The Santa Fe RR runs through Chillicothe, Illinois. One of my earliest memories (summer 1944) is a visit to the train station there, an almost exact duplicate of the one in Hereford. My mother took me with her because Eddie Cantor (among other celebrities, I assume) would be making a short stop on the way to Chicago on trip to promote buying War Bonds. My grandfather, a then-retired conductor for the Santa Fe who had worked for some 40 years, often took me with him when he went to talk with some friends who still were still working at the station. When we moved back to Chillicothe, we lived 2 blocks from the depot. The sound of the trains lulled me to sleep many nights.

I really enjoy seeing then and now pictures. You should consider an album of them.

What I just love about these Jack Delano photos along the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe line is how he makes everything look so CLEAN.

I've got personal photos taken from this same spot, only facing the other way to capture a nice view of the co-op elevator instead of the old depot. I'm not sure what my interest in the grain elevator was other than the huge "Hereford Grains" sign on the side of it. I wish I'd turned around and snapped a photo of the old depot to present you instead but the Google version is also okay.

When I was in Hereford, a container train passed through town every 20 minutes all day and night long. It's a busy railroad town. It's also a busy feedlot town with all the aromatic scents that go with it. You folks on the east coast miss out on so many olfactory experiences that go with where your BigMac started from.

Always good to see these old places survive.

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