On the right track

I like to photograph railroad stations. Probably you will have very few people tell you that in the course of your life but it is just part of my lifelong interest in trains.

Stations are declining in numbers these days. I will usually go out for a two or three day trip with my camera to get shots of the ones that are still extant. It takes a bit of planning but it's fun--for me anyway--to get out of the city and back to my rural roots. I covered much of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma, even poking my nose into Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

Some of the appeal is the thrill of the hunt. Some of it is standing on a crumbling brick platform looking up the tracks. I imagine the headlight of the Chief or the California Limited glowing in the distance with the passengers gathering, and the post office truck pulling up with the outbound mail. It's easy to do; the ghosts are all there.

Part of it is also simply enjoying the serenity of the country. There is seldom freeway noise or the cry of a police siren. You can smell freshly cut hay and the good earth itself. I miss these things a lot.

So here are a few shots; I will post some from time to time. These are from my trip last September. The weather was almost perfect for three solid days.

This is the little Santa Fe depot at Alden, Kans. It was built in 1879, and now sits 50 feet away from the tracks serving as a community museum.











This is the 1903 Santa Fe depot in Garden City, Kan. It has recently been beautifully renovated and is the Amtrak and bus depot. Many famous trains called at this station over the years.











This tiny building is the depot at Cedar, Kan., in the northwest part of the state. The town of Cedar itself is tiny but once was a stop of a branch line of the Missouri Pacific. The tracks are gone and the depot sits in the town park.

This is a trackside view of the depot at Beloit, Kan. Beloit is a medium sized town in north central Kansas and is an important farming and ranching community, and they have always had a state prison. Other than for storage, it appears to be unused. That is sad, for the MoPac built eye appeal and durability into station buildings here and all over Kansas.

This is a view of the Union Pacific station at Topeka, also used by the Rock Island. Railroads liked to show off a little in the state capitals and to a lesser extent, in county seats and other important regional cities. This building is a community center now.