Grand Canyon Arizona

Santa Fe Station

I have been to the Grand Canyon twice. The first time, when I was a boy, our family came into the Park through this station. We had boarded our sleeper in Los Angeles CA the night before and rode the Santa Fe Railway’s aptly named Grand Canyon Limited through the night (not even noticing the switching move in Williams Junction AZ). We awoke at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, climbed off our car, passed through this station and climbed the steps to our hotel accommodations at the El Tovar Lodge (a truck moved our luggage). And even though it was before breakfast, we were able to check in. We stayed that whole day, and the next and on the third day in the evening we boarded our sleeper through this same station and left sometime after sundown for the reverse move down to Williams Junction AZ where we were shifted onto the San Francisco Chief.

But all of the above was in the mid-1950’s, on my second visit, in the summer of 2000, I witnessed “Change.” The Santa Fe was no more, it was replaced with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. And it no longer was in the passenger train business, and it no longer owned the branch line that extended from Williams Junction AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

And so, A. and I de-trained at Flagstaff AZ and spent the night there. The next morning we took a bus up to the Grand Canyon where we spent 2 nights and most of three days. But, that was how we chose to do it.

Now, don’t get me wrong it is still possible to take a “train” from Williams Junction up to the South Rim. I understand the Grand Canyon Railway hauled more passengers this past summer than have ever been hauled on that line. But it is just not the same.

For one thing, The Grand Canyon Railway appears to have bought into the “Disney theme park” routine hook, line, and sinker. Why I mean you start off your day with a “Wild West Shootout." Why lookee here pardner, you have almost the real thing complete with horses, blanks and face bandanas. Then you ride up the line from Williams Junction and you are pulled by “historic” engines (since steam is more difficult to do these days, you will probably find yourself pulled by some 1st generation re-worked diesels, of course, if you're lucky, you'll draw an Alco, they smoke almost as much as the old Mallets used to).

You arrive at the South Rim about noon, and if you are on the 1 day excursion, that means you have time for a quick picture at the South Rim, a little souvenir shopping (after all, you want all the folks back home to know you’ve been there), and then its “All Aboard” and back you go (I understand you can make arrangements to stay over.) along about 4:30 PM.

Now don't get me wrong, being a theme park ride is one way to consider rail transportion. But it is also possible, indeed it is probably very likely, that America is going to have to join the rest of the world and get serious in appreciating rail transportation as a viable option, both for "pleasure" and business travel. (Gee where does going to visit family fit into this dicotomy?) In other words, you don't need Mickey Mouse aboard in order to have a successful train service.

It is theoretically possible to ride the train all the way from your home (provided you are within 50 miles of Amtrak's drastically truncated "national system") next summer. The only draw back to riding on the Grand Canyon Railway via Amtrak is that in recent years the westbound Southwest Chief pulls into Williams Junction AZ in the late, late hours of the night, while the eastbound arrives in the early, early, and I do mean early, morning hours. So if you want to ride the rails to the South Rim, your best bet is, you guessed it, to drive to Williams Junction, either directly, or by renting a car from, you guessed it, the Phoenix AZ Airport.

Of course, rail travel to the South Rim is not your only option. When we were there, every day, just about 11:30 in the morning, two or three buses rolled in from Las Vegas, and a pile of people got off. They came out took a picture from the South Rim (“Now Mable, turn you head a little more to the right and at least LOOK like you are enjoying this trip!”), got in line to get some food and/or a souvenir, and then boarded promptly at 2 or so for the ride back to the gaming tables.

And then, of course, you can drive it and spend the majority of your time in Grand Canyon National Park looking for someplace to park your "rig." Or maybe you are daring and want to ride one of the "puddle jumpers" into the Grand Canyon Airport (that is, if they will still be operating). (Please note, for much of the above, I will not provide "helpful links." Sorry.)

The sad part of all this is, the folks working at the Canyon see a problem, there are an awful lot of cars, and the accompanying problems of congestion, pollution etc. (I wonder how it was this past summer with the high gas prices?) When we were there in 2000 we saw their “solution.” They were going to build a giant parking lot about 5 miles away from the canyon rim, and "make" (good luck on that in freedom loving America) everyone park there and ride a “light rail shuttle” into the park.

I wonder, whatever happened to the “overnight train from Los Angeles” concept? It’s funny, in a very sad way, how America has come to regard transportation. Everyone knows there is a problem if you rely only on Airplanes and Autos to move people around, but no one is willing to see the rail passenger alternative. Indeed, they not only do not see it, they go out of their way to avoid it as a possible solution, they trivialize it.

It kind of reminds me of a party game that became popular in the late 1960’s and 70’s and is still somewhat popular today. It is called “Twister.” As I understand it (and no, I haven’t played it, and I suspect with my back I better not), you have this large piece of cloth on the floor with various color dots. You goal is to place your various body parts on the colors as instructed by a spinner. To read a full description of the game click here. Anyway, that is how it seems to me it is with America and its transportion.

Every time someone, or more often some agency, comes up with a new reason why we should be riding the train more (less pollution, less congestion, energy efficient, etc. etc.) those “in charge” of transportation planning spin around and pull every kind of contortion possible to avoid the obvious. Some of the contortions I have seen rival anything that Twister could ever create.

America needs to be riding on more trains, and less planes and a lot less automobiles.

Oh yes, I almost forgot in all my ranting, the station pictured above. It was built in 1909-1910 by the Santa Fe Railroad to service its hotel, the El Tovar, which it had constructed 5 years earlier. This station was one of only 10 log train stations ever constructed in the United States. Today, there are only 3 still in existence. It is the only log train station which still is in active use as a “Train Depot.”

Sorry for the rant. I promise, I'll try to do better next time.

Galesburg Illinois

The Chicago Burlington and Quincy Depot

This depot, which is still in use by Amtrak, is of uncertain (at least to me) origin. I do not know when it was built. But I do know that the town it serves is a thorough railroad town even in this day and time.

Knox County Illinois, Galesburg is the county seat of Knox County, was founded in 1825 and the first settlers arrived shortly thereafter. Things were put on hold for a while in that area when the last major dispute between the settlers, and those who had been there first, erupted into what became known as The Blackhawk War. This affair was chiefly noted for two things, first, it was the last attempt east of the Mississippi to stop the settlers, and a young man, one A. Lincoln, was elected a Captain of his militia company that was raised to do battle on the side of the settlers.

By 1841 a College, Knox College, was founded and by 1854, the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad arrived. Thereafter, Galesburg became known as a railroad town. Even today, it is the site of the 2nd largest hump classification yard on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

But that is not Galesburg’s only connection to railroading. Galesburg is also the home town of poet, author, Lincoln biographer, and troubadour, Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, in a certain sense, is recognized by many as the “Father of Modern Folk Music.” While Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and The Weavers (and many others) are all credited with the popularizing of this genera of music, Sandburg is often credited with being the first to sing it in public, for a fee.

Prior to Sandburg, if you sang “folk music” you could sing only songs that had been composed by who knows whom before the invention of the printing press. Any song composed since that event, was written down at sometime or the other and thus was not considered a “folk song.” Sandburg changed all that when he started collecting tunes he heard in what he called his “Song Bag.” Sandburg spent part of his young adulthood as a "hobo" who rode the rails. Many of these individuals were musically inclined and sang many songs. Most of these tunes were of uncertain origin and uncertain parentage. Yet, Sandburg wrote them down and then sang them. Not co-incidentally, many, though by no means all, or even a majority, of these songs he collected were either about railroading, had been composed (or were believed to have been composed) by someone on the railroad (often as a work song), or were sung by railroaders. Thus, Galesburg, and not co-incidentally its railroaders gave birth, albeit in a very indirect way, to what we called “Folk Music” today.

The Galesburg Depot is still a very busy place today, with 4 trains a day each way, serving points as distant as Los Angeles and San Francisco California, Denver Colorado, and Quincy Illinois. The town celebrates its continuing railroad heritage each year in September during “Railroad Days.”