Abbey, center, with railroad photographer friends Ted Cole and Chic Kerrigan somewhere near Chicago in the late 1940s. Courtesy of the Abbey family.
Abbey, standing in center, with other Trains magazine staff members in Kalmbach Publishing Co.’s Milwaukee offices on February 28, 1952. David P. Morgan sits at his desk, with associate editor Rosemary Entringer to the left of Abbey and Katie McMullen, editorial secretary (and soon to become editor of Kalmbach’s Better Camping magazine), in the background at right.
Two Santa Fe 2-8-2 steam locomotives, nos. 3262 and 3160, lead a westbound extra freight train up Olathe Hill west of Zarah, Kansas, on March 31, 1946. The Olathe grade brought the railroad out of the Kansas River Valley, and the Santa Fe later rebuilt this part of its main line to reduce or eliminate many curves. Today dozens of BNSF Railway freight trains run over the rebuilt route every day, while suburban housing developments from nearby Kansas City now stand on the surrounding hills.
ONE
ALONG THE SANTA FE
DID WALLY ABBEY HAVE A FAVORITE RAILROAD? HE NEVER explicitly said. But it would come as no surprise to learn that, if pressed, he answered “Santa Fe.”
For a schoolboy living in one of Chicago’s north shore suburbs, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe might as well have been a thousand miles away. The Santa Fe operated out of Dearborn Station, way across the Loop from Abbey’s more familiar North Western Terminal on Canal Street. And when the Chief and all the other famous AT&SF trains pulled away from Dearborn’s gates, they immediately headed in a southwesterly direction, away from Abbey’s childhood Evanston turf.
But family often trumps geography, and for that reason some of Abbey’s earliest encounters with trains came 607 railroad miles west of Chicago, in little Cherryvale, Kansas, home of his maternal grandparents, Samuel and Luella Squier. From as early as he could remember, Abbey took family trips to visit “the folks,” usually by train. And once he got to Cherryvale, there was plenty to see.
Cherryvale is in southeast Kansas, on what once was Santa Fe’s Tulsa Subdivision linking Kansas City with Oklahoma’s second-largest city. It wasn’t one of the railroad’s premier main lines, but the Tulsa Sub saw its share of business, including some passenger trains that made strong impressions on the boy from Chicago. “The Santa Fe figured in my early travel rather strongly, because of those frequent trips to Cherryvale,” Abbey recalled. “I have no idea what year it would have been, but I can distinctly remember riding in the observation of what must have been the Oil Flyer, northbound out of Cherryvale in the afternoon.”
The Oil Flyer wasn’t the only name train running through town. In the prewar years, Abbey also saw the Tulsan, an early streamliner, as well as the daily M.154 gas-electric doodlebug to Coffeyville and Winfield, the latter via Santa Fe’s branch to Wichita. And if he ever got tired of watching the Santa Fe (not likely), there was always the St. Louis–San Francisco depot a few blocks to the north, where the Santa Fe crossed the Frisco’s Wichita–Joplin line.
Cherryvale’s Santa Fe depot was a great place for a boy to get started with trains. Built in 1910, it was a sizable brick affair, with broad eaves, arched windows, stylized Santa Fe logos, and a handsome porte cochere on the street side of the building. Today it appears to be in pristine condition, serving as the local offices of the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad, a regional line owned by the Watco interests. In the late 1930s, it must have been the perfect hangout for a budding young photographer.
As Abbey got older, he continued to be drawn to the Santa Fe. When he graduated from high school, he chose the University of Kansas, certainly in part for its great journalism school, but also because the campus was only a mile from the AT&SF main line.
Like many college students in those days, Abbey tried his hand at hitchhiking, and his frequent destination was 25 miles or so eastward to photograph trains on Olathe Hill, an especially difficult grade between Holliday and Olathe, Kansas, where, as Abbey wrote, “Santa Fe found a reasonably graceful way to climb out of the Kaw River lowlands.” There he photographed FT freight diesels, 4-8-4s on passenger trains, double-headed 2-8-2s, and just about anything else on the railroad’s roster.
When Abbey graduated from KU in August 1949, the Santa Fe was still tugging at him, and he took his first journalism job in Chanute, Kansas, just 29 miles up the road from Cherryvale. There he reported for duty as a reporter and photographer for the Chanute Tribune, a daily newspaper with a circulation of approximately 3,500. Between chasing police cars and attending school board meetings, Abbey could hang out around the city’s grand station, which included division offices and a Harvey House hotel.
Abbey left the Tribune after only a year to join Trains magazine in Milwaukee. It was there that Abbey’s love of the Santa Fe was crystallized in January 1954, when the magazine published his eighteen-page, 10,000-word cover story simply titled “Super Railroad.” The article kicked off what editor David P. Morgan said would be a series of comprehensive system stories on several major railroads. For the magazine, a lot was riding on the series, and the Santa Fe, with its glamorous reputation as a passenger carrier, was the perfect place to start.
To accomplish the assignment, Abbey got the support he needed from Morgan: nearly fourteen months to prepare for the story, and arrangements to ride approximately 6,300 miles of the Santa Fe system, much of it in the cabs of steam and diesel locomotives.
Abbey’s reporting and photography was comprehensive. He visited yard towers and dispatchers’ offices; spent time in the offices of officials across the system, including at the railroad’s Michigan Avenue headquarters in Chicago; inspected the new retarder yard at Argentine, Kansas, and the locomotive shops in Albuquerque; enjoyed a Fred Harvey lunch in the station at Gallup; and relished the view of New Mexico’s Wagon Mound from the dome of the Super Chief.
It was great magazine writing, full of facts and figures and expert analysis, but always delivered with Abbey’s characteristic exuberance: “Santa Fe is making a liar out of whoever it was who said the railroad industry is not modern. Indeed, John Santa Fe runs probably the most progressive railroad in the country. Its operations set the standard for modernity; its thinking is fresh and relatively unfettered by tradition. It dwells not, principally, in the criticisms of declining patronage, government regulation and subsidized competition which typify many roads old enough to know better, but looks forward to extending itself with new trains, new territories, new ways to greater efficiency.” If Abbey’s copy sounds a bit like a public relations man’s dream, then that might say something about the career direction the author was headed. In fact, “Super Railroad” was very nearly Abbey’s swan song at Trains. The February 1954 issue one month later would be the last with his name on the masthead. But not before he had the chance to make good for his favorite railroad.
Santa Fe 2-8-2 steam locomotive no. 4070 charges through the trusses of the railroad’s Illinois River bridge at Chillicothe, Illinois, with an eastbound freight train sometime in the late 1940s. The 2-8-2 wheel arrangement was among the most common for freight-hauling steam locomotives in North America; Santa Fe owned more than 300 of them. All had been scrapped by 1955, except for two that were lost in a flood in 1952 and sunk in the Kansas River at Topeka, where they remain to this day.
Well-dressed passengers board the streamlined Texas Chief at Oklahoma City as the low sun casts long shadows on a spring day in 1953. Connecting Chicago with the largest cities in Texas, the train split in Gainesville, with separate sections serving Dallas and Houston/Galveston.
Despite being the first major adopter of diesel power, as late as April of 1953 Santa Fe was still performing major work on its steam fleet. This view from inside the Albuquerque back shop shows at least nine big locomotives, including 4-8-4s nos. 2926, 3754, and 2902, as well as 2-10-4 no. 5003. Three years later, the railroad donated no. 2926 to the City of Albuquerque. Today it is being restored to operating condition by the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society.
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Santa Fe eastbound freight train no. 86 standing in the yard at Chanute, Kansas, on the night of December 21, 1949. Locomotives nos. 4022 and 3803, a 2-8-2 and a 2-10-2, lead the train. Instead of flashes, Abbey used ambient light and a long exposure time to make the photograph. While the shutter was open, a crewmember carried a lantern between the cab and the front of the lead locomotive, leaving a trail of light on the negative.
E3 diesel no. 11, an A-B pair built in 1939, leads a passenger train out of Chicago’s Dearborn Station in the winter gloom of February 2, 1952. The switchman has come out of his shanty to inspect the train as it passes. In the background at right, one of Santa Fe’s Alco diesel switchers shuffles passenger cars while a Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 steam locomotive gets another passenger train moving.
Two streamliners rest at the bumping posts under the shed at Dearborn Station in downtown Chicago on February 2, 1952. Leading both trains are F7A diesels built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. At the time, Santa Fe ran no fewer than eight long-distance passenger trains in and out of Dearborn each day.
Santa Fe eastbound passenger train no. 12, the Chicagoan, pulls into the depot at Lawrence, Kansas, behind PA1 locomotive no. 71 on March 19, 1949. The Chicagoan and westbound counterpart no. 11, the Kansas Cityan, made daytime trips with streamlined equipment between Chicago and Oklahoma City. When Trains magazine was briefly renamed Trains & Travel, this photograph made the cover of the inaugural issue of the renamed publication.
In a wonderfully evocative sidewalk scene from downtown Chanute, Kansas, in 1950, Santa Fe’s eastbound Oil Flyer passenger train arrives five minutes early according to the jewelry-store clock. The train made an evening run from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri. A timely connection with the eastbound California Limited in Kansas City enabled travelers to be in Chicago the next morning.
A three-unit set of Alco’s handsome PA locomotives leads Santa Fe train no. 19, the westbound Chief, across the Des Plaines River in Lemont, Illinois, on a June afternoon in 1952. A couple at water’s edge appears unimpressed by the passage of the stainless-steel train. The unused piers carried an older Santa Fe bridge across the river.
An A-B-B set of F7 locomotives in Santa Fe’s classic “Warbonnet” paint leads a westbound freight train up Edelstein Hill west of Chillicothe, Illinois, on May 1, 1953. The short but substantial hill brought the Santa Fe out of the Illinois River valley, which it crossed at Chillicothe. The grade required most freight trains to use helper locomotives during the steam era.
Santa Fe 2-10-2 no. 3922 takes water at the roundhouse in Emporia, Kansas, on July 7, 1952. At least four other steam locomotives are visible, but their time was running out—Abbey photographed newly delivered GP7 diesels on the same day. Emporia was a division point during the steam era where trains changed locomotives, which were then serviced at the thirty-stall roundhouse. Built in 1928, it spanned 200 degrees of a circle, but it soon fell into disuse since diesels required far less maintenance than steam. Santa Fe demolished the Emporia roundhouse in 1984, and almost nothing of the structure remains today.
The first section of Santa Fe train no. 19, the westbound Chief for Los Angeles, departs from Chicago’s Dearborn Station on July 7, 1952, behind an A-B-B-A set of F-series locomotives in the railroad’s iconic “Warbonnet” paint. Lead unit no. 21 is flying green flags, indicating that another section of the train is following. Visible directly behind this one, the second section would depart a few minutes later to maintain a safe distance.
Dispatcher Harry Flottman controls train movements over two sections of the Middle Division from the centralized traffic control (CTC) machine at his desk in Newton, Kansas, in 1952. A schematic diagram of the railroad appears at the top of the panels; the switches below allow him to remotely control track switches and signals along the line. Santa Fe was an early adopter of CTC, which allowed one person to do the work of many while eliminating considerable paperwork and delays.
Train no. 17, the westbound Super Chief, comes out of the rising sun as it races across the prairies east of Newton, Kansas, on July 8, 1952. Introduced in 1937 with diesel power from the outset, the Super Chief made the Chicago–Los Angeles run in just under forty hours and quickly became Santa Fe’s flagship passenger train. The railroad’s own promotional literature called it “the train of the stars” due to heavy celebrity patronage in its early years.
Baggage and express carts surround F7 locomotives at Kansas City Union Station in July 1952. Abbey recorded this scene from the cab of eastbound train no. 12, the Chicagoan, which he was riding. The locomotives in view likely belong to train no. 212, the Tulsan, which would have just arrived from its namesake city to connect with no. 12. Abbey frequently rode trains nos. 212 and 12, as well as their west- and southbound counterparts, nos. 11 and 211, to visit his maternal grandparents in Cherryvale, Kansas.
Passenger train no. 48, the northbound Oil Flyer, pulls into the depot at Cherryvale, Kansas, on a July evening in 1953. The Oil Flyer combined with the Tulsan to offer two daily roundtrips between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri. Note the Railway Express Agency (REA) pickup truck parked at right. A precursor of today’s UPS and FedEx, REA provided swift package delivery around the country, facilitated by the nation’s passenger trains.
Three models of diesels from two different builders rest at Corwith Yard in Chicago on the night of March 13, 1958. From left to right are switchers from Electro-Motive and Fairbanks Morse, NW2 no. 2411 and H-12-44 no. 522, followed by two sets of Electro-Motive FT units led by nos. 189 and 173. The railroad had just upgraded Corwith as a gravity-powered “hump” yard, the reason for Abbey’s visit.
Train orders tied in string await pickup by the crew of a westbound freight train approaching the depot at Ottawa, Kansas, on August 10, 1963. The bridge in the background carries the town’s Main Street, which is also US Highway 59, over the Santa Fe’s main line to California. Ottawa was an important junction on the railroad between the east–west main line and the north–south Tulsa Subdivision.
A freight train approaches the wooden depot at Williamsburg, Kansas, on the Santa Fe’s branch line from Ottawa to Gridley on June 17, 1965. The Santa Fe once had an extensive network of branch lines in Kansas, but the weed-grown track of this one speaks to the struggles that so many branch lines faced from trucks and a much-improved highway system. The Santa Fe abandoned many of its branches, including this one, while it sold others to short-line operators.
Train no. 23, the westbound Grand Canyon, crossing the Missouri River at Sibley, Missouri, in July 1969. Postwar competition from the automobile and jet airliner had taken quite a toll on the railroad passenger business, and Santa Fe’s once-great fleet of passenger trains was much diminished by this date. In less than two years, the Santa Fe and most other US railroads would turn over their passenger operations to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak.
On a late summer day in 1969, four Santa Fe F-units power a freight train past trackside livestock pens in the rolling hills at Matfield Green, Kansas. Shipping livestock by rail was once common; it had been big business on the Santa Fe, which ran dedicated livestock trains and gave them high priority to ensure the animals arrived to meatpackers in optimum condition. The trucking industry began taking over livestock transportation after World War II, and the Santa Fe hauled its last carload just three years after Abbey recorded this scene.
A Santa Fe dining-car worker contemplates his eastbound run to Chicago and, ultimately, an uncertain future from the door of his Hi-Level car at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in April of 1970. Formerly separate trains, the combined Super Chief–El Capitan is one of just two on the railroad still making the LA–Chicago trek. It would be the only one left after Santa Fe joined Amtrak a year later.
SD45 no. 5572 leads a consist of six diesels heading an eastbound freight train at the summit of California’s Cajon Pass in 1970. The train has climbed out of the Los Angeles Basin from San Bernar
dino and will soon be heading across the Mojave Desert for Arizona. Cajon Pass was—and remains—one of the busiest railroad mountain crossings in the country.
Legendary on the Santa Fe and in southern California, Cajon Pass received only one visit from Abbey, in 1970. Hosting the trains of both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific (today BNSF Railway and Union Pacific), Cajon is one of the busiest mountain crossings in the North American rail network. Abbey got at its essence with this view, using the cars of an eastbound train heading uphill to frame a descending westbound with some of the pass’s uniquely eroded rock formations.
Riding back east on the combined Super Chief–El Capitan after a visit to southern California in April of 1970, Abbey captured this iconic view of the final days of the Santa Fe’s once-vaunted passenger service. In the high desert country west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, classic passenger power in the form of F7A no. 47 leads westbound train no. 23, the Grand Canyon, while a new FP45 and F45 power Abbey’s train. Just a year later, the Grand Canyon made its final run, and Amtrak took over operation of the Super Chief–El Capitan.
Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography Page 3