A most excellent diversion…wait, no, this is work, right? In one of those rare moments when neither life or wife required me to return home, I had Temple’s MK&T rail depot all to myself at sundown.
The MK&T, or “Katy”, Depot has always drawn my interest. Just a few blocks away is the beautifully refurbished Santa Fe Depot. It is bigger, nicely shaven, and what I would guess was the ultimate ruin of the MK&T depot, the winner in the rail wars. Well, that probably depends on when you called the game, but they were most certainly the last man standing.
The MK&T stands proudly in the not-so-nice part of town, awkwardly dwarfed by an overpass to cross the tracks on your way out of town…to other beautiful photo locations, but that is another story. As you can see to the left, it has been put to slovenly use: overgrown, littered, yet clinging stubbornly to the tracks it strove to conquer.
I found some real-life photographic treasure, reserved for my eyes only…”unless ye dare extend yer claws to me hard-earned spoils.” This place had all the little touches: the bricks from Coffeeville leading to the closed but lockless doors, the rail switches lain unceremoniously to rest, the sections of repair track out in the open as if to taunt theft by smelters, and the climactic railway itself leading off into and beautifully reflecting the sunset.
I do not know how many of you out there have enjoyed the simple pleasure of walking the tracks with your dad, picking up the ubiquitous loose nails, wondering how the tracks could stay together without so many nails, yet not feeling guilty enough to refrain from keeping the trinket for your window sill back home, but this short thirty minutes brought back a flood of memories for me. This place is stoutly welded together of rigid beams of history.
