Train Ride | Run with the engineer of a vintage Katy Railroad locomotive!

#trains #railroad #railway
In this episode of The Main Track, we ride with the engineer of a 60-year-old locomotive! In the spring of 2018, the Katy Railroad Historical Society hosted its annual convention in the Kansas City area. Part of the event included a special charter passenger train ride on the Midland Railway, located in Baldwin City, Kansas. Appropriately, the power for the trip was former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad RS3M #142. The unit was originally built in 1951 before being rebuilt in 1959. The locomotive stayed on the Katy roster through the Union Pacific merger, before being acquired by the Midland Railway in the 1990s. Climb aboard with "Locomotive Mike" Landis as he joins engineer Dan Dawson for a cab ride in 142 as she makes her way down a former Santa Fe Railway branch line between Baldwin City, Kansas, to Norwood, Kansas- just north of the town of Ottawa. If you're ever in the Kansa City area, you'll want to check out the Midland, which offers a variety of excursion and dinner trains, as well as special event trips throughout the year.

[@hughsmith790]

I am glad to see that someone documented a ride on the old MKT engine before the railroads total demise. I have been in the cab of that engine on a trip to Ottawa, KS and back.

[@MainTrack]

Hello! It was certainly a lot of fun riding in that unit. It’s the only ex-Katy engine I’ve had the chance to go for a run in. I’m thankful engineer Dan invited me along for the ride! -Mike

[@Train2589]

i sure do miss doing the "two stroke shuffle" on 142 and the other motors we had. Such a shame what happened to cause the Midland to die but it was great fun while it lasted. i still have many photos and a few videos from being on and around the railroad through the few shorts years i was a member there. Happy to say that 142 and the others were saved and are now part of the Ottawa Northern , part of Rock Island Rail's network of railroads

[@MainTrack]

Hello! That’s great to hear about the 142…glad to hear she is still working! I sure enjoyed my visit to the Midland and wish I could gave made it back before all the big changes. -Mike

[@WestOkieRailroadVideos]

The RS3M is the locomotive equivalent of Frankenstein's monster. Amazing to see one running to this day. Great video and production work, glad to see more from you!

[@MainTrack]

West Okie Railroad Videos- thanks for the compliments. Yes, she’s a pretty neat beast! Definitely has a “what the heck?” look to it, but that was the Katy for ya. Ha. Thanks for watching.

[@carlzipperman6689]

Is the horn a Nathan old cast P5?

[@youmadbro742]

Loved growing up outside of Lawrence,KS and going on the trains in Baldwin. I'm 23 work on the railroad and still enjoy going back home pre covid back to baldwin

[@spacetruckerrob]

The Union Railroad in Pittsburg did the same rebuild to their Baldwins, called the Buffaloes! The NYC/Conrail RS 3m “Dewitt,NY “ rebuilds only had a boxlike addition to the hood roof to accommodate the EMD engines , hence keeping the all original RS 3 appearance! Great video!

[@brockpaine]

Used to live in Baldwin City a few decades ago, and I had a few opportunities as a teenager to ride in the cab of #142, as well as the Rock Island E8 Rocket. Good memories!

[@chrisyoder3694]

I always enjoyed running 142 , loaded very nice. Remember when she was still Green and Yellow on arrival at the Midland Railroad , I think only two past Presidents of the Katy Railroad Historical Society have been on her. And as far as I know I'm the only Past President to have operated her on the Midland Railroad, She was the main power on several years of the rock trains we operated.

[@MainTrack]

Hi, Chris! It was a cool experience being in the cab for the run, and I imagine she is a lot of fun to operate. I’ve been told Midland is going through the process to start serving a freight customer again. Do you know if that would be the quarry?

[@chrisyoder3694]

@@MainTrack That would be my guess , but I'm no longer involved with the group. We did run rock trains for Fogle Quarry at Ottawa. I was the regular Engineer on the job , nearly 3 years.

[@kevinchristel485]

Nice video. The sounds of an Alco RS brought back memories of my childhood in the late 50’s / early 60’s when my friend and I could distinguish the sound of an Alco-powered freight vs one powered by EMD (GP-7’s) from about 5 miles away! Great memories along the Reading RR’s Port Reading branch.

[@bradleymcwilliams6348]

So Mr. Landis, I watched this video not knowing anything about you, and I thought: "He sure sounds like a professional. He could make a living doing voice over stuff or the news or something". Then I looked at your website, and what do ya' know... Great video, I enjoyed it. Will be watching the others now. Thanks.

[@josephineledford351]

I've actually gotten the opportunity to start that locomotive before!

[@HoboRoadrunner]

I slept under the caboose one summer night really cool town

[@MainTrack]

Hi! Yes, it is a pretty cool place! It's a nice place to visit.

[@onrr1726]

The unit looks to have been set up to run long hood forward. The Alco engines them selves were made in my home town of Auburn, NY then shipped off to be installed at the man factory near Albany.

[@old56timer]

Well at least that old engine is getting light duty work at this stage of it's life. I have never operated one like it but operated gp 7 and 9s some even a few fs.

[@thetrashman69]

Fun fact: the leveanworth and lawrence railroad was part of a three way race to Indian Territory in the 1870s against two other roads. The winner got exclusive rights to build through Indian territory before anyone else. The other two roads were the union pacific south branch, which became the MKT, and the missouri river, fort scott and gulf rr which eventually became a major part of the Frisco system. MKT won the race, the MR FS & G came in second and the Leavenworth and Lawrence ran out of money halfway there

[@MainTrack]

GMFdrummer- that’s some pretty interesting history! I appreciate you sharing those details.

[@brandtbecker1810]

I was active with the MIdland Railway in the early 1990's and rode the 142 as fireman on several occasions. My far and away favorite locomotive was the E-8 former CRI&P "Rocket" but the 142 had the nicest air horn. The Rocket boasted a 5-chime horn but it was dreadfully out-of-tune; it sounded like a 5th grade trumpet section trying to tune their horns - ugh! In my time, the 142 was still in it's green and yellow paint scheme. I never knew Dan Dawson as he must have come along much later. I will list some of the folks with whom I had the pleasure of working with during my time there. Engineers: Delbert "Bud" Johnson, Ernest Griffin, and Terry Roberts. Conductors: Alan Maty and Charlie Pitcher. Brakemen: Irv Sanders and Arthur "Art" Davis. Mr. Robert Hruska was the head ticket agent at that time and Mr. Ross M. Bryan was Chief Mechanical Officer - I loved hearing his Santa Fe adventure stories. The line in the early 90's was only active to a point at the Douglas/Franklin County line called "Nowhere". You'll see this spot around 14:50 as the train perpares to cross the most impressive structure on the line - the Tauy Creek Trestle. (It was ashame they didn't photograph the train actually crossing it). Midland was then known as "The Railroad to Nowhere". Nowhere was indeed a bona fide station as the law says that in order for a railroad to charge a tariff, it must have an origin AND a destination. That despite the fact that all we did was go out from Baldwin and back up again to Baldwin. And as we couldn't safely go to Norwood or Ottawa at that time, thus was born Nowhere. I don't know what the Midland's status is as of now (12/24/2022). With a triple whammy of a pandemic, politics, and some questionable economics involved, I understand that the road had suspended its operations indefinately. That is a shame for those who were volunteers who did not otherwise have railroad jobs; in many cases this was the only chance many of these folks had to work around a live railroad environment.

[@MainTrack]

Hello! It sounds like you have some good memories out slat the Midland! We filmed this during one of the Katy Railroad Historical Society conventions being held in KC. I am more of a green-yellow guy myself., as that’s the era I’m from. But, I will still foam over anything with a Katy herald on it. Ha. was a great time and I enjoyed getting to ride an old MKT workhorse. There is some positive news regarding the railroad. You are correct, it had some issues and ended up shutting down for a while. But, I understand a new outfit purchased it within the last year and it’s back up and running. I haven’t been back up there to check things out since then. Perhaps it’s time for a follow-up video! -Mike

[@brandtbecker1810]

@@MainTrack I am glad to hear that they're up and running again. I'll have to make a trip down there in the spring. I truly enjoyed my time with them "back in the day" but a couple of bad experiences with "real" railroads sort of burned me out of any prospect of actively participating there again - assuming they still use volunteers. I'm not yet 60 years old and I am truly heartsick at the railroad scene in this country (and state of KS) as it is now. I can remember in 1975 Kansas having had EIGHT Class 1 railroads (Nine if you count C&NW's trackage rights on MoPac from Leavenworth to KCMO) - now there are only three (and now KCS is about to sell out to those damned Canucks) coupled with those 10mph in the weeds shortline operations like WATCO. Wish we could go back in time.

[@thetrashman69]

Such an interesting class of locomotives. The Frisco and Rock Island rostered similar rebuilds. In addition to their appearance I find it odd that they kept them set up to run long hood forward.

[@MainTrack]

GMFdrummer, hi! Yes, it seems I’ve seen some pictures of Frisco’s and Rock’s versions of these. I’ve seen video of this unit, number 142, and 143 coupled short hood to short hood working Parsons Yard. I can’t imagine that being the best for visibility while switching, but they made it work.

[@thetrashman69]

@@MainTrack 143 was sold to the SEK railroad and was used for several years. There's some pictures as late as 2008 of it setting in a dead line waiting to be scrapped

[@paulgrimm7842]

Lived near Katy Texas when the railroad ran east and west

[@billmorris2613]

Good evening from St John Parish, Louisiana 21 Oct 20.

[@clintlacy7358]

Soon to be part of Robert Riley's Rock Island Rail system

[@MainTrack]

Is he acquiring this line? I hadn’t heard that. That would be cool and I’d love to learn more about that!

[@StevieWonder737]

That track is as rickety as the old Katy track. Don't think they did much, if any, track maintenance for the last 10 years of its existence.

[@MainTrack]

It is pretty rough riding and just enough maintenance to get by. Just like the Katy, they're still not in much of a hurry nowadays. Ha. thanks for watching!

[@dochammer3047]

Riding out of Baldwin sitting in a Alco.

[@MainTrack]

Yes, that’s pretty much it! It was certainly Katy’s version of a Frankenstein…a good kind of monster at that! -Mike

[@jackiestory4805]

this is my home town

[@terrypbug]

I think the UP track here in Coweta Oklahoma use to be Katy

[@kimrok1]

Worked on the railroad for 25 years and never heard "clear" in the cab before.. Must be a railfan thing.

[@MainTrack]

Hello! Very interesting…thank you for clarifying that. Perhaps some of the guys from that railroad can add some insight here. -Mike

[@AllenCNW441]

When we started operation in 1987, the KCC required that all road crossings had to be flagged-at that time, it was “legal” to mount/dismount a moving train - a crewman would dismount the loco, run to the crossing, flag, then re-mount- not a safe practice- but we ran slow. Eventually got KCC to do away with that rule. The “Crossing Clear” just happened to become a standard call-out - nothing in the Rules required it -

[@gordonvincent731]

They changed out the ALCo/GE controller for an EMD one.

[@trainworldstudio7185]

What’s the frequency of the mna Nevada sub and is there any trains on the Kcs Mexico sub

[@MainTrack]

Train World Studio - hi there! Neither of the lines are super busy, unfortunately. The Nevada Sub has one regularly scheduled freight per day each way. Some days there will be grain extras. I’ve even seen an occasional UP reroute. There had been about 2 to 3 coal trains per week for the KCP&L plant at Montrose, but that facility had since shut down. UP had been running some empties north from the Entergy power plant at Independence, AR, but a former MNA employee recently told me those are no longer running up the MNA. So, things are a little quieter compared to a ha duo of years ago. As for the KCS Mexico Sub, I would say that line is busier but not by much. Personal observation would say 4 to 5 trains a day, but perhaps a KCS person out there will see this and chime in. Thanks!

[@stevepowell6896]

I believe the radio freq is 160.635. Sometimes MNA runs to Eve to pick up/leave cars for the ADM plant. The Katy from the hwy 54 overpass west of Eve to just west of 255th st. at Ft Scott is currently used to store empty coal cars.

[@trainworldstudio7185]

Do you also know if the knob knoster siding is still uesd

[@fredlohmann1448]

SOME RS3M'S LOOK LIKE GP9'S!!

[@MainTrack]

Hi, Fred! That’s true! The long hoods on these Katy units actually came from GP9 carbodies. They’re definitely very unique locomotives! -Mike

[@fredlohmann1448]

@@MainTrack THEN WHY THE DIFFERENT HEADLIGHT IN THE FRONT?

[@christinagates-pn6tx]

Will they do this again

[@MainTrack]

Hello! I do believe they are running these excursion trips again. They were on hold for a while, but I understand they’re back open. I need to take another trip up there! -Mike

[@MFXdump]

Lol! People in the comments complaining about the track condition. Why would an excursion need to run at 50mph?

[@MainTrack]

Yes, an excursion is all about taking your time and enjoying the experience. Also, most tourist railroads have shorter stretches of track. Rushing there and back would make for a pretty quick trip! Ha. -Mike

[@kansasstatealerting717]

The Katy used to run through Emporia, Kansas. Line has been gone for years now.

[@alanheartsill4867]

What are the green boards by the crossing

[@MainTrack]

William Heartsill- thanks for watching! Railroads put up these board to indicate temporary track restrictions. This could be for track conditions, work going on, etc. A yellow board indicates a restriction ahead, red board indicates the beginning of a restriction. The green board denotes the end of the restriction, and once the last car of the train passes that board, they are good to return to normal track speed. I hope that helps!

[@kimrok1]

@@MainTrack They are flags, not boards. Green flag, yellow flag, red flag, yellow red flag.

[@robertgift]

6:22 going up a hill? Would like to have heard thengine there. Why were you talking??

[@derekrohan9619]

Painfully slow