Discover America's Wonders | View Obscura - The Ultimate Travel Blog: On The Grounds of the Western America Railroad Museum/Harvey House

Sunday, July 24, 2022

On The Grounds of the Western America Railroad Museum/Harvey House - Barstow, California

Tucked on the backside of the BNSF railroad's massive Barstow yard is fitting tribute to the railroads that forged their existence traversing the vast inhospitable southwestern American desert. Over the decades the vast majority of this country's commerce through this region either in the form of goods from the East and Midwest being shipped to Los Angeles or as is the case today goods from Japan and China going the other way.

The museum has several examples of diesel locomotives, cabooses and other rolling stock that once served both the Union Pacific and Santa Fe (Now BNSF) railroads in this area of country. Inside the museum are numerous other artifacts from the history of western railroading.

My personal favorite of the bunch is ex Santa Fe FP45 passenger locomotive #95. I have fond memories of seeing these locomotives as well as their freight hauling cousin the F45 in action during the 1970s and 80s.

Here is the history of the Barstow station and adjacent Harvey House:

The Casa del Desierto station and hotel was built in 1911 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to replace an earlier one built in 1885 that burned in 1908. The Santa Fe closed the station in 1973. It became derelict until bought by the City of Barstow, and rebuilt following heavy damage in a 1992 earthquake.

The building is a synthesis of Spanish Renaissance and Classical Revival architecture styles, with a Moorish feeling as well. The concrete frame is faced with red tapestry brick and beige artificial stone. Majestic arcades and colonnades line the facade, providing shade from the desert sun. Red clay barrel tiles are used to cover the roof. Towers at the building's corners, and those of the central projecting bay facing the tracks, are capped with pointed roofs or painted domes.

Francis W. Wilson is the architect credited by the Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service. Amtrak's Great American Stations site says that "according to contemporary accounts, the Casa del Desierto ... was designed by Francis W. Wilson of Santa Barbara, Calif." Earlier Wilson had designed the Fray Marcos hotel in Williams, Arizona, and El Garces in Needles for the Santa Fe and Fred Harvey.

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