Sandpoint depot is symbol of region's progress

Recently, I took a drive down to the depot just to see how it is holding up with all the construction going on around it. To many people, the old depot is important because it is a symbol of Sand-point’s growth and the people who made that growth possible. I must say that it is looking fairly well for being 96 years old.

The present Northern Pacific Depot came into being in 1916 and was hailed as an important addition to the growing village of Sandpoint. It made front-page news in the Pend d’Oreille Review of Nov. 10, 1916, when it announced, “New Depot Open —To be celebrated.” The paper gave a description of how the building looked when it first opened for business. “The new depot is constructed of a fine grade of building brick capped with a green tile roof …”

“There is one large waiting room, a rest room for the ladies and a smoking compartment for the gentlemen. Below stairs is the heating plant and the septic tank…. Cluster lights have been placed about the outside of the depot while eight posts carrying large candlepower lights have been spaced along the brick platform. The total costs of the construction is about $25,000.”

If the old depot could talk, it would have many fascinating stories to tell, both happy and sad. It could tell of happy couples waiting for the “all aboard” to take them to far away places on their honeymoon. It would tell of young boys leaving home to fight in little known places. It could relate countless stories about the people of Sandpoint coming to the station to pay their respects to the wounded GIs passing through on their way to a hospital. However, one of the most dramatic stories the old depot could share would be the changes in technology it has witnessed over the years. Sandpoint came into being because of the railroad and timber. The advances in technology in these two areas are mind-boggling.

When one goes down to the railroad station to see the “choo-choo,” sights and sounds have changed. The sight of the old steam locomotive with its string of cars, a caboose at the end, has vanished. Today, it is diesel and there is no caboose with a friendly man waving out the window. No longer can the men in the cab, dressed in overalls, red bandannas and striped caps, be seen. One does not hear the clicking of the old telegraph machine, with a Prince Albert tobacco can attached to make it louder, receiving orders from some unseen source. Today it is the computer, radio and fax machine that fill that role.

On the old trains, there was a journal at the end of the wheel shaft that was packed with waste material and oil. When these got hot, it spelled trouble and the man in the caboose had the job of detecting the “hot boxes.” Today this high maintenance job has been eliminated because roller bearings are used and a scanner tells the crew if the bearings get hot.

In the cab, a computer screen has replaced the speedometer and the air gauge. From the end of the train, an electronic device tells the engineer the air pressure and if all systems are working correctly.

The way railroad companies keep track of their cars has changed. An Auto Equipment Identifier scans each car as it passes. There is one along the Burlington-Northern and Santa Fe Railway line here in Sandpoint. Each car has a box on it about the size of a half-carton of cigarettes cut lengthwise. The scanner sends a signal to the box on the car activating its battery. The box then sends information to the scanning unit, such as car number, name of owner, and the destination of the car.

In the olden days when one watched the old steam trains, there was a feeling of being part of the operation. The clicking of the telegraph, the orders being passed from the stationmaster to the engineer as the train sped through the station area. Waving at the man in the caboose was like waving to a friend. If the depot could talk, I think it would say, “Today, things are very efficient, but by far less romantic.”