20th Century Steam
1970s

Photos by Mike Condren

In Feb, 1970, friends Tony Marchiando and Bill Welsch accompanied me from Rolla to Reader for a ride. If I remember correctly, Tony got a cab ride from Reader to Waterloo. Here we see the train returning from the interchange with the freight cars for our mixed train.

Here we see 2-6-2 #108 switching the loading tracks at the refinery at Waterloo. Bill is barely seen at the right side of the photo.

The Southern operated an excursion from St. Louis to Mount Vernon, Il in June 1970. I chased the train to Centrailia, IL.

The "Flying Scotsman" toured the US in 1970. I drove to Mexico, MO to meet up with the train. I then chased it into St. Louis and toured the train in St. Louis Union Station.

While I was taking this picture, I noticed that I was standing next to Jim Boyd and pointed out to him that the 3 F3s were all different versions.

In the chase, I caught the train at Wright City, MO.

After returning from my graduation trip to Camp Welcome, Que, I visited the Six Flags over Missouri amusement park and rode and photographed one of their steam trains.

Before leaving grad school in Rolla, MO, friend Bill Welsch and I made a trip to WI and IL in search of steam and other railroading. We drove all night to North Freedom, WI and the Mid-Continent Rail Museum. The first engine that we see is Western Coke & Coal #1.

The first photo shows D&R #9 returning from a passenger trip to the end of the line. It is then seen after it has run around the train which now has coupled to the train. D&R #9 then heads to the engine house, ending its day of operation.

We then repositioned ourselves at Summit along Ulrich Rd. The first train is powered by Western Coke & Coal.

Next we see the train pulled by Warren & Oauchita Valley #1.

We then got the Western Coke & Coal train returning.

The next train was headed by the Warren & Oauchita Valley engine.

After the day at North Freedom, we drove to Madison, WI and spent the night. The next morning we drove to the Illinois Rail Museum at Union, IL where we found the following steam engine pulling trains on their restored interurban mainline. We saw Frisco 1630 which would later be rebuilt and operated.

Reader 2-8-0 #1702 is seen switching the MP connection in Reader, AR before heading to Waterloo with the mixed train.

This is my view of the ride to Waterloo on top of the tender of Reader #1702.

Reader #1702 is seen switching the refinery at Waterloo.

My favorite Reader engine was their 1702. It was built for the U S Army in Sept. 1942, the month I was born. The Reader got the engine from the Warren & Saline River where I first saw it in Sept. 1961.

There was a gathering of live steam engines on a plantation south of Jonesboro, AR in a community called Whitehall. There was a large loop of track for the beautiful engines to run around.

In 1972 my parents and I drove to Denver so that I could ride a UP 8444 excursion to Laramie, WY. Here we see the train stopped at Greeley, CO on the way to Laramie.

Here are the first 2 runbys of the day on Sherman Hill, WY.

The next day we went to Denver Union Station to shoot the Amtrak San Francisco train. Little did we expect that the UP 8444 would be leading the Amtrak diesels. In those days the train pulled into Union Station and the power was run around and the train pulled backwards to Cheyenne where it was reversed again.

After leaving Denver, we toured much of the narrow gauge coutry and followed all of the Rio Grande Southern territory before ending in Durango where we caught this train returning from Silverton.

During our ride on the way to Silverton, I took this shot at the high line above the Animas River at Rockwood.

After our ride, we drove back north of Durango and I got this shot of the daily race of a horse and the train at the Red Barn where the waitresses put on a show for the passengers as the train rolls by.

I shot the Silverton train leaving Durango the next morning before we headed to Chama, Antonito and Alamosa.

After leaving Durango, CO, we drove to Antonito, CO. I shot this train arriving at Antonito from Chama. We will ride this train to Chama the next day.

I shot this picture of our train in Antonito, CO before we left. We will ride this train to Chama.

We rode the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad from there to Chama, NM.

The stop at the Cumbres Pass station.

During the years of passenger operations, I made several trips to "Ride the Reader". This trip drew #108 as our power.

Here we see Reader #1702 running through the typical forest land through which the railroad ran on its way to the refinery at Waterloo.

In the 1970s, a cotton planter in Scott, AR developed a steam excursion around his plantation as the Scott and Bearskin Lake Railroad using steam which once ran in Texas as part of the W T Carter Lumber operation. Later this operation was moved to Eureka Springs, AR on the ROW of the Arkansas & Ozarks and its predecessors.

In this view from 1974, the Cotton Belt station at Scott as been moved to the S&BSL and remodeled.

Here we see some of the action on the minature railroad, Wabash Frisco & Pacific, at Glencoe, MO.

Here we see the Scott and Bearskin Lake train returning to the Scott, AR station on 6/11/77.

W T Carter & Bro. #2 was also under steam on this Sunday afternoon.

On our honeymoon, we drove through Dearborn, MI where we toured the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I shot this excursion train in Greenfield Village.

We spent the night after Dearborn in Toronto. I had bought a Steam Train Digest at the Grrenfield Village gift shop. In reading through it that night, I discovered that the CN would be running #6060 to Niagara Falls the next morning.

On our trip home, we went by Amish Country and visited the Strasburg Railroad.

After leaving Strasburg, PA, we headed to Cass, WV and the Cass Scenic, pictured below

This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren. If you have materials
that you would like to contribute, contact me at mcondren@cbu.edu