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July 24, 2018 at 10:38 pm #6126peggyrothschildParticipant
Early Fall 1975 I was assigned to work at Durand to teach the station forces the new TCS system coming late that Fall. Durand had a Star Agent (Smity), first shift telegrapher, second shift telegrapher, third shift telegrapher and a relief job that worked two daylights, two second shifts and one third shift. This type of relief job was all over the railroad industry. Smity saw I was interested in railroad history and brought in his Vibroplex ‘bug’ (private purchased telegraph key) one day in its velvet lined leather container. He explained the bugs would send much faster than those provided by the railroad. He also showed off his railroad pocket watch explaining it took him several months to pay it off when he first hired out. Smity farmed as well as railroaded which wasn’t uncommon in rural Kansas.
This was obviously the days with no cell phones or GPS so when one was told be be at ‘Durand’ for training you got out the state road map and wrote down directions – sometimes and old head would give you directions too. Durand was easy to find as in was merely a depot sitting out in the Kansas prairie but in many small towns you drive around until you crossed some railroad tracks and look for the white or brick depot and head for it. Towns with multiple railroads were a little more challenging as you might locate the ATSF and BN before the Mopac.
Durand was a busy location with lots of block swapping in the small yard. Besides the depot there was a few houses scattered around but no commercial businesses and certainly no rail customers. There was no switch engine at Durand and I think the road crews did what little switching that was required. I stayed in Yates Center in a small town motel and would go in on each shift to train the guys. After a few days they’d pretty much gotten the hang of it and I drove over to Iola, Kansas to meet the agent and see another part of the railroad. Bill King was on duty and I’d never seen a Mopac depot with a waxed tile floor. Bill explained there was only the one local a day so he needed something to do – the place was spotless.
July 25, 2018 at 5:12 am #8896Joseph BerryParticipantI worked one wonderful second trick operator job at Durand…that was plenty for me. I got a late call, 1 hr, (at Wichita)…driving to Durand my muffler and exhaust pipe started dragging (had to stop and wire them up), got to Durand for a turnover…and discovered the first trick guy had a bad day and broke several windows out of the depot. It was about 10 degrees that night. I spent most of the night standing by the stove in the waiting room listening for the dispatcher to call…and kept trying to get the very cold card reader (by a window) to run a deck of cards for a pick-up. (no luck)
I told myself that was IT for me…I wasn’t going back to Durand! I didn’t get a call for 10 days. The next call from the railroad was to report to St. Louis for six weeks of Clerical School on the computers. This after working for eight months. But I did get paid the Second Trick Operator rate…the second highest rate on our seniority district, for the entire six weeks of school!
Also, I got promoted my last day of class and was no longer a clerk/operator.
But I did have to work Durand again…like Charlie, but a few years later, I was there to provide more training on a new computer system. But at least it wasn’t in the winter…and the card reader had been replaced with a cardless system.
I had a much better time!Gary H.
July 25, 2018 at 1:20 pm #8897Bud MossParticipantI never worked for the railroad, but in the early 1980s I had opportunities to drive the various Kansas lines, and one of these trips brought me to Durand. I met a very nice lady who was working the assignment, but cannot remember her name. In those days the railroads were very friendly, and she told me a lot about how the operations at Durand worked. This was also the first time I encountered one of the U23Bs with an EMD cab. What fun! A nice fall day, friendly employees, a nice locomotive find, and plenty more tracks to follow. Lots of depots were still extant. I remember being very impressed with the Yates Center depot. Wish I had taken more photos.
Jerry Michels
July 26, 2018 at 1:08 am #7718princessclyne69ParticipantYes, since the depot must have been still standing at that time. Early 80s is when the MoPac knocked down most of the depots on that line. I believe it was 1984 when the Eureka depot was demolished.
Early photos show a hotel and eating house just to the west of the depot, which was at the edge of town. The Santa Fe had crossed there, until it was taken out in the 30s. Also early on, the north-south line came into town until it was straightened and the interchange was moved to Durand.
You don’t have a photo or two, do you?
RG7
July 26, 2018 at 10:25 pm #8812Bud MossParticipantRon, I have one (yep as I said, I wish I had taken more). But it is still nice. Jerry
July 26, 2018 at 10:27 pm #7664Bud MossParticipantSince we are talking about Durand….
July 26, 2018 at 10:30 pm #7665Bud MossParticipantCan someone identify this depot? I believe it is Eureka Kansas. Jerry
July 26, 2018 at 10:50 pm #7715peggyrothschildParticipantJerry
Durand is much uglier than I remember… any shots of Iola? Last time I saw it it was remade into a donut shot.July 26, 2018 at 11:32 pm #8899Bud MossParticipantI don’t have Iola, or Iuka, or Radium, …. most were gone by the early 1980s, or re-purposed and I did not catch them. Jerry
July 28, 2018 at 1:54 pm #8904princessclyne69ParticipantBased on the orientation, and the structures behind it, and the position of the buzzsaw, I’d say this is Eureka.
That elevator in the background was taken down by the tornado four or five years ago, then just earlier this summer the town got hit again, taking down more of the center of town. I haven’t been back since, since we came and went from Wichita (Newton) this time by train. I do have better pictures of both towns from a few years ago, but I didn’t shoot much when I was there long ago.
RG7
July 28, 2018 at 3:26 pm #8905princessclyne69ParticipantJerry:
I had been to the Greenwood County Historical Society building and got a copy of the newspaper clipping on ‘MoPac just tore down our depot’ from 1984. I can’t lay my hands on it, but it was a view from the west (street) end. I, too, regret not getting out that direction before everything was demolished.
Here’s a grab from eBay. Unfortunately, I lost the auction for the slide itself. Evidently sometime around 1960, and the wood bunk car with yellow end was an even better find.
[attachment=0:2j3aqn65]Eureka.jpg[/attachment:2j3aqn65]
RG7
July 29, 2018 at 12:15 am #8908bargetanikaParticipantThe photo of the yellow end of the wood bunk car arrived very timely for me. I’m getting ready to do a couple of bunk cars, and this photo clearly shows that the yellow paint stops below the roof fascia . Now all I need is a side photo showing how far it extended on the car side.
I remember box car red heavyweight MOW cars but I don’t remember yellow ends on them.
July 29, 2018 at 4:08 pm #8910princessclyne69ParticipantYellow ends were supposed to signify occupied (outfit) cars, meaning for one thing, don’t couple into them the way you would a string of freight cars.
I’ve looked at some photos of steel outfit cars, rebuilt from both passenger or pullman cars and boxcars. One boxcar outfit car has the yellow on the ends only, with no wrapping onto the ends at all. Most show two to four feet of yellow on the sides, so in a passenger car that would take it a foot or so beyond the end of the vestibule. Charlie Duckworth posted some photos of wooden outfit cars rebuilt from boxcars or reefers, which also show three or four feet of wrapping onto the side.
Hope this helps.
RG7
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