Moline Railroad Depot

[W. Gray]

The passenger portion of this depot wound up as part of a family residence in Dexter, Kansas.

The freight portion was supposed to have wound up somewhere along the length of the rail line that runs through the county, maybe for use as a storage area.

[Marcia Moore]

     Thanks, Waldo.  Enjoy your items.  Here is a photo of the Moline depot sign, from the Howard Branch of the Santa Fe, that I purchased recently.  I already had the Severy depot sign from that same branch.  

[W. Gray]

Here is a photo of the Severy station that was owned by the Frisco but used by both the Frisco and the Santa Fe. The photo comes from the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling web site.

Most folks may have heard of something called a Union Station connected with railroading.  And, some seem to believe that all train stations were called Union Station, however, that is not the case.

When there were many (and I mean many) railroads, they would sign a cooperative agreement in a specific city and jointly build and maintain a station that all used. Each railroad would then have to reroute their tracks to the Union Station. Many of these were huge imposing architectural wonders.

This arrangement, though, saved passengers a good deal of heartburn. Otherwise, passengers would have to get off at one RR company's station on one side of town and then have to travel cross town to another RR company's station in order to switch trains.

The Union Station concept usually only worked satisfactorily in the largest towns.

Severy may have qualified to have the smallest Union Station in the US(?)

[frawin]

Gee, this brings back some memories!  I used to ride the train from Wichita to Severy sometimes when I was going to school in Wichita.  I left Wichita late afternoon and got to Severy early evening.  Unfortunately, it didn't return on a schedule that I could ride it back to Wichita, so I sometimes caught a ride with a friend, or my parents took me back on Monday morning, or Sunday evening. 

My uncle worked for the Frisco railroad and was transferred in and out of Severy several times.  They also lived in Leon, Fall River, Cherokee, and Kansas City to name a few of the places I remember they were sent.

One time om tje 70's, we were in Moline and our boys were small.  Monte Edwards was the engineer on the train and he let our boys get up in the engine while it was idling on  a side track.  They thought that was a lot of fun.  They still talk about it sometimes!

Myrna

[jarhead]

Have to correct you Frank. Monte, my Dad was not an engineer. Conductor / brakeman / switchman but never a Fireman or engineer. i need to ask some of my older sisters who some of the old Howard Branch engineers were. One of my earliest recollections of an engineer was Charlie Shaffer and that was maybe mid to later 50's and on a Moline to Pawhuska, Ok run. I'm thinking Charlie was from Moline and also an engineer on the Howard Branch some of the time. Ernie Condon from Elk Falls was on the Howard branch alot of the time and was usually the conductor. Bobbie Jones from Moline was a regular on the Howard Branch until the mid 60's

[frawin]

Jarhead, that was Myrna's post. I remember your dad well also Bobbie Jones. In any case my boys really got a big charge out of being up in the locomoitive.

[frawin]

Jarhead, I guess I just assumed your dad was an engineer, since he was the one sitting in the engine when we walked down there.  At any rate, the boys really enjoyed it and he pointed out some of the instruments/parts up in the engine.  I knew your dad as he was a customer at the bank in Howard where I worked.  He was really a very nice man.
Myrna

[jarhead]

Thank you Myrna. My brother Steve and me used to go on lots of train trips with our dad and loved it. Riding in the wait-car (caboose) was alot more fun to me than the engine. The engine was so high and it almost seemed like it was gonna turn over as it rocked down the track, then when you went over a trestle  it seemed to this young lad like we were going into the river. The old caboose's had those two seats way up high and got a good breeze riding up there. They had an wooden ice box that took ice to keep them cool. A big water jug of cold water and you used those paper cups like a snow cone came in. One drink and you waded that cup up and chucked it out the rear onto the tracks. Didn't really think about littering. We would stand on the rear of the caboose and look down at the ties whizzing by until we got dizzy. I dobt OSHA would allow what we used to do, today.

[Marcia Moore]

     Trains were running through Severy by December 1879.  There were two railroad companies here – both having their own depots.  The St. Louis & San Francisco Railway ran east and west through town and their depot was located just north and east of the 100 block of Kansas Avenue.  The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe ran north and south through Severy.  Their depot was located at the east end of Main Street.   
     In March 1881 – after only 15 months with two depots in town – the A.T. & S.F. depot was moved up the track by the side of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway depot where it became a union depot, serving both railroad companies.  Two months later the Frisco depot was torn down.   

[W. Gray]

Here is a cut and paste from one of my posts almost four years ago: 

In 1946 a freight train pulled by a steam engine, just coming from Fiat and Howard had passed through Severy and was approaching K-96. A driver barreling down K-96 was traveling at a high rate of speed and apparently did not hear or see the steam engine. The fast moving automobile slammed into a boxcar behind the tender. The impact derailed the boxcar and the momentum of the boxcar took the rest of the train's twelve cars off the track. Only the engine and tender stayed put. The crash killed all three people in the car.