As I've mentioned previously, one of my retirement hobbies involves the search for and photographing of old railroad depots. This ties nicely into our fondness for traveling the back roads of America...and elsewhere.
From a trip in September, this is the renovated Chicago & Alton passenger depot in Glasgow Missouri. It now serves as a museum. Of interest to railroad buffs, the nearby Glasgow railroad bridge over the Missouri River is the site of the first all-steel railroad bridge. It was built in 1879 and it allowed direct rail connection from Chicago to Kansas City. The current bridge was built in 1899.
The first Missouri Pacific railroad depot in Washington Missouri was destroyed in a Civil War raid in 1864. This depot was built in 1865 and it was used until January of 1924. It had separate waiting rooms for men and women. This is the oldest railroad passenger depot still adjacent to active railroad tracks in Missouri.
This is the Craftsman style depot in Washington MO that replaced the one shown above in 1924. Washington still has passenger service, with the Amtrak 'Missouri River Runner' providing service to Kansas City and St. Louis. There are 2 westbound trains and 2 eastbound trains each day.
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas (KATY) Railroad built this Boonville MO Mission Revival/Spanish Revival style passenger depot in 1912. At the peak of passenger service, 25 - 30 trains per day stopped in Boonville. Passenger service ended in 1958 and the last freight train chugged by the depot in 1986. It now serves as the office for the Chamber of Commerce, the district office for the State Park System and as the Boonville Tourist Information Center.
This handsome passenger depot is located in Jefferson City Missouri. It was built by the Missouri Pacific railroad, (MoPac), and it's now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad.
For those that might be unaware, Jefferson City is the Capitol of Missouri. It is located roughly in the middle of the state between St. Louis & Kansas City.
This is the rail side view of the former Jefferson City passenger depot. Note that I said former passenger depot...
Yes, Jefferson City still has passenger rail service, but no, service isn't based in this building. Apparently, the building just serves as offices for the Union Pacific.
This is the 1855 building in Jefferson City that was the former Union Hotel. It now houses a restaurant and, yes, on the first floor, we found the Amtrak waiting room. This new 'depot' is just a short distance along the tracks from the Union Pacific's offices.
Amtrak serves Jefferson City with 2 trains eastbound and 2 trains westbound each day. Members of our family use the trains to and from St. Louis on a periodic basis. In 2008, a total of 45,032 passengers boarded a train via this 'depot'.
No comments:
Post a Comment