The Grand Canyon Railway Depot, The ATSF Grand Canyon Branch line

 The Grand Canyon Railway Depot

All images, unless otherwise noted, are located in the file "Grand Canyon Depot Images" available online. Used by permission; creative commons.org/licenses by/2.0/. Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023. Captions are from the original images.

FIRST TRAIN TO CARRY PASSENGERS ALL THE WAY TO GRAND CANYON VILLAGE. GROUP POSING IN FRONT OF LOCOMOTIVE. 17 SEP 1901


SHRINER'S SPECIAL TRAINS IN GRAND CANYON STATION YARD. SHRINERS AND 5 STEAM LOCOMOTIVES IN PHOTO. 28 MAR 1937 NPS PHOTO


SMU FOOTBALL SPECIAL TRAIN AT GC, RETURNING TO TX FROM PASADENA, CA (ROSEBOWL) 04 JAN 1936. NPS PHOT

OVERVIEW: SANTA FE TRAIN "EL CAPITAN" IN STATION AT GRAND CANYON DURING FIRST LOS ANGELES TO CHICAGO RUN. SNOW. 19 FEB 1938


VIEW FROM ROOF OF POWERHOUSE AT THE SHRINERS SPECIAL TRAINS IN RAIL YARD. EL TOVAR HOTEL IN THE BACKGROUND. 17 JUNE 1950 NPS PHOTO BY EDEN.


AERIAL BRIGHT ANGEL CAMP - BUILDINGS, TRAIN TRACKS & ROADS ALONG SOUTH RIM. CIRCA 1934. NPS.



LOOKING BACK ON THE LONGEST TRAIN TO HAVE ENTERED GRAND CANYON, THE ELKS SPECIAL, TAKEN FROM GROUND LEVEL BY THE POWERHOUSE. BROWN BUILDING BEHIND (ON THE RIM) 05 JULY 1956. NPS PHOTO BY LEDING.


AERIAL PHOTO SHOWING ENTIRE GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, WITH RAILROAD WYE. HORSE BARN SHADE STRUCTURE. PHOTO BY US ARMY, PUBLIC DOMAIN. CIRCA 1924


AERIAL OVERVIEW OF GRAND CANYON LODGE AND CABINS ON N. RIM. 1932





Caption reads "The Grand Canyon Railroad Station built in 1901 and is within the Grand Canyon Village Historic District. It is one of three remaining railroad depots in the U.S. built with logs..."(license to use Wikimedia Commons, commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File Grand_Canyon  






VIEW FROM ROOF OF POWERHOUSE AT THE SHRINERS SPECIAL TRAINS IN RAIL YARD. EL TOVAR HOTEL IN THE BACKGROUND. 17 JUNE 1950 NPS PHOTO BY EDEN.



An article was published in the Williams News, May 12, 2020 (Wendy Howell), With a subtitle "History of the Grand Canyon Limited." The passenger train was operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The following is excerpted from that article:
    The Santa Fe named train "Grand Canyon Limited" began service on June 29, 1929 (just before the start of the Great Depression.) In 66 hours, it traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles, "with a branch to Grand Canyon National Park." 
    The train consisted of a dormitory-buffet smoking car, two chair cars, a diner, three compartment-and drawing-room sleepers, and an open-end observation/parlor car, all built by Pullman-Standard (the type of cars indicates that this was a premium ticket train, with accommodations normally associated with first class passengers.)
    In 1947, it was re-equipped with diesel-power and stainless-steel cars.
 
(Built post war, this was an attempt by most major railroads to keep the public traveling by train. By the 1960s, most railroads were more than willing to divest passenger trains. The Santa Fe was an exception, running name trains until the creation of Amtrak in the early 1970s.There has been some documentation and speculation that, had the Santa Fe known what Amtrak was planning to do with passenger rail travel on their line, the Santa Fe would have continued to operate their own trains. Alas, that was not to be...)   


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