Little Rock Union Depot

[benjamintickell53]

At least for those of us south of St. Louis, Little Rock Union Depot was the center of the universe in terms of Missouri Pacific passenger service, even into the mid-1960s. At one time, passenger trains left Little Rock for St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Texas destinations, and Kansas City, as well as more local destinations such as Hot Springs and El Dorado, Arkansas. The following photographs were originally posted on one of the MP facebook pages, and are reposted here so that MPHS members and others might contribute additional information and photographs. The concrete engraving on the clock tower read Union Station, but most railroaders referred to this building as Union Depot, perhaps after the UD telegraph call.

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The first photo above, taken in the summer of 1970, shows “Act 1” posters on the clock tower. Act 1 was an initiated act to repeal the Arkansas Full Crew Law (engineer, fireman, head-swing-rear brakemen, and conductor.) This effort was defeated, but another effort was successful two years later.

The Missouri Pacific buzzsaws in the clock tower concealed the clock faces after Missouri Pacific decided to eliminate the expense of clock maintenance. The “Missouri Pacific” skeleton sign nearer the corner of the building had formerly been located on the MP station at Hot Springs, and was relocated to Little Rock after Hot Springs passenger train service ended in 1964. The second and third floor of LRUD contained division offices for the railroad, the Arkansas Division dispatchers, and offices for American Refrigerator Transit and the Pullman Company. The west end basement area was occupied by the transfer office (Railway Mail Service-post office department) and a large area for Railway Express Agency, yesterday’s version of UPS. The east end of the basement was checked baggage handled by MP, along with carmen supply areas. Formerly, a small dining car commissary was also in the basement. Street level contained two large waiting rooms, news stand, restaurant, ticket office and a passenger crew locker area.

The second photo shows the destruction of the 1907 era concourse and umbrella train sheds, occurring in October 1973. Senator John McClellan, senior Senator from Arkansas, had just decreed that if Amtrak didn’t start serving Arkansas, they were not going to get any federal funding, period. (This was an era when the Arkansas congressional delegation had seniority and clout.) Mopac’s response, at both Little Rock and Texarkana, was to start tearing down the concourse and pulling up the passenger tracks, in a last ditch effort to make the restoration of passenger service too costly. By January 1974 they were relaying new passenger tracks, but the damage to the station had already been done, and for years, access from the street level waiting room to trackside was via a creaky, SLOW elevator and a convoluted walk through brick corridors never intended for use by the public.

The midway and train sheds had been reduced from 4 sheds to two (extending on each side of the center midway) in 1966, and the demolition in 1973 removed the last two sheds as well as the midway itself. Efforts were unsuccessful to keep the small section of midway shown here, along with this set of stairs, which would have preserved “normal” access from the waiting room for the soon to begin Amtrak service. All of this steel had been erected when the prior station had been built in 1907, and had survived the 1921 fire which consumed the station itself.

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A few more photos of LRUD… including a couple by taken by Gene Hull, who recognized the importance of shooting unusual views not often captured by the rest of us who were focused on taking more traditional train roster shots. In the first view below, the outer part of the midway is being removed, and two additional umbrella sheds are already gone. The midway would soon be cut back to where the roofing has been removed, and when all downsizing was completed, only tracks 1-2-3-4-5-6 would remain. The PRR boxcars nearest photographer were used for mail storage (i.e.-mail not worked en route) southbound, and returned northbound filled with empty mail sacks, to start the process over again.

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Standing out on the concourse was an amazing place to watch trains in the 1960s – its hard to imagine what the crowds would have been like during the during World War II, with constant activity on the tracks below. When trains were loading, a train sign would be hung below the numeral on the track where the train was located. MP gatemen were gone by the 60s and the gates at the top of the stairs were no longer in use, but in busier days, the gates were kept locked and were opened only when it was time for boarding.

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Mail handlers transferred hundreds of sacks of mail each day from trainside to the post office terminal annex, located just south of Union Station. The Texas Eagles, passing in the middle of the night, carried only a couple of railway post office cars, but trains 3 and 4 along with 7 and 8 carried huge amounts of mail and express — 15-20 car trains with most of that being head end traffic.

Starting in the summer of 1965, I had the opportunity to interact with a number of railroaders at LRUD who were willing to talk to an 8th grade kid interested in trains. These employees varied from mail handlers to carmen to redcaps and train crews, as well as a few MP officials. The top passenger department official at Little Rock was H.R. Kastman, Assistant General Passenger Agent. By the mid-1960s, he could see the handwriting on the wall, and was perhaps embittered to see years of efforts disappear with ever increasing speed. My interactions with him were limited to a few letters, usually receiving terse, handwritten notes in response. The stationmaster was Charles Witsell, and it was to him that I directed requests for copies of discontinuance notices, an occasional request for train signs of long-discontinued trains (such as my “Sunshine Train 6” avitar), and other inquiries. Mr. Witsell was no nonsense and all business, a professional railroader, but he almost always granted my requests. A couple of days after the end of Missouri Pacific passenger service to Little Rock, he called me down to the station and we we had a somewhat melancholy visit during which he gave me timetables and other papers that had been gathered during the process of the final closing of the ticket office. Another official who went above and beyond the call of duty was T.S. Armstrong, the station passenger agent. Mr. Armstrong was responsible for walking through the Eagles during their nighttime stops at Little Rock, making a headcount of passengers. I have no idea why that practice was necessary, but many times on weekends I would hang around the Arkansas Model Railroad club until Number 1 arrived, and then walk through the train from end to end with Mr. Armstrong. The train was often 15 cars or more, and walking through the darkened coaches, often two diners, and at least four Pullman sleepers (to Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Mexico City) was a particular treat.

Some MPHS members and others no doubt have their own memories of LRUD. Please add to this thread so that your experiences can be preserved.

Bill Pollard

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