Lex Anteinternet: The light rail revival of Union Station.

Lex Anteinternet: The light rail revival of Union Station.: One of the classic buildings in downtown Denver is Union Station .  The beautiful 1914 vintage was truly a railroad union, uniting a whole ...

The Burlington, the Great Nortwestern and the 33 Mile Road. Natrona County, Wyoming.

These photographs might not seem to show much, but in a way, the illustrate the rise, decline, and rebirth of American rail.

This is the spot where the Burlington Northern crosses the 33 Mile Road in Natrona County, Wyoming.  While not really detectable here, it's also the spot where the Great Northwestern once joined the Burlington Northern, and where there was a spur line into the Casper Air Base.  Some years ago, all that was taken out.

After that, however, the BN rebuilt their line with modern taller, and uniform, rail, reflecting increased rail traffic in the area.

Up on the hill an abandoned farm house looks down on the long lasting scene. The farm ground is still farmed, but the farmer no longer needs to live there, and hasn't for decades.

Union Pacific Depot, Rawlins Wyoming.

This is the Union Pacific Depot in Rawlins, Wyoming.  The depot was built in the late 19th Century.  Post cards from the early 20th Century show the depot with a nice lawn next to it.

Rawlins is a major Union Pacific town with a substantial rail yard today.  Indeed, in some of these photographs you can see a Union Pacific train in the yard.  But passenger service is long gone.

 The depot as viewed from one of Rawlins' main downtown streets.

The Union Pacific gifted the depot to Rawlins which has converted it into a train museum, a fitting use for a structure that played a major role in the life of the community.

Holscher's Hub: Wind River Canyon

Holscher's Hub: Wind River Canyon

Railroad displays at Anna Miller Museum, Newcastle Wyoming

The Anna Miller Museum in Newcastle Wyoming is a local museum hosed in what was formerly the stables for a unit of the 115th Cavalry, Wyoming Army National Guard.  The museum has a small railroad and mining equipment display outside of the building.  As it was closed when we visited, I do not know what is contained inside the museum.

Mine locomotive.

Mining equiment.

Arminto Wyoming

This is what is left of the sidetrack at Arminto Wyoming, and of a hotel along the rail line, which was located where the grove of trees stands.

While now it would almost be impossible to tell, this location once shipped more sheep per year than any other spot on earth.  It was the epicenter of the local sheep industry, and the busiest sheep shipping point on earth.  It remained a significant sheep town well into the second half of the 20th Century, but  the railhead fell into disuse when trucking took over in livestock transportation, and ultimately the collapse of the sheep industry following the repeal of the Defense Wool Incentive in the 1980s completed the town's decline.  The famous local bar burned down in this period, and today the town is a mere shadow of its former self.

More on the history of this location can be found on the entry on this topic at Lex Anteinternet.

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Ray Galutia very generously provided us with photos depicting Arminto in the  1940s from his personal collection  I'm going to link these photos, which are historically valuable, in here, and also over at Lex Anteinternet, in those instances in which the topics aren't on railroads.  There will be more of those interesting linked in photos posted there.

I'm also going to repost this entry as a new current one, given that it's been updated to such an extent.

Again, many more of Mr. Galutia's fine photographs have been posted at the Arminto entry on Lex Anteinternet, so please check those out if you enjoy these. And heartfelt thanks to out to Mr. Galutia.

Diesel train taking siding for a steam engine at Arminto, 1947-1949.

The location of this photograph, from 1947-1949, is actually quite close to the ones posted immediately above, except it's from a different angle looking back on the town.

Pumping water to a train.

Lex Anteinternet: What people read

Lex Anteinternet: What people read: We've had this blog up for a couple of years now, with the first posts being in 2009 . There were none in 2010, but we really took off in p...

Looking at the BN from the old Great Northwestern

Photographs taken from the bed of the old Great Nortwestern line, rails now removed, of the Burlington Northern line that runs nearby.

Depot in Lewistown Montana

This depot in Lewistown Montana has been nicely preserved and converted into a number of other uses, including a sporting goods store, a restaurant, and a gas station.  Given that automobiles displaced trains to some extent, there's a bit of an irony there.