Recently I inherited two rolls of 35MM negatives shot by the late Wayne Leeman, a longtime St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who wrote many articles on railroads. One roll of 36 exposures was taken when he rode a freight from Springfield, MO to St. Louis in 1942. The other was of a trip from Tulsa to Floydada in April of 1954. Both rolls were uncut and stored in the film canisters since shot. They have curled up and taken a set much like blue temper spring steel. Since getting them, I have cut them into 6 exposure strips and have been working to scan them, no easy job. The 1942 roll is in bad shape from being unwound, printed and wound back up over the years. It's going to take a long time to make them presentable. The 1954 roll is in much better shape scratch wise and I plan to post photos from them as I get them cleaned up. Keep an eye on this post and I will keep adding to it as I get them processed. I'll attempt to keep them in order but no guarantees. First shot is of the Quanah depot in April of 1954.
So far these appear to have come out really well. Good luck with the rest of them. I'm looking forward to seeing them posted. GS
They sure are priceless. We are all used to seeing locomotive photographs, but there is really so much more to the story. These photos are telling it. Keep 'em coming! Gordon P.S. Love the QA&P caboose -- I knew some GP-7's were lettered QA&P, but didn't realize anything still carried the logo that late.
What would the little passeger train be? Tr. 609 or 409 some such? Would that be in a Frisco timetable or a Quannah? Thanks, Tom
Thanks Don! These are great. Keep 'em coming. Nice partial side view of Frisco Enterprise ballast hopper SLSF 96241 in the tower.jpg pic. Was the Quanah depot really used for a depot, or was it the QA&P office building? I don't see a platform if it was a depot, but I don't know squat about the QA&P. Are those parking meters on the street? Ken
Here come some more, again not necessarily in order, but the devout can probably place them. Nice steel water tank with the QA&P logo in the background.
Obviously at Floydada now, note the ATSF caboose. I have one or two "out the cupola" shots left and that's all folks.
This about does it folks. Hope you enjoyed. Whoever has a TT can verify where 250+20 pole lengths is located. Also an example of the older milepost installations.
Yes. Thanks for sharing Don! I think this is somewhere between Springfield and Monett. Southwestern Division (and QA&P) timetable 46 (From September 18,1965) shows the mile marker for Monett as 282.0, and that's the lowest number in this particular timetable. The highest mile marker on the QA&P is Floydada with a distance from Quanah of 110.9. Paul
That's what I thought, that it was on the Eastern Div but couldn't figure out how it got in the middle of the QA&P stuff. Can't ask Wayne any more.
Don, I am thinking the tower in the first group of pictures is Springfield instead of Tulsa. The yard shots are also Springfield. Mike L
You could very well be right Mike, there are no notes or anything else to go with the negs. That would make the shot at Republic make more sense. For some reason I had it in my mind that he rode from Tulsa to Floydada.