June Picture Worth A Thousand Words

Here is a simple July 2006 photo of a station I am familiar with in Greeley, Colorado - about half way between Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo. In 1975 I took my first trip on Amtrak from this station when my family rode all the way to Boston's South Station and back. My brother and I repeated that feat two years later from this same station. In between I stood on the platform and watched the Union Pacific's "DP Main" - or Denver Pacific - come alive with huge, fast moving trains, not to mention the ocaissional 8444 special or E9's on the Stockman's Specials. First and second generation geeps were common for locals and there were the DD35 and DDA40X's mixed in with 6 axle power on the main. I watched Amtrak's transition from E units to SDP40F's to F40's here. I watched the old variety of streamline and stainless passenger cars change to Superliner cars here. In front of these very doors, the Colorado and Southern's SD9's would bring the Greeley local over from Fort Collins. Often that small local would be tied up out front in the middle of the day before it's return westward. It appears that the Great Western Ry. has taken over that chore and still uses the track in the parking lot.

Now all of this reminiscing is not why I picked out this photo. For a relatively small city, at least when the depot was built, this is a substantial building. It is mainly masonry and moderately ornate to boot. Perhaps prosperous "but not overly ostentatious" was what they had in mind. Do you think someone was thinking ahead? Is it possible that someone thought the railroad would live forever? Greeley certainly did a good business with the UP being a market town out on the plains, home of Monfort of Colorado and host to the Independence Stampede rodeo every Fourth of July. I just had to wonder; How often do you come across a depot like this in Anytown, USA and the original railroad still runs by it? It's been getting harder to find depots like that in the last couple of decades. The Union Pacific did not skimp on this depot and it was in fine shape right up until the Rio Grande Zephyr was combined with Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr in the early '80's. That moved the route away from Greeley and opened this depot up to be purchased by the local Chamber of Commerce.

We all lament the passing of another railroad era when a colorful company bites the dust, but sometimes we catch a glimpse of that era right in front of us when we least expect it. Only the Chamber of Commerce signage betrays it in Greeley.

BC