No. 52 Doodlebug passenger service 12:37pm east to Esau Jct and Newkirk
No. 51 Doodlebug passenger service 7:54am west to Cushing
No. 52 Doodlebug passenger service 12:37pm east to Esau Jct and Newkirk
Imagine standing outside this depot in the year 1911. The first fresh coat of paint with many coats to come covers the walls inside. You can still smell the fresh varnish on the beautiful woodwork inside as well. The platform is covered with fresh brick. Steam engines pulling Santa Fe coaches arrive with throngs of Stillwaterians to greet the passengers embarking on a journey that would build a great college town. The Santa Fe is the railroad that "Saved a College" according to Robert E. Cunningham who wrote the book Stillwater Where Oklahoma Began. Stillwater was in the middle of nowhere before the railroad came. The city in fact had to detour a new Santa Fe line just to survive. There are many early photos in this book showing the Santa Fe presence in Stillwater. Photos of the frame depot and the brick depot can be found on pages 74-78. There is even a photo of a Mexican Track worker with check in pocket ready to paint the town red.
This depot was the only non-frame depot on the Stillwater district. Stillwater is the county seat of Payne county and also the home of Oklahoma State University. This depot still stands and it is now the home of a National Band Fraternity. Unfortunately the green-glazed-ceramic tile roof has been replaced by a green metalic roof and the house track is no longer used. It is quickly loosing its railroad feel. However it does still stand.
Three factors make this depot unusual. First, the freight portion of this depot was wooden. While it was not unusual for the Santa Fe to use a former combination frame depots for a freight houses when a brick depot was constructed, it was unusual for this structure to be attached directly to the brick structure. When this depot was built in 1911 the old frame depot was remodeled and became the freight house. There was however no entry between the wooden portion and the brick portion. Second, there was no bay window or covered driveway on the street side of the depot. It was esentially an uninterrupted wall. Third, there were no less than four waiting rooms in the brick structure. The usual open waiting room, a "colored" waiting room, and a partitioned waiting room denoted men's and women's. There were even separate restrooms built for segregation.
Few trains visit this depot anymore. The depot sits next to the 300 block of east 9th street in Stillwater. The line ends approximately a half mile from the depot at 16th street. I have seen trains however use this portion of the line to just short of 14th street when Stillwater Milling Company has a lot of business in November.Below the Stillwater Local visits 14th street
Until 1993 this line was very busy as there were numerous shippers. These included Mercury Marine, Moore Business Forms, Oberlin World Color Press, and National Standard north of town in an industrial area. A&M Milling company and a Coors distributor were located just east of downtown.
When I began watching the line in 1990 business was begining to decline but it was still a very interesting complex switching operation. Freights would go on duty at Flynn yard in Oklahoma City arround 8:00am arriving in Perry to pick up their train on Monday and Thursday afternoons and return from Stillwater on the following day.
Work in the industrial area would begin with the switching of boxcars full of Corvette ZR-1 engines (and maybe delivering raw materials) from/to Mercury Marine. Mercury Marine is known for their production of aluminum outboard motors but for a time in the late 1980's and early 1990's they were also known for the production of this high powered engine.
Oberlin World Color Press and Moore Business forms were switched next. These businesses were served on a long branch which looped back to the North in a half circle at a place called Boomer Spur. This spur had a long siding that was used to allow locomotives to run around their train in effect changing directions. They would receive paper products (and possibly ship them out as well.) Oberlin World Color Press printed national magazines including Rolling Stone. It was not unusual to see several cars from the Maine Central or Evergreen in town to serve these two plants.
National Standard manufactured steel belts for steel belted radial tires and took delivery of uncovered Norfolk Southern gondola cars filled with steel coils for this production. It exists at the end of Boomer Spur and it is difficult to see just how this area was switched. There were a minimum of two tracks at the plant. One was used for empties and the other for loads.
Following the switching of the industrial area the local would run into town with whatever hopper cars were in the consist for switching at the Stillwater Milling company. As I learned from a milling company employee, wheat byproducts would arrive in covered hoppers to be milled into feed. A boxcar of ?beer? or recycleables would be picked up/ dropped off at the Coors plant. I also remember a load of lumber and a large mechanical structure intended for the Boomer Lake power plat were shipped in by rail. The local would then tie up for the night at the mill or sometimes by the depot to be picked up by a local taxi to be wisked off to a local motel for the night.
The next day the local would take cars from the milling area to the industrial area where it would pick up more cars and run back to Oklahoma City possibly leaving these cars at Perry.
Today as mentioned previously the line is dying. The only shippers left online include the mill, National Standard, and Oberlin Press. During November Stillwater is a very interesting place to watch trains and switching. The usual short two hopper car for the mill consist turns into a gargantuan consist. I have seen times when the yard beside the depot was full of hopper carssee below.
