Business car train – need help with location

[peggyrothschild]

[attachment=0:20av4oty]136BBA13-9684-4C03-9A4F-0CE4CFEB2BE3.jpeg[/attachment:20av4oty]
Tony Fey photo of two business cars. Can anyone help with the location?

[Bud Moss]

My first thought was Fredonia, KS. Tony would have been in this area, but I am sure there are others more familiar with the Kansas branch lines. Jerry

[clemmie_doris12]

My first thought was Fredonia, KS. Tony would have been in this area, but I am sure there are others more familiar with the Kansas branch lines. Jerry

I worked there in 1978 and 1979 and it is definitely not Fredonia. I’m guessing it is somewhere other than the SE Kansas area.

[princessclyne69]

My first thought would be Hutchinson.

This is based on the highway overpass, and the (freight) depot on the south side of the tracks. The photo would have been taken from in front of the passenger depot, if this is Hutch.

RG7

[peggyrothschild]

Ron
I’m not convinced it’s Hutchison as the window in the color photo are curved at the top and this b/w shot by Howard Killiam is straight. Think we need more photos of Kansas freight stations.

[attachment=0:3c9px6pz]26199438-5DCC-4CBD-9F8D-CF090FD580CC.jpeg[/attachment:3c9px6pz]

[Joseph Berry]

Charlie,

Your photo is of the ‘replacement’ depot. Built after the original collapsed into a salt mine.

The photo with the business car train shows the train parked by “a” freight house…not the depot.

At Hutchinson, when I worked there in the late 70’s….I think I remember an older freight house just to the west
of the depot. I could be making that up??? As many times as I checked the yard….I couldn’t remember the street overpass. Not to say there wasn’t (isn’t) one…I just don’t remember. I worked in the ‘new’ passenger depot, as in your photo. The Agency office was in the center of the building, the operator did have a bay window (in the new depot), and the Traffic Office was in the east end with a separate entrance, which your photo shows.

In the photo with the train, you can see the concrete passenger platform where the photographer is standing.
This was just outside the bay window and was longer than the length of the ‘new’ depot.

Also, in your photo of the ‘new’ depot, you can see the old freight house in the background! Now that I have FINALLY
enlarged the photo…….Ha, Ha. To me, that says: Hutchinson.

Maybe…I should trust my memory more often???

Gary

[peggyrothschild]

Gary
Thanks for the additional fact finding!

Charlie

[princessclyne69]

Today’s view, looking west at the depot site in Hutchinson —

[attachment=1:e58fli1g]P1150023crop.jpg[/attachment:e58fli1g]

And a view of the eastbound passenger track signal —

[attachment=0:e58fli1g]P1150021crop.jpg[/attachment:e58fli1g]

The line from Wichita comes into Hutchinson, curves west across a bridge and then immediately jogs to the south, exactly as far over as if there had been a turnout here and the straight route had been removed. Just shy of two blocks west, right before crossing Main, there is another jog as if the through track was removed and the passenger siding had become the main track. Earlier photos of the depot area actually show three tracks right next to the depot. I did not examine the west end of this area where the railroad passes under the K-96 overpass, but I’ll have to return next time I’m up here.

I don’t have a condensed profile chart for this part of the railroad, so my description of the previous track layout is only conjecture.

RG7

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