Topeka Railroad Days Topeka Railroad Days caused me to
take a harder look at the line, at least during Labor Day weekends. A festival which began in 1986 and ended in 2000, TRD featured exotic locomotives and passenger varnish. Spotless Santa Fe “yellow bonnets” pulling an equally spotless set of passenger cars were my first images shot in 1990. Although I did not participate every year, I managed to capture images of Santa Fe warbonnets on a Topeka- Lawrence excursion in 1995, followed by a special apparence of Frisco 4-8-2 No. 1522 in 1996, a passenger consist pulled by a BNSF “Heritage I” unit in 1997, a visit from Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 261 in 1998, and the beautiful “BN- 1” executive F-unit in 1999. Each year offered something new and exotic to look forward to.
Occasionally I visited the Topeka Railroad Days displays at Forbes Field, but more often I simply attempted to capture an excursion run on its way
RIGHT: A Santa Fe CF7 leads the Topeka Sub local as it passes the Kansas Power & Light power plant northwest of Lawrence, in Sep- tember 1978. The line saw little traffic back then. BELOW: Bright new Santa Fe warbon- nets lead an excursion train into Lawrence on the morning of September 4, 1995, as part of the Topeka Railroad Days festivities.
south or east of Topeka. The most memorable day was September 2, 1996, when I jumped into an SUV near Forbes Field with Chris Guss and Dan Munson (both railfans and railroad em- ployees), who entertained me while we chased the 1522 pulling passenger cars south of Topeka. Since its demise, I have come to appreciate the volunteer work that went into the activity and wish it would return.
Manned Helpers in Kansas? Many who read my claim of manned locomotives shoving on the end of trains in the Land of Oz might imagine Dorothy skeptically saying to her dog Toto, “Something tells me we’re not in Kansas anymore.” But it is true. For years the Union Pacific handed over a loaded coal train to the Santa Fe at Topeka. From there they took the train 60 miles southwest to Emporia on its
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RAILFAN.COM
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