LEFT-This is the Brinkley Depot Museum, the old Cotton Belt and Rock Island Union Station, built in 1911 after the previous depot was destroyed by the 1909 tornado. Both lines you see now belong to Union Pacific (left is the Jonesboro Sub - ne. Cotton Belt, right is the Brinkley Sub, ne. Rock Island). Union Pacific donated the land and depot to the Central Delta Historical Society in 2001 and the structure was renovated in 2003 and opened as a museum. It is open 7 days a week with volunteers (I volunteer on Saturdays sometimes). RIGHT-This Bradford Pear tree was in full bloom. The structure to the right is the Monroe, Arkansas Missouri Pacific depot, which was moved here a few years ago. Monroe, Arkansas is only about 10 miles southeast. The two structures to the left is an old boarding house, also from Monroe, that was located close to the depot when it was in Monroe, and an old outhouse to show how people in the country went to the bathroom a century ago. Notice the wash pan on the boarding house.
LEFT-UP 4255 and 4648, 9:19 a.m. RIGHT-Notice the apparent hand-scripted 'Union Pacific' on 4648.
LEFT-HLCX 3827. RIGHT-UP 5975, 10:10 a.m.
LEFT-This mixed train had a dpu, UP 6565. Even at a shutter speed of 1/400th second, you can notice a slight blur on hopper UP 88821. Track speed here is 60 mph. As I understand it, the people of Brinkley don't want long trains to block US Highway 70 too long, so they let UP operate at track speed through town. RIGHT-UP 4324, 10:59 a.m. As you can see, it's severely back-lit here so I had to open up the lens quite a bit.
LEFT-CSX 7885 and CSX 25, 11:12 a.m. RIGHT-Conrail-NS 5442, 11:21 a.m.
LEFT-CN 2596 and 1235, 12:35 p.m. RIGHT-A Pullman Conductor's uniform inside the museum. Details below:
RIGHT-Here are some newspaper ads from 1953 in the Brinkley Depot Museum. Notice the phone numbers of only 3 numbers!
LEFT-CSX 5324 and UP 4898 at 3:07 p.m. Afternoon lighting is much better at the depot as the tracks through town run north-south. RIGHT-As seen from the offices, the old ticket office.
A train coming off the Brinkley Sub at 3:30 p.m. headed by NS 9700.
NS 9700, UP 4544 and 8099. The Brinkley Sub joins the Jonesboro Sub a couple of miles south of town. This train will continue on a separate track for those couple of miles.
LEFT-ALM boxcar 1960. RIGHTNot sure what this graffiti is, but it appears to be eyeballs of some sort.
LEFT-Rock. RIGHT-Some tourists leaving.
Dark clouds moved in after 4:30 p.m.