January 20, 2012 - Logo
The Laramie Railroad Depot Association adopted an official logo at our meeting on May 5, 2011. The logo features a sketch of the depot viewed from the northeast. Note the Rail Express Agency (REA) wagon in front. The wagons were recently restored by a grant from John and Susan Davis and by the volunteer efforts of WyoTech. The curlicues that frame the logo are drawings of the ones that surround the UP shield medallions on the east and west outside walls of the depot. The logo was designed by Sue Jones.
August 7, 2011 - Save The Date
The Depot's annual open house is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday November 19 and 20. CoWLUG will be back with their LEGO empire.
June 21, 2011 - Spring Cleaning
Summer is finally here and it is time for spring cleaning at the Depot J
The Depot Board will meet at 5:30 tomorrow evening (Wednesday, June 22, 2011) at the Depot for this annual event, and we hope that you can join us! This is another opportunity to see parts of the Depot usually not open to the public.
Hope you can come by and give us a hand washing tables, windows, woodwork, and floors!
April 20, 2011 - Volunteers
The Depot Board will be washing the walls in the Depot baggage room this Saturday, April 23, starting at 9 AM. We would love to have your help, if you are available.
At its last meeting, the Board had an interesting discussion about whether to clean these walls, or leave them as they are. The soot that covers them is actually an historic artifact that dates from the days of steam engines! Traces of Big Boys, Challengers, and 9000s – even some smoke from the 535 now in Railroad Heritage Park – adorn the walls. As an experiment we cleaned one brick, and after seeing how the original paint still sparkles under all that grime we decided it would be best to make the whole room look as it did when new in 1924. Thus the cleaning project this Saturday.
The baggage room is on the north end of the Depot, and is where we are creating a railroad museum which will eventually house our artifacts from the glory days of railroading in Laramie. This will be a good opportunity for you to see areas of the Depot that are seldom seen by the general public.
We’ll have ladders, buckets, rags, maybe scaffolds, etc. All you need to bring is yourselves (dressed in old clothes)!
Hope to see you there!
February 8, 2011 - Equipment Moved to Park!
UP 535 and its tender were moved to Railroad Heritage Park yesterday, February 7, 2011. The snow plow and bunk car are loaded on the trucks and ready for transport to the Park. The move is expected to occur between 8 AM and 9 AM this morning, February 8. The parade will go north on Cedar St., east across the Curtis St. viaduct, then south on 3rd St to Park Ave. and west to RRHP. The caboose may follow, later in the day.
Turning the corner at 3rd St. and Grand Ave., Laramie
February 5, 2011 - New schedule for train moves
On February 7, 8, and 9, 2011, four pieces of railroad equipment will be moved from various places around Laramie, Wyoming, to Railroad Heritage Park located just south of the historic Laramie Railroad Depot.
Wasatch Railroad Contractors, the firm that the City hired for this project, subcontracted with Black Hills Trucking, from Casper WY, to handle the moves. Black Hills Trucking will leave Casper at noon on Sunday, February 6, with three trucks and two cranes, arriving in Laramie about 4 PM. They will move to the engine and tender early the next morning (Monday, February 7) to begin loading. The engine and tender are currently located at 6th St. and Canby St. in LaBonte Park, Laramie.
The cranes will move into position, one on each side of the engine, and lift it. Lift off is scheduled for about 8 AM. Then a trailer will be backed under the engine and the engine will be lowered. The truck, trailer, and engine will move forward onto 6th street and park while the tender is placed on a second trailer.
Between 11 AM and noon the two trucks will head south on 6th street for Railroad Heritage Park, escorted by the Laramie Police Department. The move will take about 45 minutes.
About noon the engine and tender will arrive at the Depot and unloading will begin, a process that will take one or two hours. The trucks, trailers and cranes will then head for the snow plow and bunk car, currently located in Laramie’s West Side, just west of Cedar St. between University and Fremont. Loading of the snow plow may take place Monday afternoon.
Tuesday, February 8, the snow plow and bunk car will be moved to RR Heritage Park. They will proceed north on Cedar, east across the Curtis Street viaduct, and then south on 3rd St. to the Park. If all goes well the caboose will be moved that afternoon. Otherwise, the caboose will be moved on Wednesday, February 9.
January 19, 2011 - Schedule for train moves
Barring a white-out blizzard, on February 7, 8, and 9, 2011, four pieces of railroad equipment will be moved from various places around Laramie, Wyoming, to Railroad Heritage Park located just south of the historic Laramie Railroad Depot. This move was originally scheduled to happen a year ago, but those plans failed to materialize. We sincerely hope that this year’s efforts will be successful.
Wasatch Railroad Contractors, the firm that the City hired for this project, subcontracted with Black Hills Trucking, from Casper WY, to handle the moves. Black Hills Trucking will leave Casper at 5 AM on Monday, February 7, with three trucks and two cranes, arriving at the engine between 9 AM and 10 AM. The engine and tender are currently located at 6th St. and Canby St. in LaBonte Park, Laramie.
Between 11 AM and noon, the cranes will move into position, one on each side of the engine, and lift it. Then a trailer will be backed under the engine and the engine will be lowered. The truck, trailer, and engine will move forward onto 6th street and park while the tender is placed on a second trailer.
Between 1 PM and 2 PM the two trucks will head south on 6th street for Railroad Heritage Park, escorted by the Laramie Police Department. The move will take about 45 minutes.
About 3 PM the engine and tender will arrive at the Depot and unloading will begin, a process that will take one or two hours. The trucks, trailers and cranes will then head for the snow plow and bunk car, currently located in Laramie’s West Side, just west of Cedar St. between University and Fremont.
Tuesday morning, February 8, the snow plow and bunk car will be loaded onto trailers and moved to RR Heritage Park. They will proceed north on Cedar, east across the Curtiss Street viaduct, and then south on 3rd St. to the Park. If all goes well the caboose will be moved that afternoon. Otherwise, the caboose will be moved on Wednesday, February 9.
Once assembled, the equipment will re-create a 1950s era snow train used to keep the rail lines open in the fierce Wyoming winters. It will be a tribute to the hard working men and women of Laramie and the West who braved the elements to keep the passenger and freight trains running. The train will not only serve an historical function, but it will also be "coherent", meaning that it could have existed in the real world, operating in exactly this assemblage. This is rare for static displays.
It is seldom that one sees any piece of railroad equipment riding on a truck through city streets. This is an opportunity to see an entire train move, albeit spread over several days.
The train consists of the following equipment:
Wedge snow plow – Union Pacific snow plow 900015, now located in Laramie's West Side. It was built in the UP Pocatello shops in 1953 and was converted from a steam engine tender. The original number was 015. It was featured on the cover of The Streamliner, Vol. 6, No. 3, in action blasting through a snow drift near Strasburg, Colorado in 1982.
Steam engine – Union Pacific 535, now in LaBonte Park in Laramie. It was built by Baldwin in 1903. It is a 2-8-0 Consolidation and was originally part of the Oregon Short Line. It worked the Laramie yards and the U.P. Coalmont branch in the 1950s.
Bunk car – built by Ralston Steel Car Company for the U.P. in 1929. It began life as an A-50-12 automobile car, part of series 152001-152500, was converted to a box car in 1940, and then into a six-man bunk car in the late 1940s. An article about the U.P.'s bunk cars, which includes a photo of a car similar to ours, appeared in The Streamliner, Vol. 16, No. 3.
Caboose – Union Pacific 25232, built in 1951 with original number 3932. It is a class CA-5 caboose, one of a set of 100 such cars built by the U.P. in its Omaha shops. This was the first class of steel cabooses built in the U.P. shops. In the 1970s the caboose was upgraded with trucks that gave it a smoother ride. It served on the Maryville, KS, branch until it was retired.
The bunk car actually led to the creation of RR Heritage Park. Two years ago the car was scheduled to succumb to a salvage company's cutting torch. The effort to save it let to a whirlwind of activity which culminated in the Park.
Railroad Heritage Park is a joint project between the Laramie Railroad Depot Association and the City of Laramie. For more details on this park and the equipment to be moved, Click on "About – Railroad Heritage Park" at the top of this page.
Hope you can be there to watch this once in a lifetime event!
December 19, 2010 - Flood mitigation thanks
An estimated 53,000 gallons of water flooded the south side of the depot the first weekend in December. All events took place as scheduled and no rentals had to be cancelled or rescheduled thanks to the hard work and effort of many people. The home page of our website has a special thank you recognizing some who have helped out.
December 16, 2010 - Baggage room improvments
More good news.
Ralph A. Decora Construction, LLC, was hired for the baggage room ceiling work. This is NOT the section of the Depot damaged in our recent flood, an update on that will come shortly.
Our goal is to improve the baggage room and convert it to a museum to help preserve Laramie’s railroad legacy.
Photos below show the ceiling before and after the improvements. The crown molding is new and is an exact match to the original.
Rob and Jay Bress of Modern Printing very generously allowed us to use their nearby warehouse to store all of the stuff in the baggage room while it was being repaired. This Saturday, December 18, we will begin returning our stuff to the baggage room or taking it to the dump. This is a heavy job and we can use any help you can provide. We’ll start at 9 AM and continue until we are exhausted. Please consider giving us a hand!
December 15, 2010 - Equipment move update
GREAT NEWS! Prep work will be performed in late December and all equipment is planned to be moved to Laramie’s RailroadHeritagePark by mid January, 2011.
Wasatch Company from Cheyenne was the successful winning bidder for the train equipment move project. Wasatch Company will work with the City of Laramie to make the moves. As specific dates for equipment moves are made available they will be announced here.
December 5, 2010 - Water damage repairs
The pipes apparently burst during the cold spell we had last week and then began pouring out water when they later thawed.
If you wish to help us to recover from this terrible mess, you may send donations to:
Laramie Railroad Depot Association
P.O. Box 623
Laramie, WY 82073
You can also use PayPal to donate online at: http://www.laramiedepot.org/Donate/tabid/69/Default.aspx
We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and your contribution is tax deductible.
Here are some photos of the aftermath of the flood:
Men's Room Foyer - Stained panels
The attic where the pipes burst – the darker areas are saturated with water. Tim Cotton took the photo.
December 3, 2010 - Water Leak
An alert citizen phoned the Laramie police Sunday to report flooding water at the depot. Depot board members were alerted and began cleanup efforts that evening. The depot remains available for rentals and running water has been restored. The Laramie Boomerang published an article about the incident and can be read at http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2010/12/03/news/doc4cf8895ed10ea816827329.txt
November 19, 2010 - Open house a success
Hundreds of people joined us on Saturday and Sunday to make our Laramie Railroad Depot Open House a great success! The highlight of our weekend festivities was a LEGO display put together by CoWLUG (Colorado Wyoming LEGO Users Group) members Stuart Guarnieri of Laramie and Duane Hess, Meghan McNally, Lester Marcinkowski, Matthew Harrington, and Joel Hoornbeek of Colorado. Thanks CoWLUG!!!
In addition to the LEGO layout, we had an operating HO scale train display, an N scale layout built on a door, and a 1940s vintage Lionel display.
Thank you to all who participated in the raffle drawings and made donations to the depot. Sarah Walther’s of Laramie won the LEGO set and Lee Quillinan of Evanston won the book.
October 14, 2010 - Open House November 13-14
The Railroad Depot will have an Open House on Saturday and Sunday, November 13 - 14.
This year’s open house will feature a HUGE LEGO® layout constructed by CoWLUG. CoWLUG is a group of LEGO® enthusiasts from Colorado and Wyoming who construct model buildings, trains, cities, farmland, and much more out of building blocks. They are displaying their creations for you at this year’s open house. The Depot Museum continued to acquire historic items during the past year. These items are on display within the memorabilia collections at the depot.
Everyone is invited to stop in for a visit between 10am and 6pm on Saturday, November 13, or between Noon and 4pm on Sunday, November 14. Refreshments will be served.
March 13, 2010 Equipment moves postponed
No equipment will be moved during the next month or two.
February 21, 2010, 2:15 PM - More equipment move delays
The snow plow will not be moved tomorrow (Monday, February 22). We do not currently have a planned date for moving it.
February 18, 2010, 3:00 PM - More equipment move delays
The earliest that the snow plow will be moved is Monday, February 22.
February 18, 2010 - More equipment move delays
The earliest that the snow plow will be moved is Friday, February 19. Dan Smith, the mover, plans to start loading the plow on his truck today. If everything goes well, it might be moved on Friday. Saturday and Monday are also possibilities. See Feb. 13 announcement below for route.
February 15, 2010 - Equipment moves delayed
Problems with the mover's truck have forced a delay in our scheduled moves of equipment to Railroad Heritage Park. The snow plow will not be moved until Wednesday, February 17, at the earliest. More likely, the move will take place on Thursday, February 18. The route is unchanged.
February 13, 2010 - Equipment to be moved to Railroad Heritage Park
The snow train is about to be assembled in Railroad Heritage Park. The first piece to be moved is the snow plow, currently scheduled to begin its journey through Laramie at 11 AM, Tuesday, February 16. The tender will be moved a few days later, followed by the engine, bunk car, and then the caboose.
The snow plow will travel the following route:
- From its present location west of Cedar Street and University . . .
- North on Cedar to Curtis Street
- East on Curtis, over the viaduct, to 3rd Street
- South on 3rd to Sheridan
- West on Sheridan to Railroad Heritage Park
See our description of Railroad Heritage Park in the "About - Railroad Heritage Park" section of this website for photos of the equipment and other details.
November 17, 2009 -Open House at the Depot This Weekend
The Railroad Depot will have an Open House on Saturday and Sunday, November 21 – 22. It will celebrate all the wonderful things that have happened for us this year and is a small token of our appreciation for the heartwarming support we have received from the community and State – the Railroad Heritage Park, new roof, gutters, and other things to come. We will have tours of the Depot and Railroad Heritage Park, operating HO and N scale trains, a quilt raffle, model train raffle, and “Name Our Cow” contest. Refreshments will be served.
Larry
August 25, 2009
The Wyoming Colorado Railroad, Inc. has officially donated the snowplow now in Laramie’s West Side to the Railroad Heritage Park. Our snow train is now complete! Many thanks to Greg Kissel, WYCO Executive Vice President, and to The Western Group, of which WYCO is a subsidiary, for this spendid contribution.
Recent and historic photos of the snowplow and the other equipment to be assembled at the Park are available in the "About - Railroad Heritage Park" section of this website.
The wedge snowplow was built for and by the Union Pacific Railroad in their Pocatello shops in 1953 and was converted from a steam engine tender. The original number was 015. WYCO purchased it from the UP in 1987 and used it on their line from Laramie to Walden, CO. The plow appeared on the cover of The Streamliner, Vol. 6, No. 3, in action blasting through a snow drift near Strasburg, Colorado in 1982. It will be at the head of our snow train.
June 30, 2009
We obtained full funding from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund for our Railroad Heritage Park, as well as partial funding to replace the Depot’s roof. For details, see the WCTF press release at http://wyospcr.state.wy.us/Press/release.asp?releaseID=296, a portion of which is reprinted here:
Laramie Railroad Depot Association, Laramie, Laramie Railroad Depot Re-Roof Project, $10,000
Laramie Railroad Depot Association, Laramie, Railroad Heritage Park, Phase 1, $13,300
Previously, we received grants for the RR Heritage Park from the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, the Albany County Tourism Board, and the City of Laramie. These grants, the one from the WCTF, and public contributions, provide all the money we need to prepare the site, lay the track, and move the equipment. The Wyoming-Colorado Railroad has graciously donated sufficient track for the Park.
June 10, 2009
The Laramie Depot is open for tours on Wednesdays from 1 PM to 4 PM throughout the summer of 2009. Duane Trusty, a member of the Depot Board, will be there to show you around. Come visit this lovely reminder of the glory days of railroading in Laramie, Wyoming!
May 8, 2009
Laramie's first train - 141 years ago today!
Most likely, the first train arrived in Laramie 141 years ago today. At least that is what the evidence suggests from a perusal of items in the Cheyenne Leader, a newspaper of the day.
The strongest evidence for an arrival date of May 8, 1868, is the first and last items reprinted here from the Cheyenne Leader, May 11, 1868. Track construction was progressing at two to three miles per day on the Laramie Plains, so if on the 11th they were 8 miles west of Laramie (i.e., westbound on the railroad, which in Laramie is compass north), then three days earlier they would have been in Laramie. The tracks were obviously completed no later than the 10th because Durant arrived in Cheyenne on a train from Laramie that evening.
The first train would have been a work train carrying ties, rail, spikes, nuts, bolts, tie plates, fish plates, tools, etc. A train with bunk cars, commissary cars, and supplies would have been close behind. The scene may have looked something like the following:
Hollywood's depiction of railroad construction in 1868. From Cahill & Piade, The History of the Union Pacific, Brompton Books Corp., Greenwich, CT, 1989, p. 22.
The first scheduled trains to Laramie began arriving a few days later, on Friday, May 15, 1868. The previous day, May 14, the Union Pacific ran a special excursion train carrying Generals Sherman, Gibbon, and other dignitaries from Cheyenne to Laramie. See the article (in PDF format) "To the Summit and the City Beyond", from the front page of the Cheyenne Leader for a colorful description of that excursion.
Here is the first Union Pacific advertisement in the Cheyenne Leader that included service to Laramie:
Oddly, this ad appeared the day after service to Laramie began (May 16). The ad printed on the 15th did not include service to Laramie.
The tracks that came through Laramie that eventful day are located to the west of the present UP mainline. When next you walk across the footbridge, count the tracks as you head west – the 7th track over is where the original mainline was placed. The present mainline did not exist until after the disastrous fire of 1917 wiped out the original depot. Visit our History page to see a picture of the first depot (hover on the ABOUT tab at the top of this page).
The clippings from the Cheyenne Leader are from the Wyoming Newspaper Project.
Happy Birthday, Laramie!
May 5, 2009:
News Update
http://www.nationaltrainday.com/2009/
Wyoming doesn’t have any planned events that I’m aware of; the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden will let Moms in for free and will host a Goosefest (several motorcars affectionately called “Galloping Geese” will run).
http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/excurs/trace.cfm You can also follow it on Twitter (it tweets its location periodically).
Larry
April 7, 2009:
Steam Coming to Laramie
One of the steam engines (844 or 3985) will stop briefly at the Laramie Depot this Saturday, April 11. It is bound for California on a month-long trip and will have a long string of gorgeous yellow passenger cars in tow. Scheduled departure from Cheyenne is 8 AM, arrival in Laramie 9:30 AM, departure from Laramie 10:00 AM.
More details here.
April 4, 2009: Depot Receives Grant
We were just awarded a grant from the Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO). This grant, together with your contributions, is sufficient to pay the cost of moving the bunk car, snow plow, caboose, and track to Railroad Heritage Park. If the City Council approves the creation of the Park in its meeting next Tuesday (April 7), we will seek additional grant funds, perhaps from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, to move the engine as well, thus completing our train.
I don't know whether or not it is appropriate to send a letter or email in support of Railroad Heritage Park to the Mayor or your representative on the City Council, but I can't imagine it would do any harm. So if you have a spare minute, please send a short note expressing your support.
March 20, 2009: Bunk Car Saved
The Laramie Railroad Depot Association bought the bunk car from Smiley's Salvage. This was made possible by the generous donations of money, time, effort, and good wishes of over 70 people. The Depot Board gives its sincere appreciation for your wonderful support.
We hope to put the bunk car, the engine in LaBonte Park, the caboose on South 3rd, and the snow plow in a Railroad Heritage Park located south of the Depot. A scale model of the equipment, the proposed park, and the Depot will be on display in the Rec Center beginning next Wednesday (March 25). A few photos of the equipment and the model of the park are online at picasaweb.google.com/LarryOstresh/RailroadHeritagePark#
One of the photos has been digitally altered so as to indicate what our bunk car will look like after being painted silver with black lettering, as it appeared in the mid-1950s.
Best wishes and profound Thanks,
Larry
Best wishes,
Tuesday, May 12: Steam engine UP 844 will return to Laramie, probably about 3pm to 4pm. The train has an on-board GPS which you can follow at
Sunday, May 10: It has been 140 years since the Union Pacific tracks met those of the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, to complete the first Transcontinental Railroad. By way of celebration, steam engine UP 844 and its train will be in Ogden, Utah. On or about the same day (sources vary) in 1868, the first train entered Laramie. Later in 1868, as a result of the railroad’s construction, Wyoming became a Territory.
Saturday, May 9: National Train Day. See
Several train-relevant dates are just around the corner:
Best wishes,
Hope to see you at our Open House!
This will be an opportunity to see parts of the Depot, such as the baggage room on the north side, that the public hardly ever sees!