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.

Steam powered rotatry snow plow, Hanna Wyoming

This is a steam engine in a specialized application, that being a rotary snow plow.  This snow plow engine is located in Hanna Wyoming.  The flags and artillery piece in the background are part of the Hanna Wyoming VFW Memorial Park.  The memorial in the foreground is the Carbon County Miners' Memorial.

Medicine Bow Union Pacific Station, Medicine Bow Wyoming

This a classically styled small town railroad station, located in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.  It's now a museum.

View with the Virginian Hotel just in the background, showing the typical arrangement between train stations in hotels in the days when long distance transportation was generally by rail.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 4

Today In Wyoming's History: December 4:

1948 This Union Pacific's City of San Francisco photographed near Cheyenne.

Rolling Art . . .Burlington Northern, Casper Wyoming

Railroads of Albany County

Railroads of Albany County

UP: Steam

UP: Steam

Lysite Wyoming

This is the railhead at Lysite, Wyoming, with photographs also including the J. B. Okie structure, built in 1919.

Lysite is a very small town, although it's seen some rejuvenation recently due to a major natural gas processing plant having been built just outside of town.  It was originally, however, a local agricultural town and it is located quite near Okie's town of Lost Cabin.  Okie had hoped the rail line would go through Lost Cabin, and was disappointed when it did not, but he obviously adjusted and had this structure built near the rail line.  I don't know its original function, but as Okie was a major sheepman, I suspect it was for shipping wool.  Okie had stores in Lysite, Lost Cabin and Arminto as well.

Today this is is a Burlington Northern line.

U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

40 Hommes et 8 Chevals

World War One era French boxcar, at American Legion Post in Cheyenne. This boxcar is of the type in which American troops were hauled in World War One, and examples were presented by the French government to American Legion posts after the war.

Union Pacific Big Boy, Cheyenne Wyoming

A Union Pacific roundhouse in Evanston Wyoming.  One of very few left.  This one is now a museum.

Stock Crossing or Railroad Crossing?

The Burlington Northern (CB&Q) in Sherdan, Wyoming

These photographs depict two Burlington Northern depots, or rather former depots, in Sheridan, Wyoming.  The wooden structure is the older of the two, being a 19th Century depot.  It's in private ownership today, and is actually currently for sale.

The brick structure is much later, and it bears a striking resemblance to the BN depot in Casper, Wyoming.  Apparently Burlington Northern depots were built to a standard set of plans. This substantial depot is also no longer a BN depot, but is now a bar and grill in Sheridan.

Also depicted is a decommissioned BN locomotive, built in 1940.

Where the tracks no longer run

This area had tracks up until just recently, although now it's hard to tell unless you walk the ground.  This was the location of a sidetrack serving the Casper Air Base during World War Two. Regarded as a potential asset, as they still lead to the airport grounds up until recently, that feeling obviously no longer exists, and they were recently taken out.

Specialized steam engine, PIke's Peak Colorado

I don't know anything about this small engine, other than that it was on display in 1958 at Pike's Peak, Colorado.  It was obviously built at an angle anticipating being used on steep grades.  This is a cog wheel engine, which basically uses a geared wheel to climb a steep grade.