10/15/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  On October 7 I was in Abilene helping out at the Heritage Days Festival and the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad was operating it's steam locomotive 3415.  It's a former Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Pacific type locomotive which means it has a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement.  It was operating for it's last weekend before it has to undergo it's 15 year boiler rebuild as required by the FRA.  They thought that last year would be the last but found that the hours had been miscalculated and were able to operate for another year.  Amazingly enough to me, as much as I love trains and the ATSF railroad in particular, I have never ridden behind this engine, I have only photographed it.  I have a video of it HERE heading out for it's first of 2 runs and coming back from the second.

2/26/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Todays image is from this past October when the Abilene & Smoky Valley railroad was operating former ATSF locomotive 3415.  It was it's last weekend of operation before it went in for it's FRA inspection and tube replacement.  I decided to give this image a B&W treatment to give it a rather timeless look.  It was waiting to head out with it's dinner train.

10/30/22

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image, once again, is centered on the locomotive from the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad.  This is Santa Fe 3415, a Pacific 4-6-2 engine.  I was able to see it operating on October 1, 2022.  

10/9/22

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's post is about a steam engine from my all time favorite railroad, the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe.  The Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad restored locomotive 3415, a Pacific type (4 - 6 - 2 wheel arrangement) Baldwin built in 1919 and saw regular service out of Argentine Yard in Kansas City until it was retired in 1954 and donated to the city of Abilene, Kansas.  In 1996, the city donated it to the ASVRR.  It sat on display until 2005 when restoration began.  It has been running excursions since then and is now due for it's 15 year FRA inspection.  The ASVRR will also be looking at the engine and repairing anything it may need during this time.  It is expected to be down for 18 months at least while all this takes place.

I was in Abilene and able to capture several photos and videos of it during some of it's last runs.  I have some drone footage shared HERE where I once again messed up moving the camera because I was not paying attention because I was taking this photo.  Sigh.  Anyway, I was glad to be able to see and capture it run before it's long break.

12/13/20

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog.  Today is a bit different.  While searching in the archives for photos I found these 2 of the same locomotive that I took at 2 different times.  These are both of Santa Fe locomotive 811, a Consolidation type 2-8-0, which had been donated by AT&SF in 1954 to the city of Atchison Kansas.  It was on display at what was then called Station Park.  The 2nd image shows it in it's current location right near the old AT&SF depot which is the home of the Historical Society.  It looks like they performed some cosmetic restoration of the locomotive as well as some of it in the original photo is quite rusted out.  You can see the 12 inch gauge track running along side it where there is still large scale locomotives operated on.  They used to run an Ottaway locomotive which I also have but not sure if it is in operating condition at the moment.

11/26/19

Today's image was taken near the Topeka Kansas train station as well.  You can catch a glimpse of it to the left.  This Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe caboose was sitting there the day I went to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Shops.  It seemed a bit odd at the time because you don't see many around these days and in looking at my photo there seems to be something else odd with it.  I see nowhere on it in the photo that it is marked for BNSF.  Makes me wonder if it is one someone has purchased and is in the process of being delivered?  A note as well, Passenger Trains never used cabooses, they were only used I freight trains.