| What makes it historical? |
Once the railroad arrived in 1887, Amarillo began a ten-year monopoly on trade from the South Plains, and had a five-year run as the nation’s largest rural cattle shipping point! This status was briefly threatened in 1898 when the Pecos Valley & North Eastern Railway planned to join the Santa Fe Railroad at Washburn instead of Amarillo, but the Santa Fe Railway, after hearing complaints from the citizens of Amarillo, bought the other railway and changed that connection point from Washburn to Amarillo, keeping it a true Panhandle capital!
This Mission Revival depot, built in 1910, cemented the importance of Amarillo as a connector hub along the Transcontinental Railroad, and though it does not still service passenger trains, it is home to the Locomotive No. 5000, also known as the Madam Queen! This locomotive is one of five surviving engines with a 2-10-4 wheel arrangement, and the only one from the 5000 series. That’s because the Santa Fe Raiload stopped buying new trains during the Depression, and once they started up again in 1936, the numbers had moved to 5001! |
