Towns and Nature: rrBN

Showing posts with label rrBN. Show all posts

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Mansfield, MO: Replica/Frisco Depot and Mystery Elevator

Street View, May 2023

safe_image for The Mansfield Historical Society and Museum
"As you approach the museum, which is also the tourist information center, you will see that it looks like a train station. Well, it is a replica train station built on the site of the original train station which was demolished."

Is this a feed mill? It does have many small bins. But it is not clear how they are emptied.

Street View, May 2023

This topo map accurately marks the location of the depot.

1951/53 Mansfield Quad @ 24,000

Friday, August 15, 2025

Sioux City, IA: GN Roundhouse, Hansen Mueller and other Ag Support Facilities

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Hansen Mueller: (Satellite)

Satellite

I noticed the roundhouse on this topo map.

1963/64 Sioux City North and 1964/65 James Quad @ 24,000

Just south of what is now a BNSF railyard is the Hansen Mueller Grain Elevator. The cut on the left looks like tank cars instead of covered hoppers.

G A, Feb 2020

I was surprised to learn that they handle: "Oats, Wheat (Hard Red Winter and Spring)." [HansenMueller_sioux-city]

I'm used to an elevator that is that big handling corn and soybeans.

On the right side of this view we see the expected covered hoppers. Obviously, this elevator is railserved.

Street View, Sep 2024

A cut of BNSF hoppers is actively being loaded.

Street View, Sep 2022

And they have some antique hoppers stored here. Note the green BN hopper. I was looking for a locomotive that is handling the cut of hoppers that is being loaded. Do they have something in the building that will pull the cut forward like a cable and a winch?

Street View, Sep 2022

Jim Pearson Photography posted

BNSF 8247 leads a grain train as it waits to head out of Sioux City, Iowa on June 23rd, 2025 on the BNSF Napier Subdivision.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/5, 1/120, ISO 100.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jim's post
Would you provide a map link or the street names of an intersection close to that feed mill? Marshall is the former GN route, Aberdeen is the former Milwaukee route and Sioux City is the former CB&Q route to the South; so I assume that Napier is the former CB&Q route to the West. I followed that route from Sioux City to the countryside, but I could not find this feed mill. I did find several other grain handling facilities. https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with-bnsf/maps-and-shipping-locations/pdf/subdivisions-map.pdf

See BNSF Bridge over Missouri River for the CB&Q route to the West. While looking for the feed mill in Jim's photo, I did find a lot of rail-served companies that support farmers.

Kay Dee Feed

Satellite

This feed company provides mineral products rather than plant-based products. "As an industry innovator, Kay Dee pressed the first mineral block in 1932 and introduced the first waste-free granular livestock mineral in 1962. Today, Kay Dee provides its customers with a full line of livestock mineral and protein supplements and has grown to be the largest independent manufacturer of mineral and protein supplements in the United States." [KayDeeFeed]

Scratch and Peck Feeds

Are the bins across the tracks also part of their chicken feed operation?

Satellite

Their market seems to be pet owners and hobby farmers who are willing to pay a premium for the latest buzzwords.

0:23 video @ 0:07

Instead of corn and soybeans, they use field peas and sunflower seeds. They also use dried mealworms, fish meal, eggs and meat scraps. [ScratchAndPeck]

@ 0:13

Fertilizer Supply

Satellite

Richardson Milling

Satellite

"Richardson specializes in transforming high-quality oats and durum wheat into value-added food ingredients." They have a photo showing flakes, not flour. [richardson_milling]

This helps explain why Hansen Mueller stores oats and wheat.

Tyson Fresh Meats and Ingredion

This is where the CB&Q route turns from heading North to heading West. Ingredion bought a plant in Chicagoland that makes corn syrup. I don't know what they make here.

Satellite

Cargill and Dakota City Organic Elevator

So, Cargill has two facilities in the Sioux City area. Cargill has a big soyabean processing plant on the north side of town. Again, I see a bunch of tank cars when I would have expected covered hoppers.

Satellite

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Fort Worth, TX: 1900 Union Depot, 2002 Amtrak Depot and 1938 University/Santa Fe Freight House

Union Depot: (Satellite)

Amtrak Depot: (Satellite)

Freight House: (Satellite)

1900 Union Station

TheAshtonDepot_history
Union Depot was the Fort Worth Depot until Santa Fe was the only remaining railroad offering passenger service in 1960 when it became the Sante Fe Depot. Amtrak used it between 1973 and 1995. It opened as an event space in 2006.
"The Santa Fe Depot fell into disrepair after Amtrak left in 1995. Despite its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970, it became one of the city’s most endangered historic structures as it was slated for demolition. In 1998 the building was purchased by Shirlee and Taylor Gandy who took on the monumental task of saving The Depot." [They also purchased and redeveloped the adjacent freight house.]

"Over its life, the depot has served the Frisco, Rock Island, Burlington, Cotton Belt, Southern Pacific, and Santa Fe railroads." [HistoricFortWorth]

TheAshtonDepot_history
"Inside, the main waiting room was two stories high with an arched barrel-vaulted ceiling. The Depot’s tin roof and plaster detailing is original from the roof rebuild after the 1901 fire. The marble flooring shown in this photo is also original and intact today."

The Union Depot was remodelled in 1938.

TheAshtonDepot_history

FortWorthArchitecture

William A. Shaffer posted nine photos with the comment:

Fort Worth Depot. (4.21.08).
Fort Worth, TX
(All Photos by William A. Shaffer)
These are all photos I shot of the Fort Worth Depot. Also known as the Amtrak Depot, Intermodal Transit Center, and most recently, Fort Worth Central Station!

John Mier: Didn’t Amtrak use a different station 25+ years ago in FTW?

James Prater: John Mier The gable roof building in a couple of photos is the 1900-built Union Depot!

Dennis DeBruler commented on James' comment
Indeed, Amtrak used what James called the Union Depot from 1973 to 1995. https://www.theashtondepot.com/history-architecture https://maps.app.goo.gl/2fr5XroGc62QjKWo6

LA Smith: Dennis DeBruler 1999 when I first hired out we used the old depot.

Dennis DeBruler: LA Smith Interesting. The Ashton Depot reference that I cited states: "The Santa Fe Depot fell into disrepair after Amtrak left in 1995. Despite its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970, it became one of the city’s most endangered historic structures as it was slated for demolition. In 1998 the building was purchased by Shirlee and Taylor Gandy who took on the monumental task of saving The Depot." So I dug deeper. Central Station did not open until 2002. https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/fort-worth-tx-ftw/ So Amtrak must have been using some sort of shack at the Union Depot's platform between 1995 and 2002 to avoid spending money on repairing the building. The federal taxpayers did pay part of the $14 million needed to build Central Station.

LA Smith: Dennis DeBruler I was there. So was James Prater and I do believe William A. Shaffer was there before we moved down the block.

Dennis DeBruler: LA Smith So, it sounds like Amtrak left in 2002 instead of 1995.

2002 Central Station (Amtrak Depot)

Street View, Jan 2022

GreatAmericanStations
"Central Station, built with federal and local funding of $14 million, spans 31,000 square feet."
It opened to the public in Jan 2002.

It got federal funding because it is an intermodal, e.g. busses, station.

Satellite

1938 Santa Fe Freight House

The Santa Fe freight house has also been repurposed. The Union Depot is near the right side of this view.

Street View, Jan 2025

FortWorthArchitecture
"The structure now houses the Fort Worth Center of the University of Texas at Arlington, which opened in 2007."

All

It continues to impress me how much downtown land was used for passenger train yards.

1955/57 Fort Worth and Haltom City Quads @ 24,000

Monday, August 11, 2025

Yankton, SD: 1905 Milwaukee Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Nov 2021

Jim Arvites posted

View of the old Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad passenger depot at Yankton, South Dakota. The station, built in 1905, is still standing today.

(Wikimedia)

Nicholas Roche: In Chicagoland, the right of ways for defunct railroads were turned into bicycle paths to give the right of ways purpose - and to prevent other things from being built along them. This is in case of a national emergency, economic or technological shift that will require the RoW to be used again in the future - without tearing down houses. Is this the case for the MILW? Or does this only happen in urban areas? [See my answer below with the SD railroad map.]

It looks like GN and C&NW had branches to this town while the Milwaukee went through the town. (This is the first big town that I remember that does not have any hi-res topo maps.)

This town existed before the railroads did because it had steamboat service. [yankton]

1955/67 Sioux City Quad @ 250,000

BN bought the Milwaukee route and abandoned its GN route. BNSF still owns the route.

sdgoed
Dennis DeBruler commented on Nicholas' comment
In this case, BN bought this part of the Milwaukee route, and BNSF still owns it. https://sdgoed.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rail-map.pdf

sdgoed

While trying to figure out what route Dakota Southern operates, I discovered that Milwaukee went in two directions west of Yankton.

1955/67 Sioux City Quad @ 250,000

I didn't think the storage elevator had rail service until I saw that yellow conveyor on the left. This is another indication that a fall protector is not required.