7:45am Termination Westbound No. 27 The Antelope
6:45am Origination Eastbound No. 12 The Chicagoan
Ar 6:00am Eastbound No. 16 The Chicago Express
Lv 8:30am Eastbound No. 16 The Chicago Express
Ar 5:10pm Westbound No. 5 The Ranger
Lv 5:20pm Westbound No. 5 The Ranger
Ar 12:51pm Eastbound No. 6 The Ranger
Lv 1:00pm Eastbound No. 6 The Ranger
Ar 10:00pm Westbound No. 15 The Fast Fifteen
Lv 12:50am Westbound No. 15 The Fast Fifteen
10:00pm OriginationEastbound No. 28 The Antelope
12:30am Termination Westbound No. 11 The Kansas Cityan
In effect after you reached Oklahoma City the influence of the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe took over. Although Purcell was quite a few miles timetable west Oklahoma City served as a termination point for many trains. Basically only the Ranger and the paired mail trains Fast Fifteen/ Chicago Express ran timetable west of Oklahoma City. In the years when the Texas Chief was in place it too ran south of Oklahoma City.
Over the years Oklahoma City had several depots serving several different railroads. In fact the Santa Fe had no less than three. There was the original frame depot built prior to statehood, then there was an attractive brick depot which replaced that structure. Sometime later the trackage through downtown Oklahoma City was elevated and the depot shown below was constructed. There are several photos of the frame structure and the existing structure in the book Photographing Oklahoma 1889/ 1991 by Mark Klett published by the Oklahoma City Art Museum. A postcard exists of the second depot. Other depots in town today include an abandoned Rock Island freight house and Union Station which served both the Frisco and the Rock Island. The Missouri Kansas and Texas multi story passenger depot was razed in the 1950's after the end of passenger service and the MKT freight house burned in 1994. The MKT passenger and freight depots were located on Reno street east of the Santa Fe tracks about a block from the Santa Fe depot. The Rock Island Freight house is just to the Northeast of the Santa Fe depot and Union Station is near seventh street approximately a mile from the Santa Fe station. Union Station is now a headquarters for Oklahoma City mass transit. However this does not include any rail activity.
One would hope that Oklahoma City would get around to preserving its landmark depot before the vagrants or gangs in Oklahoma City burn it down. It is in very sad shape and has been vacant since the railroad left probably in the early 1980's. Passenger service ended in 1979 as Amtrak's Lone Star left the timetables. There is a video clip shown occasionally on KWTV channel 9 of the last train out of the Santa Fe depot.
In 1995 Amtrak ran a special excursion through Oklahoma City to tease its residents. It was intended to be a train which was investigating the possiblity of returning train service to Oklahoma. There was a stop at this depot and the plywood was removed from the doors. I stuck my camera next to the glass doors and took the photo's you see below. As you can tell it was an ornate structure at one time but it now sits sadly in disrepair vandalized and in need of immediate attention.
This is the interior waiting room of the Oklahoma City Santa Fe depot. It is a sad sight.
This is an exterior shot of the depot in 1992. Note that the depot had not been boarded up as of that date. Was it still in service?
This is another photo taken in 1996 as Santa Fe workers were removing the eastern-most platform cover. I narrowly escaped being scolded by these workers but I did manage to get this photo. Note at the far right that the stands for the platform cover are still in place but the roof is gone.