This place holds special memories for me. It is Lackland Station, near St. Louis. When I was a kid, my dad used to take me here to watch the trains go by. This was on the Rock Island Railroad's mainline from St. Louis west. I don't remember a whole lot about those days and what I saw, or didn't see here, but my research later on makes me think that even in the early 50's there wasn't a lot of train action. The only memory I have for sure is getting a package via Railway Express Agency that my aunt had shipped to here from California.Many years later, in the late 1980s, my buddy and I got out to St. Louis on one of our railfan expeditions. Of course I had to come to Lackland. By that time, the suburbs of St. Louis had grown outward. While this had been a rural country station in the 1950s, 30 years later it was an industrial park in the midst of suburbia. The building itself looked pretty tired and beat, but still in use. On a later railfanning trip out this way in the mid 1990s, the building was gone, replaced by a metal storage shed.
In the years since I've researched and made inquiries into finding a picture of this place in the 1950s. I haven't yet found one. If I ever do it will be most interesting to see what memories it might bring back.
This is such a great story from your youth and it is so great that you went back to get a picture of this historic rail-line and train station. I wonder if you would have had such a strong fascination for trains had your Dad not introduced you to them at an early stage in your life. It is a great interest and hobby and so much a part of your history and the history of trains. I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog that takes me on a journey of not only your past but a history of trains that is so unfamiliar to me.
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