Nostalgia & History > FDR on the ATSF...station help requested...

I found this photo in my wifes Great Grand Fathers collection of photos when he died at age 104, he lived in Manhatten,KS. Does anyone recognizethe station?

Mike Gramm

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Very neat photo but hard to place as a Kansas location due to the ATSF drum head and a native stone station. Most ATSF KS depots were brick, wood or stucco. Very few if any were native stone. I am hard pressed to think of any limestone ATSF stations in KS other than Arkansas City or Ottawa. The Ottawa structure is two stories tall though and the station in the photo is to small to be Arkansas City. The station certainly has a UP Kansas Pacific route look to it. That line had multiple limestone depots in Hays, Wilson, Junction City, Soloman, Junction City, Manhattan, and Lawrence. UP and ATSF shared a route from Abiline to Salina so my initial guess would be that this is Soloman, KS. My other guess would be that the train is in front of the ATSF Salina Depot and the depot in the photo is the Salina MoPac depot.

Any chance this is in Colorado? Her Grandfather had family there too.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1903926,1903926#msg-1903926

Thank you! You made my day!!!

If you read the plaque at Olathe, KS it says that
no photograph of FDR is available and they had to
substitute a similar photo.

You should contact the Olathe, KS group that was
responsible for the tribute and offer them a copy
of your photograph.

peddler

What does the sign in the crowd say?
THANKS FOR THE
SAUSAGE PLANT

or ???

The following website gives information from the book, “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

http://www.questia.com/library/book/the_public_papers_and_addresses_of_franklin_d_roosevelt_by_franklin_d_roosevelt_samuel_inrving_rosenman.jsp

The above website lists the addresses from 1936. I copied out the ones in Kansas.

163 October 12, Syracuse, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks.

164 October 12, Garden City, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks.

165 October 12, Dodge City, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks.

166 October 12, Wichita, Kansas, Campaign Address.

167 October 13, Florence, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks

168 October 13, Emporia, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks

169 October 13, Olathe, Kansas, Rear Platform Extemporaneous Remarks

I found a website that gives transcripts of each of the above remarks. If you are interested I will list the website and explain how you go to the remarks. I will enclose the two pages of the remarks at Olathe, Kansas. These two pages are like photos so I will enclose them as two jpeg attachments.

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Was it established that the photo was taken in Olathe? I seem to have missed the connection.

I originally listed Olathe as a possibility. Maybe I was not too clear on this. If the picture was taken in 1936, it seems like Syracuse, Garden City, Dodge City, Florence, and Emporia are also possibilities.

The speech list said FDR had been in Colorado prior to KS. Could this be the Colorado Springs D&RGW depot? It has irregular stone and the chimney looks close, plus the tile roof. I cannot find a good photo to confirm or deny.

If he lived in Denver, this might be a possibility.

Mike

I don't think it is the Colorado Springs station. The depot in your photo's was replaced by a much larger red brick station (still standing) prior to his speaking tour. Also, the roof line is wrong as is the chimney location. None of the stations listed previously on this thread match the photo.

163 October 12, Syracuse, Kansas - this was a Stucco station and used to have a Harvey House Hotel. The Harvey House is gone but the station is still on site.

164 October 12, Garden City, Kansas - this stations was built sometime between 1906-1908 and is a standard county seat station, one story/brick. It is still used by Amtrak

165 October 12, Dodge City, Kansas - this station is a two story brick building built in 1913 and is still standing and used by Amtrak

166 October 12, Wichita, Kansas - The photo definitely is not Wichita's Union Station. It is also not a picture of the MoPac or Rock Island Wichita stations of that era.

167 October 13, Florence, Kansas - This station, still standing, is very similar to the Garden City design and can't be the one in the photo.

168 October 13, Emporia, Kansas - Emporia was a Tudor style, two story station which is no longer on site. It is not the one in the photo.

169 October 13, Olathe, Kansas - Embarrassing but I live in Olathe and am not 100% sure of what the depot looked like. If memory serves me right, it was a smaller version of the standard one story county seat design. That said, it sat on the East side of the Mainline and the depot in the photo appears to sit on the West side of the railroad line based on the sun angle in the photo.

I am not convinced that this is a ATSF depot...

In his remarks from the train at Colorado Springs, President Roosevelt says, “There are a number of very distinguished gentlemen up here on the platform. Here is my old friend, your Congressman, the Senator, and the Governor.” I found a picture of Governor Edwin Carl Johnson who was governor of Colorado in 1936 and have enclosed it below. Is the man on the platform third from the right Governor Johnson?

Pictures 1 and 2 below are the Rear-Platform Extemporaneous Remarks at Colorado Springs, Colo. and at Pueblo, Colorado on October 12, 1936.

Picture 3 is a photo of Governor Edwin Carl Johnson.

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Please look at this photo of the D&RGW depot at Colorado Springs:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ghostdepot.com/rg/images/royal%2520gorge%2520route/colorado%2520springs%2520yard%2520depot%2520train%2520pc.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/mainline/royal%2520gorge%2520route/colorado%2520springs.htm&usg=__4YSkT1KCHg7K6P5Jro8FmoAan2g=&h=296&w=462&sz=31&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=Ke-IH-6pXWYTPM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcolorado%2Bsprings%2Bdepot%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Or this one:

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/4/6/7/6467.1096558200.jpg

I know there is/was a red brick AT&SF depot at Colorado Springs, but this being the joint line, maybe they stopped at this station???

I still think the roof and chimney along with stone pattern match. The only thing wrong is the wood area of the building at the end. Maybe some of the TO members in Colorado could help?

UncleBob, I think you are right. The roof line and the chimney look correct. This would orient the train as Southbound and stopped South of the station with the presidents car being at the South end of the platforms. The only interesting fact would be why an ATSF special train would be operating on the Rio Grande line throught Colorado Springs at that time. The ATSF line was still very much in use in that era as was the ATSF passenger depot. That said, I think you have solved this one.

Thank you!!!

From the information provided in earlier posts, the train was headed east.

All depots on the left side of the platform would have been on the north or west side of the tracks. All depots on the right side would have been on the east or south sides of the track.

Now figure out where each depot was situated in relation to the stopped business car. That will immediately eliminate half of the possibilities.

If you look at the photos of the D&RGW depot in Colorado Springs or an aerial view you will note that it would be on the right of FDR (East side of track) as it is in the picture with a Eastbound (actually southbound here) train. The shadows cast by the sun therefore also seem correct.