Every Town Had a Depot. In 1958 a Federal Examiner Gave Them a Date.
The film of this episode premieres February 16, 2027 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
In 1958 Howard Hosmer, a hearing examiner for the Interstate Commerce Commission, finished a 72-sheet report on the railroad passenger deficit.
Transcript
The sign in the weeds
C01 ABANDONED SANTA FE DEPOT SIGN WHICH ONCE BECKONED TRAVELERS AT HALSTEAD, KANSAS, NOW RUSTS IN WEEDS BEHIND THE STATION. PASSENGER TRAINS NO LONGER STOP HERE ALTHOUGH MANY OF THE STATIONS ARE MAINTAINED BY THE RAILROADS WHICH LEASE USE OF THE TRACKS TO AMTRAK FOR PASSENGER SERVICE. THE CORPORATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER TRAINS {{NRHP|01001094}}
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13561. View the original.
In nineteen fifty-eight a federal examiner wrote down the year the passenger train would be gone. Nineteen seventy. He missed by four months.
That sentence is on sheet sixty-nine. What follows is the paper behind it, and what became of the building every town had.
R071 Train station. Radburn, New Jersey
Carl Mydans · Radburn, New Jersey · Nov 1935 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-000610 · colorized 2026. View the original.
One thing first. The older negatives here are black and white. The color was put on by a computer this year — a good guess, not a record.
Every town had one
R001 Railroad station for sale. Coos County, New Hampshire
Arthur Rothstein · Coos, New Hampshire · Feb 1936 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-001115 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Northern New Hampshire, February of nineteen thirty-six. Arthur Rothstein, for the federal government. His caption is four words: railroad station for sale.
R002 Railroad station. Irrigon, Oregon. Population: 108. Land was opened to settlers here in 1914
Dorothea Lange · Irrigon, Oregon · Oct 1939 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-021094 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Irrigon, Oregon, nineteen thirty-nine. Dorothea Lange. Her caption gives the population: one hundred and eight.
R003 Detail of railroad station painted "railroad yellow." Irrigon, Morrow County, Oregon
Dorothea Lange · Irrigon, Oregon · Oct 1939 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-021123 · colorized 2026. View the original.
A detail of the same station, and the color it was painted. She wrote it down: "railroad yellow."
R004 A village consisting of a few houses, general store, and railroad station. Lamoille, Iowa
Arthur Rothstein · Lamoille, Iowa · Oct 1939 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-028984 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Lamoille, Iowa. Rothstein's caption: a village consisting of a few houses, a general store, and a railroad station.
R011 Almena, Kansas. Railroad station, oil tands and elevators
Russell Lee · Almena, Kansas · Jan 1941 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-038536 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Almena, Kansas, in January of nineteen forty-one. Railroad station, oil tanks and elevators. The whole town is in the caption.
R014 Railroad station. Hagerstown, Maryland
Arthur Rothstein · Hagerstown, Maryland · Oct 1937 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-025979 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Hagerstown, Maryland, nineteen thirty-seven. The bigger towns built in brick, with a tower.
R017 Railroad station during blizzard. North Adams, Massachusetts
Marion Post Wolcott · North Adams, Massachusetts · Feb 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-053039 · colorized 2026. View the original.
North Adams, Massachusetts. Her caption: railroad station during blizzard.
The agent
R018 Railroad station. Randolph, Vermont
Arthur Rothstein · Randolph, Vermont · Sep 1937 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-025753 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Randolph, Vermont, September of nineteen thirty-seven.
R020 Railroad station agent. Randolph, Vermont
Arthur Rothstein · Randolph, Vermont · Sep 1937 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-025744 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The railroad station agent, at his desk. That is the whole caption.
R021 Ticket agent in railway station. Mount Whittier, New Hampshire
Marion Post Wolcott · Mount Whittier, New Hampshire · Mar 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-053386 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mount Whittier, New Hampshire, March of nineteen forty. Wolcott spent a morning in one station and photographed everyone who worked in it. The ticket agent.
D04 Baggage master at railway station. Mount Whittier, New Hampshire
Marion Post Wolcott · Mount Whittier, New Hampshire · Mar 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-053373 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The baggage master.
R023 Postmaster waiting for train to arrive. Railway station, Mount Whittier, New Hampshire
Marion Post Wolcott · Mount Whittier, New Hampshire · Mar 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-053384 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The postmaster, waiting for the train to arrive. The mail came by rail.
R025 J. A. Fisher, storekeeper, postmaster and depot agent of Funkley, Minnesota, by stove of his own creation
Russell Lee · Funkley, Minnesota · Aug 1937 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-030427 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Funkley, Minnesota, nineteen thirty-seven. Mister J. A. Fisher: storekeeper, postmaster and depot agent, by a stove of his own creation.
R026 Reporting departure of train from railroad station. San Augustine, Texas
Russell Lee · San Augustine, Texas · Apr 1939 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-032991 · colorized 2026. View the original.
San Augustine, Texas. Reporting the departure of a train, on the telegraph key.
R028 Loading mail into mail car. L&N railroad station, North Florida
Marion Post Wolcott · Florida · Jun 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-054163 · colorized 2026. View the original.
North Florida, June of nineteen forty. Loading mail into the mail car of a Louisville and Nashville train.
R034 The railway station at Mileston Plantation is the social gathering place. On the platform are the station agent and the plantation owner, Mr. Jones. Mileston, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi
Marion Post Wolcott · Mileston Plantation, Mississippi · Oct 1939 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-052231 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The Mississippi Delta, October of nineteen thirty-nine. Wolcott's caption: the railway station at Milestun is the social gathering place. On the platform, the station agent and the plantation owner.
R042 Operating switch at railroad station. Carson City, Nevada
Arthur Rothstein · Carson City, Nevada · Mar 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-029973 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Carson City, with a train in. Operating the switch at the station.
Formerly had passenger service
R043 Railroad station at Cimarron, Colorado
Russell Lee · Cimarron, Colorado · Sep 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-037556 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Some of them were already going. Cimarron, Colorado, September of nineteen forty.
R044 Railroad station of the D.& R.G.W. Railroad at Ouray, Colorado. This narrow gauge line formerly had passenger service but now is confined to freight service
Russell Lee · Ouray, Colorado · Sep 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-037589 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Another Colorado narrow gauge station, the same trip. Russell Lee wrote it into the caption: this narrow gauge line formerly had passenger service but now is confined to freight.
R045 Abandoned railway station, now used for a church, in the oil ghost town of Slick, Oklahoma. The railroad no longer goes through the town
Russell Lee · Slick, Oklahoma · Feb 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-035220 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Slick, Oklahoma, February of nineteen forty. His caption: abandoned railway station, now used for a church, in the oil ghost town of Slick. The railroad no longer goes through the town.
R047 Former railroad station in old mining town. Leadville, Colorado
Marion Post Wolcott · Leadville, Colorado · Sep 1941 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-058985 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Leadville, Colorado. Former railroad station in an old mining town.
Radford, December 1940
R048 Men from out of town spending the night in railroad station. Radford, Virginia
John Vachon · Radford, Virginia · Dec 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-062035 · colorized 2026. View the original.
And then the war filled them. Radford, Virginia, December of nineteen forty. John Vachon.
R049 Men sleeping in railroad station, Radford, Virginia. They come in from out of town to work in the powder plant and are often unable to find a place to stay the first night
John Vachon · Radford, Virginia · Dec 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-062040 · colorized 2026. View the original.
His caption: men sleeping in the railroad station. They come in from out of town to work in the powder plant and are often unable to find a place to stay the first night.
R053 Richwood, West Virginia. Waiting for the train
John Collier · Richwood, West Virginia · Sep 1942 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-083987 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Richwood, West Virginia, September of nineteen forty-two. Waiting for the train.
R054 These four photographs were taken at the railroad station when a noon train came in. All trains coming into San Diego are crowded and are an indication of the hordes of people pouring into the city. California
Russell Lee · San Diego, California · Jun 1941 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-039342 · colorized 2026. View the original.
San Diego, June of nineteen forty-one. Lee's caption: all trains coming into San Diego are crowded.
R056 Clinton, Iowa. Engineer Johnny Johnson having his dinner at the depot lunchroom
Jack Delano · Clinton, Iowa · Jan 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-013975 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Clinton, Iowa, January of nineteen forty-three. Engineer Johnny Johnson, having his dinner at the depot lunchroom.
R058 Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad streamliner "Super Chief" stopping for five minutes' servicing at the depot
Jack Delano · Albuquerque, New Mexico · Mar 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-020412 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Albuquerque, March of nineteen forty-three. The Super Chief, stopped for five minutes of servicing.
R059 Isleta, New Mexico. The depot. It is here that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe coast line tracks join those of the New Mexico division
Jack Delano · Isleta, New Mexico · Mar 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-020540 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Isletta, New Mexico. The depot.
R061 Isleta, New Mexico. Engineer of a passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad picking up a message passed to him by the agent, by hand. This diesel train called the "Doodle Bug" makes all local stops
Jack Delano · Isleta, New Mexico · Mar 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-020770 · colorized 2026. View the original.
The engineer takes it from the agent's hand. This diesel makes all the local stops. The crews called it the Doodle Bug.
R066 San Augustine, Texas. The waiting room in the railroad station
John Vachon · San Augustine, Texas · Apr 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-025219 · colorized 2026. View the original.
San Augustine, Texas again, April of nineteen forty-three. The waiting room.
R068 Silver Spring, Maryland. People waiting for a train at the railroad station
Ann Rosener · Silver Spring, Maryland · Jul 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-033279 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Silver Spring, Maryland, July of nineteen forty-three. People waiting for a train.
R069 Silver Spring, Maryland. People waiting for a train at the railroad station
Ann Rosener · Silver Spring, Maryland · Jul 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-033282 · colorized 2026. View the original.
Nineteen forty-four was the most crowded year the railroads ever had. The Census Bureau counted nine hundred and fifteen million passengers.
In nineteen twenty it had been one billion, two hundred and seventy million.
In nineteen seventy, two hundred and eighty-nine million.
Docket 31954
The Interstate Commerce Commission opened an investigation into the passenger deficit on March nineteenth, nineteen fifty-six.
The report was proposed by Howard Hosmer, a hearing examiner, in nineteen fifty-eight. Seventy-two typed sheets.
The number of passengers carried by the big railroads in nineteen fifty-seven was four hundred and eleven million. He wrote: the smallest number ever recorded in a period dating from eighteen ninety.
Coach passengers had fallen by more than half in ten years. Three hundred and sixty million in nineteen forty-seven. One hundred and sixty-eight million in nineteen fifty-seven.
His table. The passenger deficit, by year. Nineteen fifty-seven: seven hundred and twenty-three million dollars.
By railroad. The Louisville and Nashville lost eighteen million dollars carrying passengers that year.
He listed what the stations cost in property tax. Grand Central, six million six hundred thousand dollars. Louisville Union Station, eighteen thousand six hundred and nineteen.
The transportation museum
Then the conclusion. For more than a century the railroad passenger coach has occupied an interesting and useful place in American life.
But, he wrote, in a decade or so this time-honored vehicle may take its place in the transportation museum along with the stagecoach, the sidewheeler, and the steam locomotive.
The American public, he said, was doing about ninety percent of its traveling by private automobile, and preferred to.
If the decline held, the parlor and sleeping-car service would have disappeared by nineteen sixty-five. The coach service by nineteen seventy.
He answered the people who wrote to the Commission saying the deficit was a phantom, produced by dishonest accounting. These are mistaken ideas, he wrote. It is real and serious.
And he quoted the head of the railroads' own association. When every other resource has failed, the railroads have reduced passenger train operations to avoid further loss. That course was more and more proving the only remedy.
Section 13a
Congress made that remedy easier the same summer. The Transportation Act of nineteen fifty-eight, signed August twelfth.
Section five added a new section to the Interstate Commerce Act. Thirteen-a. Discontinuance or change of certain operations or services.
A railroad that wanted to drop a train no longer had to win a case before a state commission. It had to mail a notice to the governor, and post in every station, depot or other facility served thereby, notice at least thirty days in advance.
The Commission could hold the train in service while it investigated. But not for a longer period than four months. So the notice went up on the depot wall, and the depot was usually the next thing to go.
Morehead, 1971
Morehead, Kentucky, January of nineteen seventy-one. The Morehead News. Last passenger train may be discontinued.
Morehead had, until fifteen years ago, three west passenger trains and three east passenger trains daily. By nineteen seventy-one it had one: the George Washington, which passed west at six-forty in the morning and east around seven at night.
R070 Lynchburg, Virginia. Railroad station
John Vachon · Lynchburg, Virginia · Mar 1943 · Library of Congress LC-USW3-020349 · colorized 2026. View the original.
If it went, the paper said, Morehead would be without passenger train service for the first time since eighteen eighty-three, when the railroad was built.
The basic system
Whether it went was now a federal decision. The Rail Passenger Service Act of nineteen seventy. Signed October thirtieth.
Its first sentence: the Congress finds that modern, efficient railroad passenger service between cities is a necessary part of a balanced transportation system.
The Act took the trains away from the railroads and gave them to a new corporation. Thirty days later the Department of Transportation published the preliminary map of what it would run.
It called the map the basic system, and the corporation had to run it until at least July first, nineteen seventy-three.
Sixteen pairs of cities. New York to Boston. Chicago to Cincinnati. Chicago to Miami. Los Angeles to Chicago. Everything else was optional.
Kentucky appears as a way to get from Chicago to Miami. Via Louisville and Atlanta: a Penn Central train to Louisville, then the L and N, number nine and number eight, to Nashville.
April 30, 1971
Bowling Green, Thursday, April twenty-ninth, nineteen seventy-one. The Park City Daily News. Amtrak takes over. The Pan American: last run Saturday.
Saturday was Kentucky Durby day. The paper said it also brought to an end the nearly fifty-year-old tradition of the Pan American, which stopped in Bowling Green for a few minutes on each run.
Louisville, Saturday, May first. The Courier-Journal, page two. Kentucky to lose four passenger train runs today.
Kentucky would keep three passenger-train runs and lose four. Officially, yesterday was the last day of regular passenger service.
Making their last runs: the Pan-American, the Georgian, the Panama Limited, and the George Washington feeder, Louisville to Ashland, with stops in Frankfort, Lexington and Morehead.
The same page carried the national number. Twenty railroads had signed up to switch their three hundred and sixty passenger trains to Amtrak, which immediately abolished one hundred and seventy-eight of them.
1974, in color
C02 TRAIN DEPOT AT STRONG CITY, KANSAS, HASN'T BEEN USED BY PASSENGERS IN MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, BUT IS MAINTAINED IN IMMACULATE CONDITION. THE STATION'S DESK AND PHONES ARE STILL USED BY WORK CREWS WHO MAINTAIN THE TRACKS. ALTHOUGH AMTRAK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER SERVICE, IT LEASES USE OF THE TRACKS FROM THE NATION'S RAILROADS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13562. View the original.
Three years later the Environmental Protection Agency sent a photographer named Charles O'Rear to ride what was left. These are his pictures, in the color he shot them.
C03 INTERIOR OF THIS TRAIN DEPOT AT STRONG CITY, KANSAS, HASN'T SERVED PASSENGERS IN MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, BUT IS MAINTAINED IN GOOD CONDITION. RAILROAD WORK CREWS MAINTAINING TRACKS AND ROADBED IN THE AREA STILL USE THE STATION'S PHONES AND DESK. ALTHOUGH AMTRAK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER SERVICE, IT LEASES USE OF THE TRACKS FROM THE NATION'S RAILROADS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13565. View the original.
Strong City, Kansas, June of nineteen seventy-four. His caption: this depot hasn't been used by passengers in more than five years, but is maintained in immaculate condition.
C04 TRAIN DEPOT AT STRONG CITY, KANSAS, HASN'T SERVED PASSENGERS IN MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, BUT IS MAINTAINED IN GOOD CONDITION RAILROAD CREWS MAINTAINING TRACKS AND ROADBED IN THE AREA STILL USE THE STATION'S PHONES AND DESK. ALTHOUGH AMTRAK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER SERVICE, IT LEASES USE OF THE TRACKS FROM THE NATION'S RAILROADS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13564. View the original.
The desk and the phones were still used by the crews who maintained the track.
C01 ABANDONED SANTA FE DEPOT SIGN WHICH ONCE BECKONED TRAVELERS AT HALSTEAD, KANSAS, NOW RUSTS IN WEEDS BEHIND THE STATION. PASSENGER TRAINS NO LONGER STOP HERE ALTHOUGH MANY OF THE STATIONS ARE MAINTAINED BY THE RAILROADS WHICH LEASE USE OF THE TRACKS TO AMTRAK FOR PASSENGER SERVICE. THE CORPORATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER TRAINS {{NRHP|01001094}}
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13561. View the original.
Halstead, Kansas. The sign from the top of this episode. His caption: passenger trains no longer stop here.
C05 DESERTED RAILROAD STATION IN BROWNING
Greenberg · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1973 · NARA 412-DA-10026. View the original.
Browning. Deserted railroad station.
C06 ABANDONED RAILROAD STATION AND FREIGHT ROOM OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO ART STUDIO (THE STATION STUDIO) AND ART SHOP (THE SHACK BY THE TRACK) NEAR OLD FORGE, NEW YORK, IN THE ADIRONDACK FOREST PRESERVE
LaBastille · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1973 · NARA 412-DA-12111. View the original.
Old Forge, New York, in the Adirondacks. The New York Central station, converted into an art studio. The freight room was the shop: the shack by the track.
C08 DEPOT AT PURCELL, OKLAHOMA, ON THE ROUTE OF THE LONE STAR AMTRAK PASSENGER TRAIN BETWEEN CHICAGO AND HOUSTON, TEXAS. THE CORPORATION TOOK OVER A GREAT VARIETY OF STATIONS WHEN IT WAS EMPOWERED TO OVERSEE MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER TRAINS. MANY HAVE BEEN REFURBISHED AND OTHERS HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH NEW FACILITIES
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13585. View the original.
Purcell, Oklahoma. Still on a route, the Lone Star, Chicago to Houston.
C09 TIMETABLE AT ARDMORE, OKLAHOMA, ON THE ROUTE OF THE LONE STAR BETWEEN CHICAGO AND HOUSTON, TEXAS. WHEN AMTRAK TOOK OVER RESPONSIBILITY FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER SERVICE, THE CORPORATION INHERITED OLD EQUIPMENT WHICH IS BEING REPLACED AS NEW MATERIAL ARRIVES. EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT IS REDUCING BEHIND SCHEDULE ARRIVALS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13587. View the original.
Another Oklahoma stop. The timetable, written by hand on a blackboard.
C17 KANSAS CITY'S UNION STATION SHOWN AS IT APPEARED IN THE SUMMER OF 1974. ONLY A PORTION OF THE MISSOURI STATION IS USED FOR PASSENGERS TODAY; THE REMAINDER IS WALLED OFF FOR USE AS A CONVENTION HALL. SIX TRAINS PER DAY USE THE FACILITIES COMPARED TO MORE THAN 200 TRAINS SERVED PER DAY IN THE STATION'S PAST. AMTRAK IS WORKING TO UPGRADE PASSENGER SERVICE AND ATTRACT TRAVELERS FROM OTHER MODES OF TRANSPORTATION. NOTE: SEE PICTURE #13566 FOR COMPARISON
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13567. View the original.
Kansas City Union Station, summer of nineteen seventy-four. Six trains a day used it. Once, more than two hundred. The rest of the building was walled off for a convention hall.
C11 SIGN ON THE UNION STATION IN PORTLAND, OREGON, ONE OF THE 450 TRAIN STATIONS SERVED BY AMTRAK IN 1974. DURING THAT YEAR THE CORPORATION LISTED 8,800 EMPLOYEES AND OPERATED 225 TRAINS PER DAY. A STEADY DECLINE IN RIDERSHIP FROM THE END OF WORLD WAR II TO 1970 HAS BEEN REVERSED SINCE AMTRAK ASSUMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR MOST U.S INTERCITY PASSENGER SERVICE. A TOTAL OF 14.5 MILLION PASSENGERS RODE THE RAILS IN 1973
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jul 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13676. View the original.
Portland, Oregon. Go by train. His caption counts the stations Amtrak served in nineteen seventy-four: four hundred and fifty. Two hundred and twenty-five trains a day.
C14 A CHILD PLACES PENNIES ON THE TRACK AT THE ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, TRAIN STATION AND WILL WAIT FOR THE SOUTHWEST LIMITED TO FLATTEN THEM AS A SOUVENIR. MOST U.S. INTERCITY PASSENGER TRAINS ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF AMTRAK. THE CORPORATION IS USING AIRLINE TECHNIQUES AND OTHER MODERN METHODS IN AN EFFORT TO UPGRADE TRAIN TRAVEL AND MAKE IT AN ALTERNATIVE TO THAT OF THE AUTOMOBILE
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13538. View the original.
Albuquerque. A child putting pennies on the rail for the Southwest Limited to flatten.
C26 ONE LAST GOODBYE BEFORE PASSENGERS BOARD THE EMPIRE BUILDER AT FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, ENROUTE FROM CHICAGO TO EAST GLACIER PARK MONTANA, AND SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. THE AMTRAK TRAIN WAS SEVEN HOURS LATE BECAUSE OF A BRIDGE WASHOUT. AMTRAK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE, BUT LEASES USE OF THE TRACKS FROM THE NATION'S RAILROADS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13640. View the original.
Fargo, North Dakota. One last goodbye before boarding the Empire Builder. The train was seven hours late because of a bridge washout.
C29 RUSTIC STATION AT EAST GLACIER PARK, MONTANA, WHERE ONE CHICAGO BOUND AND ONE SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, BOUND TRAIN STOP EACH DAY DURING THE SUMMER. AMTRAK, WHICH ASSUMED MAJOR RESPONSIBILITY FOR U.S. INTERCITY RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE IN 1971, IS WORKING TO RENOVATE MANY OF THE STATIONS. RIDERSHIP IS INCREASING AS NEW EQUIPMENT REPLACES OLDER MATERIAL INHERITED FROM THE NATION'S RAILROADS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13649. View the original.
East Glacier Park, Montana. One train each way, each day, in summer.
C12 "TRACKS ARE BACK!" IS ONE OF THE THEMES PUBLICIZED BY AMTRAK WHICH HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MOST U.S. INTERCITY RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE. THE CORPORATION IS WORKING TO RENOVATE STATION TERMINALS AND HAS ALLOCATED MORE THAN 550 MILLION DOLLARS FOR NEW TRAIN EQUIPMENT TO IMPROVE RAIL SERVICE AND ATTRACT RIDERS. THIS PIN IS WORN BY AMTRAK EMPLOYEES
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jul 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13680. View the original.
The employees of the new corporation wore a button that year. Tracks are back.
What is still standing
The examiner had noticed one more thing in nineteen fifty-eight, on sheet seventy-two. The largest percentage of rail passengers, he wrote, are persons above the age of forty-five.
C36 THE SOUTHWEST LIMITED PASSES RIPENING WHEAT FIELDS NEAR DODGE CITY, KANSAS. TWO PASSENGER TRAINS A DAY, ONE EACH WAY, USE THE TRACKS BETWEEN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AND CHICAGO. THE AMTRAK TRAIN INCLUDES A DOME CAR FOR OBSERVATION, A DINING CAR THAT IS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED ACCORDING TO AMTRAK, AND A LOUNGE CAR IN ADDITION TO THE NORMAL PASSENGER CARS
Charles O’Rear · DOCUMERICA · Jun 1974 · NARA 412-DA-13551. View the original.
Most of the people watching this are, too. The building was the one part of the service that could not be discontinued by a notice on the wall. Somebody's town still has one.
D03 Abandoned railway station, now used as church, in the oil ghost town Slick, Oklahoma
Russell Lee · Slick, Oklahoma · Feb 1940 · Library of Congress LC-USF34-035229 · colorized 2026. View the original.
If your town had a depot, what is it now? The comments are open.
Sources
- Interstate Commerce Commission, Docket No. 31954, *Railroad Passenger Train Deficit*, report proposed by Howard Hosmer, hearing examiner (1958; bound 1959). U.S. federal document, public domain. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001351149 - Sheet 1: investigation "instituted by the Commission on its own initiative by order dated March 19, 1956." - Sheet 11: "The number of passengers (including commutation) carried by class I railroads in 1957 was 411 million, the smallest number ever recorded in a period dating from 1890." Coach passengers 360.9 million (1947) to 167.7 million (1957). - Sheet 69 (Conclusion): "in a decade or so this time-honored vehicle may take its place in the transportation museum along with the stagecoach, the sidewheeler, and the steam locomotive"; "about 90 percent of its traveling by private automobile"; "the parlor and sleeping-car service will have disappeared by 1965 and the coach service by 1970." - Sheet 71: the AAR president quoted, "When every other resource has failed, the railroads have reduced passenger train operations to avoid further loss. Unfortunately the latter course is more and more proving the only remedy"; "phantom produced by archaic or dishonest accounting … These are mistaken ideas." - Sheet 72: "The passenger deficit is not something which can be conjured away by statistical legerdemain. It is real and serious"; "the largest percentage of rail passengers are persons above the age of 45." - Appendix A: passenger deficit 1957, $723,483 thousand; Louisville & Nashville $18,340 thousand. Appendix C: property taxes — Grand Central $6,600,000 (1956); Louisville Union $18,619 (1957). All figures read off the page images (Google Books AU4hAAAAMAAJ, the same scan as HathiTrust mdp.39015018275076), not the text layer.
- Transportation Act of 1958, Pub. L. 85-625, 72 Stat. 568 (Aug. 12, 1958), §5 adding §13a to the Interstate Commerce Act. Page images from the Internet Archive scan of the Statutes at Large, vol. 72. https://archive.org/details/sim_united-states-united-states-statutes-at-large_1958_72 - p. 571: the carrier "may, but shall not be required to, file with the Commission, and upon such filing shall mail to the Governor of each State … and post in every station, depot or other facility served thereby, notice at least thirty days in advance of any such proposed discontinuance or change." p. 571–572: the Commission may require the train "to be continued in operation or service … but not for a longer period than four months."
- Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, Pub. L. 91-518, 84 Stat. 1327 (Oct. 30, 1970). Statutes at Large, vol. 84, Internet Archive scan. https://archive.org/details/sim_united-states-united-states-statutes-at-large_1970-1971_84 - §101, p. 1328: "The Congress finds that modern, efficient, intercity railroad passenger service is a necessary part of a balanced transportation system."
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, *Preliminary Report on Basic National Rail Passenger System*, Nov. 1, 1970. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/54667 - p. 1: the basic system "over which the Corporation must provide service until at least July 1, 1973." p. 7: sixteen city-pair end points. p. 17: Chicago–Miami "VIA Louisville, Atlanta" — Chicago–Louisville PC #93/#90, Louisville–Nashville L&N #9/#8.
- U.S. Bureau of the Census, *Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970* (1975), Part 2, Series Q 284–312, col. 306 (passengers carried, Class I railroads, thousands): 1920 1,269,913; 1944 915,817; 1957 412,625; 1970 289,469. Read off the 300-dpi page render. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1975/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1970/hist_stats_colonial-1970p2-chQ.pdf
- "Last Passenger Train May Be Discontinued," *Morehead News*, Morehead, Ky., Jan. 21, 1971, p. 11. Read on newspapers.com; used under fair use, cropped to the article. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1338498137/ - "Morehead had, until 15 years ago, three west passenger trains and three east passenger trains daily. The George Washington presently passes west at Morehead at 6:40 a.m., and east around 7 p.m." "without passenger train service for the first time since 1883 when the railroad was built."
- Sally Duvall, "Amtrak Takes Over — The Pan American: Last Run Saturday," *Park City Daily News*, Bowling Green, Ky., Apr. 29, 1971, p. 1. Fair use, cropped to the article. https://www.newspapers.com/image/661488220/ - "the nearly 50-year-old tradition — the Pan American passenger train. Stopping in Bowling Green for a few minutes on each run."
- "Kentucky to lose four passenger train runs today," and the Amtrak report on the same page, *The Courier-Journal*, Louisville, May 1, 1971, p. 2. Fair use, cropped to the article. https://www.newspapers.com/image/109824759/ - "Kentucky will keep three passenger-train runs and lose four when Amtrak goes into effect today. Officially, yesterday was the last day of regular passenger service." The last runs listed: L&N Pan-American, L&N Georgian, IC Panama Limited, C&O-B&O George Washington feeder (Louisville–Ashland; Frankfort, Lexington, Morehead). "Twenty railroads have signed up to switch their 360 passenger trains to Amtrak, which immediately will abolish 178 of the trains."
- Photographs, 1935–1943: Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information negatives by Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, John Vachon, John Collier, Carl Mydans and Ann Rosener. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USF33/LC-USF34/LC-USW3. Federal works, public domain; captions quoted from the Library of Congress catalog records. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/
- Photographs, 1973–1974: Charles O'Rear for the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA project, series 412-DA, National Archives (NAID 542493, use restriction "Unrestricted"); Browning and Old Forge frames from the same series. Period color, unaltered. Captions quoted from the NARA catalog. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/542493
- Colorization: the 1935–43 negatives are black and white. Color was added in 2026 with DDColor (open source), then audited with the channel's spot-fix pass; it is a computer's guess and is not part of the record.