Nostalgia & History > Depot Friday: a favorite uncle?

Depot Friday: a favorite uncle?

I never had an uncle named Morris. But I did intimately know a Santa Fe depot named Morris that was high up on my list of beloved RR locations & entities. My first RR employment in 1974 was centered around this depot just outside of Argentine on the Kansas side. ( see this link: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,3806955 )

In the linked thread above I made a promise to post some comparison photos of this quaint little ‘country depot’, so here they are. For the sake of clarity, we’ll say the Santa Fe mainline runs due east ~ west which will allow us to make easier references to the angle of view for each image. There is a pair of ‘then & now’ images for each of the first 6 angles of view. In each case the second image is from a visit to the Morris depot’s current location at the AG Hall of Fame up in Bonner Springs, KS. Of course the building’s current orientation is not the same as it was while still in Santa Fe service.

1. This view is looking NE. Photo date is January 1, 1977.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:16 by santafe199.

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2. This view is looking due N. Photo date is January 1, 1977.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:17 by santafe199.

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3. This view is looking SE. Photo date is January 1, 1977.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:18 by santafe199.

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4. This view is looking SSW. Photo date is January 3, 1977.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:19 by santafe199.

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5. This view is looking due E. Photo date is November 12, 1977.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:19 by santafe199.

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6. This view is looking NW. Photo date is September 9, 1979.
In each case the secondary image was taken March 6, 2015 on the Ag Hall of Fame grounds in Bonner Springs, KS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:20 by santafe199.

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Just a couple more:

7. Shooting a train from the depot: With pure blind luck I took my trusty Kodak 126 Instamatic and expertly [as if…] fired off a perfectly sunlit ¾ wedgie. ‘Course, I might have waited 4 or 5 seconds so the train could get close enough to ID the lead unit number. (ya just can’t have it ALL... ;^)
Photo date: May 1974.

8. Shooting the depot from a train: 5 years later I’m deadheading home from Kansas City Union Station, still in my Amtrak flagman’s uniform. The day before I had been called for train #3 west out of Emporia in emergency when the regular Eastern Division flagman came up sick at the last minute en route. I never though about packing a change of clothes, so I had to ride a grungy freight cab in my Amtrak “suit & tie”…
Photo date: October 18, 1979 (taken from the cab of AT&SF 8795 on train 308 I-1)

Thanks for looking back & forth!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/22 22:21 by santafe199.

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Enjoyed the "tour".  Am wondering why they don't have the station name "Morris" or the "Santa Fe" emblem on the depot at its current location at the AG Hall of Fame.  Any idea?

Mark

KskidinTx Wrote: > ...wondering why they don't have ... at its current location...

I'd guess those pieces are probably is somebody's den or hobby room right about now...

:^/

Thanks for the photos, Lance.  Robert Pounds used to like to point to Morris' "pink depot" as the ultimate example of the craziness that ensued in Santa Fe depot painting after the company stopped supplying paint from central stores.  Of course, it wasn't pink to begin with, but it weathered poorly.  The big bay windows usually housed an interlocking machine, and I wonder how late Morris had such functions.  It's one of the few surviving examples of a Santa Fe depot with this "main line" style bay.  Plans for this depot appear in Ellington's Santa Fe Depots of the Plains.

santafe199 Wrote:

> KskidinTx Wrote: > ...wondering why they
> don't have ... at its current location...
>
> I'd guess those pieces are probably is somebody's
> den or hobby room right about now...

...or in the landfill after grandpa's descendents threw out his "train junk" when he passed away.  :-(

In between the two eras,it must have rained.The tracks shrunk.

Uncle Joe

How cool is that. Great posting. 

retcsxcfm Wrote:

> In between the two eras,it must have rained.The
> tracks shrunk.

The Morris depot is made of wood.
Wood comes from trees.
Rain makes trees grow.
It rained on the Morris depot in between the two eras.

Therefore, it follows that the tracks didn't shrink; the depot grew!  Ain't logic something? ;^)

Evan_Werkema Wrote: > ...  Ain't logic something? ;^)

Confucius [should have] say: "chuckle in morning good thing"

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Thank you for sharing, sad the emblem is gone along with the pain. Long live Santa Fe