We awoke at the Days Inn in Amarillo and after checking out, had a good breakfast at IHOP. From here we drove to our first destination of the morning in Shamrock, Texas.
On the way there, we passed a 19-storey cross in Groom but this picture does not do it justice.
The Fort Worth and Denver Northern station in Shamrock built in 1929. We drove over to the second station in town.
The Shamrock water tower with its magical shamrock on it.
The Rock Island Shamrock station with an ostrich painted on the side. Who knows the reason?
The first of the many grain elevators we would be seeing today. I really like this style of grain elevator.
As we were leaving Shamrock, I took this picture out of the window of the car of a mural near the base of the water tower.
Passing the Welcome to Oklahoma sign.
The Sayre Rock Island station built in 1927 that now houses the Shortgrass Country Museum which was closed.
The National Register plaque on the Sayre depot.
The Bison Spirit statue at the Sayre depot. We continued on to our next stop in Elk City.
Colorado and Southern caboose 10607, built by the railroad in 1944, lettered Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad.
A replica of the Wichita Falls and Northwestern station. Now we would find the other stations in this town.
The Rock Island Elk City station which is used by Farmrail.
The Rock Island Elk City freight house adjacent to the station.
The highly-modified Wichita Falls and Northwestern station, later Missouri-Kansas-Texas, a block away. The Prairie Fire Grill now occupies this building. We were not quite finished with Elk City yet as I spotted something else.
Farmrail GP10 8253, nee Northern Pacific GP9 224, and modified to a GP10 at the Paducah shops, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1955. From here we drove to Clinton.
The Santa Fe Railroad yard office in Clinton now used by Farmrail.
Clinton & Oklahoma Western Railroad, later Santa Fe Railroad, station in Clinton.
An old loading dock like this used to be in Santa Ana and I took many a picture from it growing up. We continued east along Interstate 40 to Hydro.
The Rock Island Hydro station moved to Hydro City Park. I next drove us to El Reno.
The Rock Island El Reno station built in 1907 which is home to the Canadian County Historical Museum which was closed.
The plaque on the station.
Rock Island caboose 17209, built by International Car in 1971, which is the best-looking Rock Island caboose I have seen anywhere to this point.
The tender from Rock Island 2-8-2 2636. The other side is lettered Union Pacific.
This is where the El Reno Heritage Trolley is kept when not operating. We were hoping to be able to ride and see it but it was not operating although their website did not reflect that fact. I drove Elizabeth to Yukon to a museum I photographed in 2014.
This is Yukon's Best Railroad Musuem.
Rock Island boxcar 5542 built by General American in 1959.
Rock Island coach 298 was built by Pullman in 1927 as Baltimore and Ohio 5414. It was modernized in 1953 and renumbered B&O 3667 then sold as Rock Island maintenance-of-way 298 in December 1966.
Union Pacific caboose 25865 built by International Car in 1979.
Museum scene.
Yukon's Best Flour Mill.
Oklahoma Railway Company wooden interurban station.
The modern interurban station.
The mural on the modern station.
The plaque on this building.
Here we found the Oklahoma Centennial longhorn statue. We decided to forego getting more stations since time was not on our side and drove straight east to Alma, Arkansas.
Views along Interstate 40.
We crossed Lake Eufaula on the way to the state line.
We entered Arkansas and still had thirteen more miles to go.
Crossing the Arkansas River on the way to Alma. We checked in to the Quality Inn and freshened up before walking over to the Cracker Barrel and meeting Bart and Sarah Jennings for dinner. We had to dine on a shortened menu which Bart was not too happy about so enjoyed a breakfast dinner while I had roast beef and Elizabeth and Sarah enjoyed the chicken pot pie. A good time was had by all and all too soon, we returned to the hotel and wrote this story.
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