFriend

Railfanning the Kansas City area (1960-1970)

I just finished watching  Rail fanning the Kansas City area (1960-1970)
I thought was interesting to see U50's in the Kansas City area
I enjoyed seeing the images.

Mike

Bluesssman's picture

Sweet slide show!  Seeing

Sweet slide show! 

Seeing the beautiful Santa Fe F units brought back great memories.

Gary

 

Gary

Head of clean up, repairs and nurturing of the eccentric owner


>> Posts index


Journals/Blogs

Recent Blog posts: