ABOVE: Local 31, which for several years con- veniently ran west in the afternoon, is about to pass under Highway 4 between Tecumseh and Topeka on January 19, 2003. The Westar Energy (former KPL) Tecumseh power plant is in background. This local often transferred power from Kansas City’s Argentine yard to the Topeka repair shops, hence the numerous engines. LEFT: Running late, Amtrak’s South- west Chief passes MP 21 just west of Eudora on June 13, 1998.
per cent grade from MP 74 to 75, as well as one per cent climbs at MP 85- 90, 96-101, and 104-105. Connecting these are stretches of .97 to 1.09 down- grades, creating a ride especially chal- lenging for a long, heavy coal drag. The operation was quite striking the
way to the Oklahoma Gas & Electric power station in Red Rock, Okla. Ac- cording to one BNSF employee, in 1996 or 1997 these Red Rock loads began re- ceiving manned rear helpers due to the high number of broken drawbars and knuckles over “Wakarusa Hill” and the grades just west of Reading, Kan. (MP 96.5). These pushers would accompany the train to MP 105, the end of the westbound grades. Most of the time
they would then cut off and return light to Topeka, while on a few occa- sions they would stay on the train to Emporia. The track profile and train weight combined to make helpers necessary. The 1989 Santa Fe Eastern Division Timetable reveals a surprisingly up- and-down route between Topeka and Emporia. There are one per cent west- bound grades from MP 63 to 65, a .85
few times I saw it. The manned helpers were usually a pair of four-axle yellow bonnets, hardly a display of high horse- power. In 1997 I caught the lead power (a handsome warbonnet stuck on the front of two UP AC4400s) and the rear helpers as they passed under U.S. 75 south of Topeka. These, pushers, mod- ern versions of the “little engine that could,” allowed the lumbering Red Rock drags to make it over the hills. The operation changed and eventual-
ly disappeared, along with the train. Around 2005 distributed power re- placed the manned helpers. In 2006 I photographed a pair of much larger
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