Sterling, CO: Elevators and 1902 Ch6amber of Commerce/Union Station (CB&Q+UP)

Original Depot: (Satellite)

Current Depot: (Satellite)

Pfohl Martin posted
A 'forest' of elevators, Sterling, CO. 3/13/16

I titled it "elevators" because in addition to grain elevators, the town has an ethanol plant, an animal nutrition plant, and what I assume is a sugar-beet processing plant. Given the track ladder in the foreground of the photo, this looks like the two plants on the north side of town.

Bruce Simak posted

The above update got me looking for old elevators. I could not find the one posted by Bruce, but I did find this one along the UP tracks.

Street View, Oct 2007 (Satellite)

 

1952 Sterling North and South Quads @ 24,000

BNSF has a railyard in this town even though their route through town is gone.

Satellite

This photo was posted as BNSF Railway Dept. It would be a view the Cargill Animal Nutrition feed mill from the BNSF building, but the tracks belong to UP. It is an excellent example of how a feed mill has many small bins to hold the various supplements that they add to the feed.

John Hobart, May 2022

The 2007 views make me appreciate how quickly the technology improved. Unfortunately, this is the only date available on this street.

Street View, Oct 2007

They receive some of those ingredients by rail.

Satellite

.depot

Union Station (CB&Q+UP)

Street View, May 2018

I.e. Xam posted
Sterling CO-UP CBQ,1902
[A lot of sources think "Union Depot" means "Union Pacific Depot." But Xam is correct, this depot was used by CB&Q and UP.]

eBay

Thomas Dorman posted six photos with the comment: "Former Union Pacific Railroad depot built in 1903 at Sterling, Colorado. Moved across the street from the tracks and rotated to face the street at 109 North Front Street (40.62335, -103.20637), now it houses the Logan County Chamber of Commerce."

1

2

3

4

5

6

Colorado Fan Club posted five photos with the comment:

Thursday Throwback from October 2022:  Historic Union Pacific Train Depot (Sterling, Colorado).

From the History Colorado website:

"The 1902 building exhibits the Romanesque Revival style resulting in an impressive depot in keeping with the importance of Sterling on the Union Pacific system.

With the decline in passenger service, the railroad closed the depot in 1983.  The city relocated the building to its present site in 1984." 

The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 due to its transportation and architectural significance. 

Sterling is a neat town. Check it out!

Location:

Sterling Union Pacific Train Depot

113 North Front Street 

Sterling, Colorado    

80751 

1

2

3

4

5

At first I was very confused because this topo map clearly shows the depot was less than a block south of US-6 and is east of Front Street. But today that is a dog park. But today the depot is more than a block south of US-6 and is west of Front Street.

1951/52 Sterling North and South @ 24,000

The fact that the depot was moved explained a lot.

HistoryColorado
"The city relocated the building to its present site in 1984." It was moved just a year after it closed so it was not allowed to deteriorate.

I included the UP roundhouse as well as the depot in this aerial photo.

Dec 18, 1948 @ 16,620; AR1ID0000090021

Another source of confusion is that the above topo map labels the north/south route that is south of town as just UP. And that is where I first looked. But then I noticed that the 1928 RR Atlas labeled that segment as CB&Q+UP. In fact, it showed the north/south route was a major CB&Q route whereas the east/west route was a minor route.

1902

Today, BNSF still owns the north/south route, and a shortline operates the route east of Sterling. NKCR is Nebraska Northwestern Railroad.

BNSF