Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.

Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyo...: 

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.

Railhead: South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyoming (Homesteader's Museum).

Railhead: South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyom...:

South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyoming (Homesteader's Museum).

Above is a fisheye view of the South Torrington Railroad Station.  I used this view as its a long station, and to get the entire station in otherwise I would have had to walk across the highway, which was busy.

This station is unusual in that it was designed by noted National Park lodge architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Style.  Originally built in 1926, it was extended in order to accommodate both passenger and freight service, with its original purpose being reflected in the fact that it remains right across the street from a sugar refinery.

As with so many other depots, this one is no longer used by the Union Pacific, but it's well-preserved and now used as the Goshen County Homesteader's Museum.

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming: When I first started this blog I hoped to explore, through the posts. . .and through the responses to them, the period of 1890 to 1920.  The...

Railhead: Former Chicago & Northwester Depot, Lander Wyoming...

Railhead: Former Chicago & Northwester Depot, Lander Wyoming...:

Former Chicago & Northwester Depot, Lander Wyoming.

Up until now, I've somehow managed to miss putting up a photograph of this former Chicago & Northwestern Depot in Lander, Wyoming, which now serves as the Lander Chamber of Commerce building.  That may be because, as these photos suggest, downtown Lander, in spite of Lander being a small town, is pretty crowded in some ways and I missed the depot early on, and had a hard time catching it in a photographic state later.

Indeed, I never really did catch it in an ideal state to be photographed.

Lander was the western most stop on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.  The line sometimes called itself the "Cowboy Line" and this lent itself to the slogan "where the rails end, the trails begin".  In 1973 the railroad abandoned the stretch of the line between Riverton and Lander, and since then of course it's ceased operation entirely.  The railroad, which like many railroads, was the product of mergers and acquisitions and was doing that right up to the late 1960s when its fortunes began to change.



In Wyoming its line ran astride the Burlington Northern's in many locations but it alone ran on to Lander.  Starting in the early 70s, it began to contract in Wyoming and then pulled out altogether.  The Union Pacific purchased its assets at some point, although its now the case that all of its old rail has been pulled.  Indeed, unless you know that the CNW had once run to Lander, you wouldn't know that Lander had once had rail service at all, let alone that it had it as far back as 1906.