I woke up at the Budget Host Inn in Emporia and put the last story up on Trainorders.com before packing and checking out. I then drove to McDonald's, getting hot cakes, sausage and juice which cost me $2.10 more than it did in Woodward, Oklahoma. I wish they would have standardized pricing. After that, I then drove to Melvern, Kansas to the railroad park there.
The railroad park sign in Melvern, Kansas.
Union Pacific caboose 25836 built by International Car in 1979, on display at a Santa Fe site.
The limited view from the photography vantage point at this location.
BNSF 6973 West.
Another view of the Union Pacific caboose. After that, I moved to the Kansas 31 highway bridge over the BNSF mainline and once I arrived saw a headlight coming at me from the west.
The view from the Kansas 31 highway bridge.
BNSF 4063 east. The next trains were both coming at the same time and it was a race to see who would get there first. My head kept turning as if it was on a swivel to work out if there was any way I could photograph both trains. Unfortunately, the westbound with the more interesting motive power came first, thus I did not get a good picture of the eastbound.
BNSF 7363 West met the unknown BNSF eastbound. After those two trains, I moved to the pedestrian bridge at the east end of the railroad park.
BNSF 8235 West from the pedestrian bridge.
BNSF 2662 East. After getting my early morning fill of trains, I returned to the car and drove to Ottawa, stopping at Love's for petrol then drove to the Santa Fe station.
Ottawa Santa Fe station built in 1888 for its predecessor Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern Kansas Railway and is home to the Old Depot Museum.
Santa Fe caboose 999962. A few minutes later, Bob and Elizabeth arrived and were met by their friends Dorothy Straney and Joel. After they had a brief and nice visit, we departed Ottawa and headed south down US 59 to Garnett, our first stop of the morning.
Santa Fe caboose 999058, nee Santa Fe 2139 built by the railroad in 1942.
Santa Fe Garnett station built in 1934. From here, we took US 169 South following the old Santa Fe right-of-way in places to our next stop in Chanute. We arrived at the station and were all amazed by the magnitude of the station building.
Santa Fe Chanute station built in 1902. For many years, the depot was the Southern Division Headquarters for the railroad It featured a large Harvey House restaurant, Wells Fargo Express office and reading room and handled ten passenger trains daily. In 1917, the depot doubled in size, adding a large dining room to the Harvey House Restaurant to accommodate the increasing number of passengers traveling by train. After soliciting private donations in 1991, the Depot was historically restored and today houses the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum on the south end and the Chanute Public Library on the north.
Two views of the display train.
Monarch Cement Company GM30 P240 30 ton switcher, ex. Hunt Bartlett, exx. Sturdevant Grain, nee Nicholson Grain built by Davenport in 1936.
Santa Fe caboose number 999521, nee Santa Fe 567 built by the railroad in 1949. We then went south to Santa Fe Park to our next destination.
Santa Fe 2-8-0 762 built by Baldwin in 1900 and donated to the town in 1955. After that we headed back to US 169, taking that south toward Coffeyville. On the way there, we had to make a couple of unscheduled stops for a few unique trains.
South Kansas and Oklahoma SD40-2 4154, ex. First Union Rail 7239, exx. BNSF 7239, nee Burlington Northern 7239 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1980 was sitting on the line going toward Iola. We got back on the highway and at the next crossing, found another train.
SKOL 4148 was sitting on the Winfield line.
SKOL SD40-2 4148, ex. First Union Rail 7283, exx. BNSF 7283, nee Burlington Northern 7283 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1980. From here we drove to our next location of Walter Johnson Park in Coffeyville.
Santa Fe 2-6-2 1079 built by Baldwin in 1902 and donated to the city in 1955. Whoever painted it used a 2 and turned it upside down to make a 7. From here we drove back north to Cherryvale and our next railroad location.
Santa Fe Cherryvale station built in 1909.
South Kansas and Oklahoma GP38-2 3831, ex. Bangor and Aroostook 356, exx. Bangor and Aroostook GP38 96, exxx. Missouri Pacific 2003, exxxx. Missouri Pacific 853, nee Missouri Pacific 573 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1966.
South Kansas and Oklahoma SD40-2 4036, ex. Helm Leasing 4415, exx. Helm Leasing GP40 665, exxx. CSX 6838, nee Chesapeake and Ohio 4083 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1971.
South Kansas and Oklahoma GP7 7004, ex. Watco 21, exx. Inman Service Company 21, exxx. Inman Service Company 5735, nee Chesapeake and Ohio 5735 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1951.
JLA 10 ton switcher built by Plymouth behind the Leatherrock Hotel in Cherryvale.
In a backyard in Cherryvale, Bob spotted Missouri-Kansas-Texas caboose 137, built by International Car in the 1960's, hidden away from public view.
South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad scenes.
We found a trolley mural.
Santa Fe business car 30 built by Pullman in 1918. It was assigned to the Director in February 1928, later unassigned and rebuilt in March 1969 to camera car 30, re-numbered 5009 in 1970, then re-numbered again to 73 in 1973. The conversion to a camera car was done in order to provide film of the different divisions for locomotive simulator car 5008 which had been rebuilt from 31-seat club lounge-news stand-26 seat chair 3179. 5009 was damaged at an unknown date in a switching accident and was subsequently sold or donated to the Kansas City Railroad Museum in Belton, Missouri, and later moved to the Western Railroaders Hall of Fame & Museum in Cherryvale.
From here, we drove to Parsons where stopped at Subway to pick up lunch to go before we went to the Iron Horse Museum where we ate our sandwiches.
MKT DS4-4-1000 1008 built by Baldwin in 1947 and re-built by Electro-Motive Division as MKT 28.
A crane and support car.
Missouri Pacific express car 1xx built by the railroad in 1962 and converted to maintenance-of-way workout car 14240.
MKT caboose 61 built by the railroad.
An MKT state line marker.
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