It’s 1952, and Train No.53, the maid of all work on the High Plains Division of the O Gauge Panhandle & Santa Fe, idles across the diamond crossing at Kauke, on the outskirts of Caprock, Texas. This train usually meets its eastward counterpart, No.54, at Crosbyton, the second stop west of Caprock, and Engineer Wallace “Machine Gun” White has No.53 on time, right to the minute. This pair of trains makes a daily trip between Brownwood (where they connect with trains serving Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Angelo) and Clovis, NM, connecting with Nos. 3 and 4, the main line trains between Chicago and Los Angeles/Oakland. They have 15 scheduled station stops, and almost every town is a flagstop for the less occasional passengers. At Abilene, No. 53 always picks up a car of mail from Dallas to California, off of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, and today, instead of the normal baggage car, the T&P had an express boxcar sitting on the interchange track.
Wallace will glide No.53 into the station at Caprock and have a brief conversation with the outbound Engineer, Lloyd “Gabby” Stratton who will extinguish his cigar and mount the seat of PA1 diesel 70L -- a 1947 product of Alco-GE -- and watch for a highball. Once underway, Gabby will have her sprinting across the rolling plains to Dickens, where the railroad begins the ascent onto the caprock of the Texas Panhandle. The big Alco passenger diesel's raspy voice will be shouting as the train ascends the 2% grade to Crosbyton and its scheduled meet with No.54.
Day in, day out, this is early 1950s west Texas railroading on the Panhandle & Santa Fe. The Chiefs all use the northern route, via Albuquerque, La Junta, and Dodge City. Passenger trains on the High Plains Division are humble in comparison, but they are clean, comfortable, and operate with as much employee pride and skill as the Super Chief does.
