Museum Receives Historical Railroad Collection

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The Museum of the Great Plains in Leoti, Wichita County, Kansas has received the wonderful railroad collection of the late Richard L. George. To many residents of the Emporia area Richard was known as "Bicycle"! Richard acquired this nickname because of his love of riding his bicycle. As a young man in his late teens and twenties, he competed in many bicycle races in the Emporia area. In about 1933, he captured the first place honors in a 5-mile race staged by the Y.M.C.A. He finished the race in 15 minutes flat, or an average speed of 20 miles per hour. Richard began his railroad career as a fireman in the early 1940’s and went on to become an engineer of steam locomotives. One of Richard’s favorite engines, which he drove, was Santa Fe’s streamlined steam engine, the "Blue Goose". As the steam engine era changed to diesel, Richard was certified as a diesel engineer. All of his test scores and certification papers are included in the collection. He loved his job on the railroad.

In his later years he went to live with his son and daughter, Lloyd Boes and Elaine Bradshaw in Garden City, Kansas. From a window of their home, Richard could see the roof top of the old depot sitting on the north side of the highway at Pierceville. Richard was seeing the depot which was later moved to the Selkirk Well Site in Wichita County.

The families of Richard George have graciously donated the items in memory of their father to be displayed in that depot. Among the railroad articles for display will be his engineer "weigh box", which the engineer must take on each run. It is filled with many of his instruction manuals, train orders, souvenirs of railroad fairs, photographs of trains, his 20 and 30 year railroad pins, a certificate of 32 years of service, pins, certificates, and manuals of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman & Engineers. Among the collection was a train track jack, a railroad pick, many assorted railroad lanterns, and a large framed lithograph of the beautiful Santa Fe "Blue Goose", and one of the Union Station in Kansas City.

                A lot like Christmas!                                Elaine Bradshaw & Lloyd Boes

Richard enjoyed the art of photography and took many slides and movies of trains and railroad. There are photographs of trains, wrecks, blizzards and many of the Kansas Flood of 1951. Richard made several scrapbooks of the newspaper articles of the stories of the flood, among these pages are his train orders at the time of the flood. He has written a detailed story in diary form of his involvement at this time of such terrible destruction. All of these photos, scrapbooks, slides, and footage of movies have been donated to the museum. This in itself is a fantastic "first account" piece of history.

Part of Richard's collection is on display at The Museum of the Great Plains, in Leoti, Kansas. Upon completion of the restoration of the depot, it will be moved to Selkirk, 10 miles west of Leoti.

by Karen Walk

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