Nostalgia & History > Historic Venues on the Prairies of Kansas

Here are a few scenes from locations on the UP's Kansas Pacific line in Kansas of little known, but important historic significance to western railroad heritage.

1) Ellis, KS. Milepost 303, about halfway between Kansas City and Denver. A major terminal since the beginning of the Kansas Pacific's trek west in the 1860s. The railroad was the primary employer of the town for over a century; at its peak, numbering over 300 men. The high school teams are still the Ellis Railroaders.
Until 1948, Ellis was the western terminus of the Kansas Division and the eastern origin of the Colorado Division. In steam days, Colorado and Kansas Division engines would be cut off inbound trains and hostled to the 10 stall roundhouse for servicing to return to their respective origins. A victim of progress(???) Ellis gradually became a railroad ghost town. By the time I moved to Salina in 1976, Ellis was still a crew change point, but little else. In 1978, we started running through Ellis to Oakley. At present, crews run through two old crew districts from Salina to Sharon Springs, KS.
In the view below, April 27, 1993, little remained at Ellis but a station sign. Before the days of Defect Detectors, LKG98 pauses at Ellis while the crew performs the required walking inspection of our train.
2) Riga, KS., Milepost 308, at dusk. April 30, 1993. Five miles west of Ellis, Riga is just one of the many "Cathedral" elevators on the prairies of Kansas. It's importance has both past and present significance. In the 50s, it was the Timetable meeting point (if on time) of Nos. 17-18 the "Portland Rose". When the UP began rebuilding the KP in the late 90s, a new 9300 ft. siding was built just west of the elevator.
3) Buffalo Park, KS., Milepost 351. Originally named "Buffalo Station" in the KP days, it was here that hunters would bring the buffalo hides and bones to be shipped out by the KP. In this view taken from Oakley-Salina Local LKG98 on April 14, 1993, the crew walks up to the head end after walking a brake test on cars picked up at the east elevator. Old highway 40, (beyond the station sign), once the main highway between KC and Denver is now reduced to a gravel road.
Today, the I-70 exit is simply named "Park". However, Buffalo Park is stil on the railroad map. At present, the Oakley East Local gathers up all the east cars between Oakley and Ellis at Buffalo Park for pick up by the MDVSI (Denver-Salina).

Thanks for looking and listening.

Bob Helling
PRose

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Re: picture #2, and there are those that think the desert is a lonely and forlorn place.

KC

I enjoyed them Bob.

Hello

Thank you for sharing, I enjoy working the oakley local that swicthed these stations when I was in kansas.

Chris

My only recollection of Ellis is one of extreme heat. In the summer of 1956. Mom, my brother and I were on the Pony Express (the train, not Stan's car) heading from Los Angeles to grandmothers home in Kansas City. The air conditioning in our coach had gone bad somewhere around Denver and the only relief, actually no relief at all, from the 113 degree heat at Ellis (as shown on the depot platform) was opening the end doors of the car.
Your picture of the Ellis station sign suggests that the depot I recall, a brick/stone structure sitting on the south side of the main track, was long gone by the time of your picture. Perhaps the heat of that day has permanently fried my memory and it wasn't Ellis at all but some other way-point on that day. Thanks for posting these, Bob.

Charlie

The depot at Ellis was on the North side of tracks.

Thanks for sharing the picturts Bob. Have any of the roundhouse? For the local past Hays and Ellis, where does it operate out of,Sharon Springs, Oakley and how far West does it go? upkpfan

upkpfan Wrote:
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> The depot at Ellis was on the North side of
> tracks.

Well, yes the depot was on the North side. In my minds eye as I typed those words I misspoke as my visual image was from the train looking toward the depot which placed the train south of the depot. My bad. Bob pointed out, in a private post, that the train I remembered was probably the Portland Rose instead of the Pony Express. Upon further thought the trip we made was probably in the summer of 1954 which would have still meant that we were travelling on the PR. I wonder if the Pony Express operation continued beyond January 1954 but only between LA and and whatever point that the Pony Express dropped out and the equipment merged with the Portland Rose (Green River or maybe Denver??). I do recall that in later years in true City Of Everywhere fashion, the night accommodation train from Los Angeles was an unnamed #6 that merged with #8 at Ogden and then again changed to #18 at, I believe, Denver. I don't remember what, if any, name Nos. 6 or 8 carried in more prosperous days but of course #18 was the Portland Rose.

Charlie