Nostalgia & History > Depot Friday: Arkansas City, KS

The Lone Star was my favorite train in Amtrak's stable. My very 1st Amtrak ride was aboard #15 from Emporia to Oklahoma City. When the powers that be killed the train it was a shock to my railfan sensibilities. The feeling was: "But they just can't do that... can they?" They could. The train had been dead for a couple of months, but you could look at this depot and still expect to see a train. That feeling stayed with me well into the 80's. It was unthinkable that there was no longer any passenger service on the main Santa Fe artery between Chicago & Texas. Political & financial reality aside, many hearts were broken when #15 & #16 died. Mine, included...

1. & 2. Santa Fe/Amtrak passenger depot in Arkansas City, KS on December 10, 1979.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/22 20:42 by santafe199.

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Great pics Lance! They've been talking about extending the Heartland Flyer to the north into Kansas for several years, but who knows if it will ever happen.

They remodeled the interior a few years ago, the crew office & locker room is in the south portion, offices in the north part. Went on & off duty there hundreds of times until I scooted on over to the Wellington pool.

Lance, I agree with everything you said. Losing the Lone Star was painful. I would take 15 and 16 to and from my home in suburban Chicago to college in Fort Worth. I never got any sleep as I was constantly awake and looking for vestiges of the Santa Fe and their passenger service. My last view of the Lone Star was somewhere north of Saginaw, Texas as my college rail fan buddy and I paced 16 on one of its last runs with Phillip Epps, the attendant in the Regal series sleeper, waving at us from the vestibule.

Dave Johansen
Glen Ellyn, IL

Ark City is a fine example of Mid-Century Modern, which the ATSF used at a number of locations.
Nice to see this one still carrying on in rail service.

Just as was the case in Lawrence, KS, the previous depot was spectacular. While I never really cared for the new look stations, KS had more than their fair share of them. Even the RI built a couple that were similar, McPherson springs to mind as an example.