Edge of the Burlington Northern Yard, Casper Wyoming

 

Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.

The State of Wyoming recently completed the construction of a massive new state office building, the Thyra Thompson Building, in Casper.  All of the state's administrative bodies, except for the district and circuit courts, are housed there.

The building does house, however, the Chancery Court for the entire state, a new court that's only recently been established.

The building is built right over what had been the Great Northwest rail yard in Casper, which was still an active, although not too active, rail yard into my teens.  I can't really recall when they abandoned the line, but it was abandoned.

In putting the building in, and extending the Platte River Parkway through it, the State did a nice job of incorporating some rail features so that there's a memory of what the location had been.

They also put in some historical plaques, which are nice. The curved arch at this location, moreover, is the location of the old turntable.  It was a small one, which I hate to admit that I crossed over when I was a teenager, a dangerous thing to do.

 

Painted Bricks: Train mural, Casper Wyoming

Painted Bricks: Train mural, Casper Wyoming: 

Train mural, Casper Wyoming

This train mural is on the Platte River Parkway that runs through downtown Casper along a rails to trails easement.   The building is the 321 Art Works building, formerly an industrial warehouse.

Abandoned Chicago & Northwestern line, Powder River, Wyoming

This is an unusual picture if you know what you are looking at.  In the distance, you can see an abandoned Chicago & Northwestern rail bed.  The line provided rail service from Casper to Lander starting in 1906, but its fortunes declined when it lost the U.S. Mail freight in 1943.   Shortly after that the Chicago & North Western began to run on the Burlington Northern line between Casper and Shoshoni, which still exists and most of the rail pulled.  In 1972 the portion of the rail between Lander and Shoshoni was abandoned for the most part, although a small local line still runs in the Shoshoni area.

This photograph not only shows the 1906 to 1943 rail bed, but also part of the original state highway that has been moved here and there in favor of a better road grade, as well as the current highway.   The old highway is to the right, the new one to the left.  The Burlington Northern is just a few miles to the north, but of course can't be seen in this south facing photograph.

This photo has made me realize how many rail locations I pass by all the time and haven't posted here.  This entire line is one I frequently encounter and could have posted long ago, and its not the only one.

Lex Anteinternet: Chicago and Northwestern Warehouse Fire, Casper Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: Chicago and Northwestern Warehouse Fire, Casper Wyoming

A disaster struck Casper Wyoming on this day in 1917.  A warehouse belonging to the Chicago and Northwestern, and used also by C. H. Townsend, caught fire.  It was the largest fire in the town since a 1905 livery stable fire.

Lonely rail, Natrona County Wyoming

Taken, of course, from one of rail's competitors, a commercial airliner.

Lex Anteinternet: Travelling through (on) time.

Lex Anteinternet: Travelling through (on) time.: I recently had the occasion to ride in a Ford Trimotor airplane. Ford Trimotor at the Natrona County International Airport. Even ...

Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming

 

This is the Burlington Northern Depot in Casper Wyoming.  It was built in 1916, which would place this building solidly in the era of the petroleum and livestock fueled economic boom that happened in Casper during World War One.

The following photographs were taken in June 2015 from a Ford Trimotor airplane.

Abandoned rail line, North of Casper Wyoming

These are photographs of an abandoned rail line north of Casper Wyoming.  I'm unsure of the data on these and will have to research it, but the line itself is long abandoned.  I recall being told that this line, which is quite evident in the locations running north of Casper, was never fully constructed, but I don't know that to be the case.  If true, the construction was quite advanced as can be seen.  I tend to think it was a completed, but abandoned, like running from Casper north to Buffalo and Sheridan.  However, at least as of 1915, it does not appear on the state railroad map.

Great Northwestern Depot, Casper Wyoming

This was the former Great Northwestern Depot in Casper, Wyoming.  The depot today serves as an office building, with the nearby rails having previously been featured here in the form of a rails to trails project that now runs through the center of Casper.  I don't know the vintage of the depot.

Competing Modes of Transporation. Trains and Planes.

Burlington Northern Train carrying aircraft fuselages in Casper, Wyoming.

Rolling Art . . .Burlington Northern, Casper Wyoming

Rails to Trails, Casper Wyoming

Casper is presently served only by the  Burlington Northern Railroad, whose rail line separates North Casper from the rest of Casper. But this wasn't always the case. At one time, Casper had a second rail provider, that being the Chicago and North Western Railroad.

The North Western line was distinctly different than the BNs.  It ran right through downtown, and did so diagonally.  Additionally it's rail yard, a much smaller yard than the BN's, was more or less in downtown, near an industrial area of downtown.  The rail line was essentially a downtown feature, running right past the Sears store, right next to two banks, and right past the back of the library. And it ran through the town diagonally, bisecting city blocks at an angle, and in some cases making for some oddly shaped small city blocks, one of which became Veteran's Park.  Going west, the rail line ran through what was then the Standard Oil Refinery and out the other end (the refinery no doubt also had connecting lines to the BN.  The line ran all the way to Lander Wyoming and in its early days provided passenger service to Lander.

In Casper, people who like trains got to see them a lot.  People who do not like trains also got to see them a lot.

In the late 80s or early 90s, this rail line pulled out of Casper, and the North Western ceased to exist entirely when the company was purchased by the Union Pacific..  The rails were ultimately pulled, and the line has become a "trail", under the rails to trails program in the Casper area.  It's an extremely long trail, running all the way through downtown Casper, into Evansville, and out of town.  It's several miles in length.  Downtown, such as here near its terminus, it's quite improved, but elsewhere its basically a gravel trail.

These photographs trace the trail in the areas in Casper where it is a concrete walkway, some of which has only recently been created. This basically takes us all the way to the west past Ash Street and all the way to the east to Veteran's Park.  It is only a fraction of the trail, but it's the improved downtown portion of the trail, which makes for a very nice walkway in downtown Casper.  These photographs go from West to East, with photographs looking both directions.  In a way, the viewer sees some scenes that were only visible to those on trains before, but at the same time this section of Casper has been heavily altered since the days the last North Western train ran on the tracks.

This is the western most portion off the trail, looking West down the old railroad bed.  From here, the rail line would have gone another couple of blocks before entering the Standard Refinery, which is now a golf course.

Same location as above, looking East.  This would have been in an old industrial area, just a block or so from the old rail yard.  The rail yard had a small turntable now gone.

Looking west.

Looking towards downtown Casper.

Same location, looking west.

One block further east, looking east.  On the right is the Goodstein Building, which was there during the train days.  Its' a significant downtown office building.  The old Sears building, now a furniture store, is visible to the far left.

From the Goodstein Building, on the right, looking west.

 Looking East from Center Street.  The building on the left is a bookstore now, but was built as a hardware store and was a hardware store when trains ran here.  The tall building to the right in the distance is "the Towers", Casper's first apartment building for senior citizens.  Trains ran for the first two decades of its existence.

 

 Looking West from Center Street, Goodstein Building on right. 

 Same view as immediately above.  The building on the left was a hardware store for many years, but is now a used bookstore.  The building on the right was the train station for this line, but I was not aware of that at the time I took these photographs.

Same view, from across the street.

 One block to the east. This location was where the rail line went right behind a bank, which is still there, and crossed Wolcott Street.  The building to the right was a Safeway for decades, but is now a furniture store.  The building to the left was a large hardware store, but is now a Thai restaurant.  The large building to the rights is The Towers, the first senior citizens home in Casper.

Same location, looking west.

An example of the decorative details of the street lamps, in this case memorializing the rail line.

 Across the street, looking east.

One block to the east.  The Natrona County library is to the left, and has been for many decades.

Another example of a decorative street lamp, this one depicting a hand cart.

Looking east towards the Nicolaysen art museum, the older part of which was the a lumber store, and the foreground was a lumber yard, for much of the time that the rail line ran by here in later years.

View of park near the towers.  This was not a through street when the railroad was still in operation.

Trail near Monument Park.

Trail where railroad once crossed over to Veteran's Park.

Looking west.

View looking south from trail, St. Anthony's Catholic Church in background.