On Sunday, September 16, 2012, the Brinkley, Arkansas Union Depot celebrated its' 100th anniversary. It is now the Central Delta Depot Museum, funded and run by the Central Delta Historical Society. It sits at the junction of the former Cotton Belt (now Union Pacific's Jonesboro Sub) and the former Rock Island (abandoned from the Junction westward 50 miles to Little Rock but still a busy line east of Brinkley to West Memphis, also around 50 miles, run by Union Pacific as the Brinkley Sub). It is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001, Union Pacific donated the structure to the Central Delta Historical Society. They were initially planning to raze it, but the good citizens of Brinkley persuaded UP to donate it.

Here is a history of the depot, partly condensed from the August 31, 2012 Central Delta Argus-Sun newspaper written by Laura Bussell:
   In 1910, Brinkley had railroads that fanned out in seven different directions, mainly the Rock Island which ran east-west and Cotton Belt which ran north-south. Smaller, shorter lines also ran through Brinkley, such as the Brinkley & Marianna, Batesville & Brinkley, Arkansas Midland, the White River and Helena Division of the Missouri Pacific, White & Black Railroad (which became part of the Rock Island branch that ran northwest of Brinkley). Brinkley was a busy railroad town a hundred years ago.
   By 1911, Brinkley had 10 Rock Island passenger trains, 4 Cotton Belt passenger trains and 2 Arkansas Midland passenger trains daily. Plus there were 2 mixed freights daily (meaning that a passenger car or caboose was added to a regular freight train to haul passengers). An average of 500 passengers a day passed through the Rock Island's old T-shaped, framed depot used by the Rock Island, Cotton Belt, and Missouri Pacific (Cotton Belt and Missouri Pacific paid a rental fee to the Rock Island for joint use of their depot). 
   On July 7, 1911, the Arkansas Railroad Commission ordered the Rock Island to construct a new, $26,000 brick union station at the same location. A completion date of April 1, 1912 was promised, but due to rising costs, the station wasn't ready to be opened until September 16, 1912. It is still alive and well today as the Central Delta Depot Museum, open 7 days a week staffed by volunteers. I think it's very admirable that the citizens of Brinkley care about history enough to preserve this structure.

Here are some photos of the 100th anniversary celebration Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m.


Central Delta Depot Museum and Visitor Center sign with the 100 year old depot to the left.


Cypress Street/US Highway 70, from the museum site looking west toward downtown Brinkley.


The classic junction-style depot at its original location for 100 years. On the left, where the SP caboose is, was the Rock Island tracks running east-west; on the right are the former Cotton Belt tracks running north-south, now one of Union Pacific's busiest lines in Arkansas, named the Jonesboro Sub.


Closer view.


View from the south side of the depot looking north. Behind me is US 70, the tracks to my immediate right are UP's busy Jonesboro Sub tracks, the third track to the right going around the curve is UP's Brinkley Sub track, which go to West Memphis and use the former Rock Islands right of way. This line is also busy and carries intermodal trains from UP's Marion,  Arkansas Intermodal yards south and west to Texas and California. Most of UP traffic through here is southbound.


100-year birthday cake.




Snacks. We're in the baggage room on the Rock Island side of the depot.


There is a small phonograph antique collection in the museum. Yes, they still work.


Cake being cut at 2:15 p.m.


Museum Director Bill Sayger.


Inside the main waiting room. The flooring and other parts of the station are original. Every once in a while, when there's trackwork, flooding, or some other reason, Amtrak's Texas Eagle southbound passenger train from Chicago to Texas and California gets rerouted over the UP here and races past this station. I often thought the depot would make a great current passenger train stop.


Here's a picture of the station the day it opened on September 16, 1912. No.....I didn't take the photo...lol


This history was written by Laura Bussell and published in the Argus-Sun newspaper of Brinkley on August 31, 2012.










These photos are displayed in the museum. They are from slides donated by the late Jim Bennett, taken in the 1970s. From this angle, it looks like this train was on the Cotton Belt moving north. The Brinkley depot is across the tracks to the right just outside the picture.


Chessie System yellow caboose, 1970s.


Taken from the Rock Island tracks look west at the Cotton Belt crossing. The Rock Island tracks were taken up in the early 1980s.


Current photo of a southbound UP train passing the station at 2:15 p.m. September 16, headed by UP 8226.




Standing on the abandoned Rock Island roadbed looking east across the old Cotton Belt main line.


The Brinkley Sub straight ahead.


The Monroe, Arkansas Missouri Pacific depot was moved here about 10 years ago. Monroe is about 30 miles southeast of Brinkley.


The Brinkley Depot, shot from the north side. The building to the right of the depot is the old  railroad hotel, bot a bridal shop.


The Rusher's were at the celebration.






Pictures of the 1909 tornado that leveled much of Brinkley (yep, large tornadoes also occurred a hundred years ago, not just today).


Possible 50 killed by the 1909 tornado.


In the former Cotton Belt baggage room. That handcar once belonged to the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad.


Museum bears.


Another fast UP southbound train ready to pass the station at track speed, which I'm told is 59 mph. It came from Jonesboro and points north and will head to Pine Bluff, Arkansas then southwest to Texas.


UP 4201, 2:34 p.m.




Just finished crossing busy US 70. Brinkley is at milepost 199.


A semi crossing the tracks.


A Jim Bennett photo of the now-gone Cotton Belt freight depot south of Brinkley Union Station, probably taken in the 1970s.


1955 Brinkley Union Depot workers.


Old railroad hotel, now a bridal shop named Low's Bridal and Formal shop.



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