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Re: (rshsdepot) Cheyenne, WY
....what about returning passenger service for the passsenger station?...
- -----Original Message-----
>From: I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com
>Sent: Jan 28, 2008 7:08 AM
>To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net
>Subject: (rshsdepot) Cheyenne, WY
>
>Story on WyomingNews.com.
>
>Bernie Wagenblast
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>New depot floor to pay tribute to Cheyenne's railroad history
>
>CHEYENNE - Wayne Hansen and Rick Heimsoth stood on a long, bare patch of
>cement in the lobby of the old railroad depot.
>
>It's a scar in a city landmark built north of the 19th-century time warp,
>the Transcontinental Railroad. A few years ago, the lobby of the depot sprang
>back to usefulness when it was restored to its Jazz-Age-in-the-West art-deco
>glory.
>
>Brides map out plans for their wedding receptions here. On Valentine's Day
>weekend, the Kiwanis Club will host its Chocolate Indulgence event. Every
>single Saturday between now and next year is booked, Hansen said.
>
>But this gray, bare slab where they stood is a jarring halt to the orderly
>flow of the diamond-patterned floor that's polished to a high shine.
>
>It looks as if whoever was installing the floor ran out of granite squares,
>got up and went home.
>
>People call and complain about it all the time.
>
>In reality, the floor installer was working around the depot's brand-new
>newsstand in 1929. It was just like City News, Heimsoth said. Train passengers
>and locals off the street stopped at its counter to buy something to read and
>a pack of smokes.
>
>More than that, this was a city meeting place, Hansen said. This was where
>you met people and said goodbye.
>
>With the newsstand ripped away, leaving a scar the size of a large vegetable
>garden, it's time for something more pleasing.
>
>Hansen and Heimsoth are two people who are working on that.
>
>They're tasked with keeping Cheyenne's railroad history alive. Hansen is the
>CEO of the Cheyenne Depot Museum, located in the very room where third-class
>passengers and baggage were once whisked out of sight from the elite during
>the depot's early days. Heimsoth is the president of the museum's board of
>trustees.
>
>The depot museum raised $75,000 to fill that space on the floor, which was
>donated by the Union Pacific to the city of Cheyenne. It's money made from the
>summer's Brew Fest and a few folks who like railroad history.
>
>By May, pieces of granite, limestone, marble, discs of copper and stainless
>steel will come together like pieces of a puzzle to form an image: a map of
>the Transcontinental Railroad, its crooked stretch from Omaha to Promontory
>Summit, Utah.
>
>And it will cover the entire 44-by-12 foot scar.
>
>It's an image that will explain why we're here - in Cheyenne, anyway.
>
>During the Civil War, the North knew it could gain great economic advantage
>by building a railroad track that reached the West Coast.
>
>As Union Pacific Railroad - funded by the government - laid tracks, a series
>of end-of-track towns sprang up along the way. These places were built to
>house the crews of workers, who carted in their loads of wood ties and food.
>
>People called it hell on wheels, Hansen said with a smile, as they rolled
>into the next place at a furious pace.
>
>Cheyenne is such a town. Heimsoth pointed to a date on the map: Nov. 13,
>1867. That was when the first train rolled in. One might say it was the day
>Cheyenne went live.
>
>The floor map will show the towns; their names will be written in cut pieces
>of black granite. The curves and lines of the letters will be precisely
>carved by a water jet controlled by a computer in Windsor, Colo.
>
>Some towns are still with us, like Kimball, Neb., and Green River. Others
>are gone, like Fort Steele, Wyo.
>
>Here or gone, the towns will be represented on the map, their points lit
>with fiber-optic lighting - a symbol of man's presence in a wild land.
>
>Smack in the middle will be Cheyenne, with an image of its depot tower.
>
>Different shades of buff-colored granite and sandstone will tell the story
>of how Greenville Dodge wrestled with the puzzle of how to build quickly on
>the rugged and varied terrain across Wyoming. At first, you'll see Dodge
>plotted it along the river. Then the route gives way to open wilderness.
>
>As Hansen talked, midmorning sun slanted in south windows. Outside, empty
>cars of a diesel train stood quietly. Automobiles zipped up the ramp of the
>Central Avenue viaduct.
>
>Nothing was here before, he said. Really, Cheyenne exists for artificial,
>man-made reasons.
>
>
>
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>
>=================================
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=================================
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