The Brinkley Union Station was actually built by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway which had been ordered by the Arkansas Railroad Commission to build a new depot in this location … the intersection of the East-West Rock Island line and the North-South Cotton Belt line. The screenshot below (see https://thundertrain.org/brinkley-depot-091612.html for more information) details some of the history …
The photo below shows the Cotton Belt line on the right (now Union Pacific’s Jonesboro sub …one of their busiest lines in Arkansas) and the former Rock Island line behind the building where the caboose is on the left (this line was removed in the early 1980’s).
This photo show the Cotton Belt line on the left … the caboose can be seen at the extreme right … the Rock Island line would have run roughly along/near the edge of the concrete.
And here is the caboose …
And I was very lucky … a Union Pacific train raced by just as I was about to leave …
The station now houses the Central Delta Depot Museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
All photos were taken on April 14, 2023.
Rick Horne 