The train continued west towards Seagraves, Texas.
We passed the Birdsong Peanut Plant.
Cotton fields across the highway.
Sulphur Spring Draw, which is the highest bridge on this rail line.
Wellman, Texas.
Milepost 59.
Columbia Carbon.
The Yard Limit sign for Seagraves.
The Columbia Carbon spur.
Milepost 60.
Power lines leading to a relay station.
The Seagraves Airport.
Crossing the main highway along our route.
The Seagraves airport landing strip.
Seagraves, Texas. Our lead engine had to cut off to move some cars out of our way and once it returned, we continued west through Seagraves.
The Seagraves station sign.
More of Seagraves.
The former Santa Fe Seagraves station.
More of Seagraves, Texas before we reached our turn-back point. The crew switched ends while we detrained for a few static pictures.
This is as far west as our trip went.
The crew switching ends.
The west end static shot.
More tank cars.
Two static shots at Seagraves.
The former loading dock here.
East end static shot.
Looking east down the rails at Seagraves. We all reboarded and made our way towards Lubbock. I went to the lower level table in the dome car and wrote the story as we proceeded east and finished just east of Brownfield. We rolled down the rails until we reached Ropersville where another static photo opportunity was given.
The static photos at Ropesville.
Our group reboarding the train.
The former Santa Fe Ropes station sign. I then reboarded the train but took a few more photographs before we left here.
This is where the railroad's North Pole Express excursions end. The snow is really cotton. We rolled east back to our boarding site to end today's trip and I helped Bart and Sarah unload the supplies from the train then Dave, Randy and I were off to Slaton, Texas.
Established in 1912, the Slaton Harvey House was originally one of several restaurants constructed along the Santa Fe Railway route. This beautiful example of Mission Revival architecture was designed by renowned architect Louis Curtiss, known as the "Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas City". Today, it is a historic one-of-a-kind bed and breakfast, event center and railroad museum. The structure, one of only six Fred Harvey Eating House locations remaining in Texas, has been lovingly restored as a living history museum, with five beautifully appointed rooms for travelers and a spacious Events Center for special occasions. All rooms are handicap accessible, and guests have access to our living area with a table for games, reading about railroad history, and a seating area with north views for train watching on an active Burlington Northern Santa Fe railyard.
The Santa Fe partnered with Mr. Harvey, building his restaurants and allowing him space on their trains to bring fresh food to his kitchens. Mr. Harvey operated the restaurants and developed a national supply line of food for his chain of 80 restaurants, newsstands, and hotels that dotted the railroad's routes from Chicago to San Francisco, and Galveston to Los Angeles.
The Slaton location is a grand, two-story Mission Revival structure, designed by Santa Fe architect Louis Curtiss. It served diners for 30 years, closing in 1942 as larger and faster steam engines made it possible for fewer refueling stops. After the Fred Harvey Operation ceased in Slaton, the Santa Fe turned the building into a passenger and freight Depot, along with business offices. It was boarded up in the 1980's and was fortunately saved by quick-acting local citizens in 1989. More than two million dollars were raised to restore the iconic building, owned and operated by the Slaton Railroad Heritage Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Santa Fe wooden caboose 1912 built circa 1910. We then went in search of the Santa Fe steam engine and asked a patron outside of a bar who gave us directions.
Santa Fe 2-6-2 1809 built by Burnham, Williams and Company (Baldwin Locomotive Works) in 1906 as a coal burner. Initially designed for main line freight, the 1800's had a comparatively short career in that service. From the mid- 1920's, they were relegated to branch line, mixed-traffic and local freight service. Retirements started in 1940 and continued until 1955. In 1955, 1809 was donated to the City of Slaton and was placed on display in a small park near the corner of West Lubbock Street and East 8th Street.
The builder's plate. We started to leave town.
A very nicely-painted wall mural done by Bill "Tex" Wilson, who captured a nostalgic moment in the heritage of Slaton.
We stopped when I saw this BNSF train switching in the yard. From here we returned to Lubbock and went in search of the National Ranching Heritage Center. Dedicated on 2nd July 1976, the 27 1/2 acre site was established to preserve the history of ranching, pioneer life and the development of the livestock industry in North America. It features almost fifty authentic ranch buildings and other ranching related artefacts dating from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. Structures include a railroad depot, homesteads, windmills, a barn, schoolhouse and spudder.
The Garman GPS failed us so we went to a petrol station and received directions to it.
The wood frame Santa Fe Ropes station, built on land once owned by Isaac L. Ellwood, a manufacturer of barbed wire, opened on July 1, 1918. It included an office, receiving area, desk, chairs, ticket window, scale for weighing packages, wood-burning stove, benches and a safe. During a renovation in early 2004, NRHC historical maintenance staff found an area where a wall had been moved to enclose a small ticket booth. Consulting old records, they were able to remove it and return the depot to its original three large rooms, repaint in its authentic colors and repair the stove.
In the 1960's, the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad wanted to donate a steam engine to the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, but discovered that all its steamers had already been scrapped. 2-8-2 4994 was therefore acquired from the FW&D's parent company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1964 and repainted as FW&D 401. It is on display at the National Ranching Heritage Center on the Texas Tech University Campus.
It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1923. It was one of five CB&Q Mikados leased to the Colorado & Southern Railroad in the autumn 1958 to replace diesels destroyed in two head-on collisions, one at Chugwater, Wyoming; the other at Broomfield, Coloroado. The locomotives helped get through the annual sugar beet campaign and worked into early 1959. 4994 was kept at the C&S 7th St. roundhouse in Denver, until it was repainted and moved to Lubbock.
Three more views of the steam engine and display train. We then went in search of the Fort Worth & Denver station.
The Forth Worth and Denver station built in 1929 and is home to the Buddy Holly Centre. In 1996, the City of Lubbock obtained a sizable collection of Holly-related artifacts from his estate, and the next year it purchased the former depot. In 1999, the new Buddy Holly Center opened as the home of the newly acquired Buddy Holly collection as well as a replacement for the city's Fine Arts Center, which had been established in 1984. The Center features a permanent gallery for the Buddy Holly collection, which showcases artifacts and documents from Holly's childhood as well as his professional career, as well as the Texas Musician Hall of Fame, the Lubbock Fine Arts Gallery, and three additional visual arts galleries that host traveling exhibits. In 2002, an oversized sculpture of Holly's distinctive horn-rimmed glasses was installed outside the Center's main entrance, and in 2013 Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's restored house was relocated to the site and opened to the public.
This was a clue we were in the right place.
The Texas Historical Marker.
Additional station views. We returned to the Super 8 Motel then regouped before Dave, Kathie, Randy, Marie and I went to the Texas Roadhouse where I had a 16 ounce top sirloin then returned to the motel, where I finished the story
before calling it a night.
| RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |