Waynoka is located on U.S. Highway 281 and State Highway 14, seventy miles west of Enid.
Moreland is the next town west (~24mi), and Alva is about 21 miles to the east.
It is on BNSF's Panhandle Sub-Division, and sees anywhere from 70 to 100 trains a day!
As can be seen from the few pictures I picked, the desert landscape is
beautiful!
Over in Woodward, about 30 miles west, you have the Northwestern
Oklahoma RR, at 1720 Lincoln Ave, Woodward OK 73801
Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd
Judy Maxwell
Open Railway Map
Wikipedia
Google Maps!
Maplogs . com
Unfortunately, Waynoka is out in the middle of "nowhere" (no disrespect for
those of you who live out in "nowhere"). But because of this, it will
take some doing if you are coming from elsewhere, say, Wichita or Oklahoma City.
I-35 is the closest N/S interstate to the east, runs from up the Twin-cities
area of Minnesota down to Dallas and San Antonio. I would take
exit 194 and head west on US-412. Travel about 90 miles to US-281, and
take a right, this will put you in Waynoka in another ~12 miles.
The closest E/W interstate is I-40, about 80 miles south via US-281, US-60,
and US-183 (it changes numbers around Chester and Seiling OK).
If you're coming in from the lands NW of Waynoka, please take the advice of your GPS
unit or smart phone.
From Wikipedia: The Waynoka Santa Fe Depot and Harvey House in Waynoka OK are
substantial brick buildings from 1910 built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Railway ("Santa Fe"). The Harvey House operated from 1910 to 1937, and was renovated
to serve as a dormitory and reading room for train crewmen. The Depot was a stop for
the San Francisco Chief. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
listings in Woods County, Oklahoma in 1974. The depot building is 84 by 22 feet
(25.6 m × 6.7 m) in plan. The Harvey House building is H-shaped in plan. end Wiki
From Waymarking: The Santa Fe Depot and adjacent Harvey House, located at 202 Cleveland
Street, at the west end of Waynoka Street are restored and owned by the Waynoka Historical
Society. Paint was removed to restore the brick depot to its original condition. The
buildings were built in 1910 and were actively operated on this rail line which is
one of America's busiest lines. Even today, 50-100 trains pass this way daily. This
line was the main line for travelers from Chicago to Los Angeles and for a two year
period from 1929-1931 was part of the Transcontinental Air Transport (predecessor of
TWA) Air-Rail system which offered cross-country travel by rail and air in 48 hours.
In the adjacent Harvey House restaurant building, a Mexican restaurant operates, and
on the second floor, the Air-Rail Museum and Waynoka History Museum offer a peek
into the rich history of Waynoka. Both buildings were placed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1974.
Fred Harvey service lasted at Waynoka until 1937. The railroad continued to use the
Harvey House as a crew "reading room" into the 1990's. At some point the depot and
Harvey House were given an ill-conceived coat of cream-colored paint over the bricks
with red trim on the woodwork, as shown in the top photo. The depot was retired in
1986 and converted into a museum. end Waymarking
Hudson Bay RR Geep
GPS Coordinates: 36.58380, -98.88297
It sits next to the depot. A long way from home.... they should paint
it in Santa Fe colors :-)
BNSF Waynoka Yard
Has seven (7) tracks in it, on the east side of the mainline. The north
end of the yard starts just below Comanche Rd, and runs about 1.6 miles in
length until it turns into a (basically) long single track lead that comes
back to the mainline at Broadway St, at Chester Ave. Access to the
middle of the yard is from Roundhouse Rs and 281. I don't know how
friendly or unfriendly folks are there.
GPS Coordinates: 36.58762, -98.88149
Viewed from Chester St, at the "bottom" of the yard.
South of Town
GPS Coordinates: 36.56839, -98.90073
A little over a mile south of the Ash St grade crossing. No easy access
without a whole lotta walking. Dunno why
bridges droop like this on their aerial views.....
Over the
Cimarron River
GPS Coordinates: 36.56839, -98.90073
About 3 miles south of town. No easy access
without a whole lotta walking. Had a fire on the #2 side in mid 2021.
GPS Coordinates: 36.58664, -98.88179
Controls EB traffic and entrance into the small siding here.
Colorlight in yard, off Cedar Ave
GPS Coordinates: 36.58734, -98.88150
The left signal is the signal for WB traffic on main 2, which services this
siding, the signal on the right is for siding traffic coming out onto the main.
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page. This is something I have fun with while
trying to help others.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.
For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my
indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented
I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while,
an error may creep in :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or
disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the
railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job
of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted. Screen captures are made
with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it!
By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous
and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit
is always given! Please be NICE!!! Contact info is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly inaccurate, wrong, or not true.