Kansas City 1980

[@jeffhacker3323]

I really enjoyed this. I remember driving around town seeing the old KCT black switchers working. The KCS photos took me back too. Many an evening I watched a trio of those old white engines go past my apartment. I miss my city.

[@chrisyoder3694]

Great video , brings back memories. I worked for the Frisco and remember all of the scenes. Remember going to the Rock Island on transfers and going on the ground in the Armourdale yard , made a Big day.

[@tommyhunter1817]

Wow, 1980’s KC was rail fan heaven and we didn’t even realize it. Now it’s basically just orange and yellow.

[@elliottpestock7271]

It’s sad isn’t it? The monopolization of class 1 railroads has made railroads so much less interesting and colorful.

[@vernette39]

Thanks for showing me what the trains looked like back in the day.

[@Fred-kz5xh]

I especially like any photo with the Western Auto building in the background. Brings back memories going to Union Station late at night when I was a kid in the 60's to catch the West bound train and the lights of the city and the main Post Office.

[@littlebitseaton2925]

Gary, great photos and wonderful music along with it

[@cacline72]

Living 50 miles North of Kansas City I can say that it's changed a lot.

[@kansasisntflat8608]

Cacline72 yeah downtown was a hell hole in the 90’s

[@mratsfrailfan1894]

Yeah I live 10 miles from union station and it’s changed a lot with the terminal tracks all gobe

[@derdin8]

There are still a couple of those Santa Fe cabooses hanging around the railyards in Santa Fe, out of use of course!

[@Zebrails]

Every picture is worth a thousand words... and Gary, you aught to be putting these pictures in a book so that someone can take the book outside at their off-grid cabin and absorb every treasure you have provided in photo's, a thousand times.

[@superbulldog81]

Great seeing the Missouri Pacific, or Mo Pac as I called it. Mo Pac had a line in SW La that ran from the Texas state line to Baton Rouge, and from Alexandria to Lake Charles. My uncle lived in Kinder, La, which was the cross roads for Mo Pac. He lived one block away from the Mo Pac diamond, and I have fond memories of watching Mo Pac trains go by.

[@Cnw8701]

I'm pretty sure every railfan commonly refers to the MP as "the MoPac"! They even have a freeway in Texas named after it.

[@3373-g8z]

It was a great year, I was only 10, possibly the peak of my life...

[@vernette39]

I was 10 also but I grew up in Kansas City.

[@michaelp8794]

Interesting to see the Hyatt under construction in these photos ... just a few months after these pictures were taken was the terrible tragedy there.

[@urijahjackson4502]

I'm a few minutes away from KCMO and it really is different then back then!

[@slycat1939]

AWESOME i am from kcks love this

[@gwb-eh2vb]

thanks for a wonderful trip down memory lane. would like to ask who played the piano on the first part of this "trip down the old memory lane?

[@treehugger1640]

Am I listening to Emerson Lake & Palmer with Jethro Tull humming in the background?

[@MrBnsftrain]

1:33 nice catch of an Alaska Railroad caboose in Kansas City! I saw someone else photgrpahed another ARR caboose in Kansas City www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3693223 3:37 I never knew there was a roundhouse in the West Bottoms! 3:48 How rare was GM&O power back then? 9:34 those inspection cars are neat! 10:00 I hardly ever come across pictures of the Kansas City Railroad Museum, but I have seen Turbine 18 at the IRYM!

[@bcrnfan]

Interesting pictures. Too bad you ignored the Rock Island. They operated three months into 1980.

[@locoboose1]

bcrnfan i didn’t, I got there after they were gone. I was with the SP team taking over the Rock.

[@bobbym.2130]

I love KCMO!

[@botondzagoni550]

Hello, greetings from Hungary, Europe. Who is the piano player on the first part? Perhaps Billy Taylor...? Can you upload some old videos from the steam era of Kansas City ? Friendly, Z.

[@derp8575]

From 1980 to present day, would you say America is better or worse off?

[@pauljohnson8421]

I miss all those fallen flags

[@buzzcrushtrendkill]

Thanks for sharing. It might be more informative to have "trains" in the title.

[@cmyFUfinger]

Frisco 😀