LAWRENCE, KANSAS

6:30am No. 28 Eastbound The Antelope
8:16am No. 26 Eastbound Doodlebug
8:48am No. 5 Westbound The Ranger
9:47am No. 1 Westbound The Scout
10:00am No. 73 Eastbound Terminating Mixed from Ottawa Jct.
11:41am No. 3 Westbound California Limited
1:00pm No. 12 Eastbound The Chicagoan
2:30pm No. 73 Westbound Originating Mixed to Ottawa Jct.
5:56pm No. 11 Westbound The Kansas Cityan
6:50pm No. 4 Eastbound California Limited
7:40pm No. 25 Westbound Doodlebug
8:40pm No. 2 Eastbound The Scout
9:58pm No. 6 Eastbound The Ranger
10:50pm No. 27 Westbound The Antelope

Lawrence is the home of the University of Kansas. The Santa Fe presence in Lawrence consisted of the mainline and an unremarked branch to Ottawa Junction that was at one time a part of a line which eventually reached Tulsa. This was the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Galveston. The crossing at Ottawa Junction was eventually removed forming the Baldwin district which ran from Lawrence to Ottawa Junction.

Lawrence was the last word in Santa Fe depot design. Constructed in the 1950's this depot more closely matches the look of the streamliner. Its neon signs, clean sharp lines, and use of glass and steel make this depot appear to jump right off of a Frank Lloyd Wright blueprint. The interior furnishings also date this depot. The chairs and tables in the waiting room give the depot more of a 1950's beatnick living room feel. Only a handfull of depots were built on the Santa Fe following the beginning of World War II. Several similar design structures are located in Arkansas City, Hutchison, and Atchison. The modern approach was also applied to depots in La Junta, Topeka, Attica, Purcell, OK, La Plata, Ill, Higgins, TX, Woodward, OK , and Shattuck, OK. At one time a yellow frame freight house was located just west of the depot. Fortunately this depot still serves Amtrak's Southwest Chief. The freight house can be seen in the Pentrex video Santa Fe Salute.

This sign still sits atop the Lawrence depot. It is no longer illuminated in neon but it stands as a landmark on a railroad that no longer exists. In addition to this neon sign a smaller set of town name signs, also broken by vandals, rest above the depot overhang trackside. These are shown on page 46 of H. Roger Grant's book Kansas Depots.