I’ve seen the movie Dillinger made in 1973 several times. There’s one getaway scene where a very nice and very large depot shows in the distance. I’ve always wondered where it was and which road it was on. Then I found by a little quick search that the movie had been filmed entirely in Oklahoma, and several towns were listed. This information is copied below But I was wondering, if anyone was familiar with this depot. The movie was made in 1973 so this building is probably long gone by now, but I’ve always been fascinated by it and wondered if I could find better pictures of it. Can anyone identify this station? The photo is a screenshot grabbed from the movie. It was actually very much in the distance and this is about as clear as I could get it cropping and lightening it up.. The movie is very violent, so be forewarned, But here is the whole short clip with the depot in it. Maybe that might help someone find familiarity with it since more of the town is shown, At least like it was 52 years ago.
I saw a Santa Fe depot (tan Spanish looking style) I don't know who the big brick depot belongs to. If I recall, Frisco's was frame.
I searched all of those Oklahoma town names. I could not find the large brick depot, which to me looks like Texas and Pacific for some reason. But I do believe I identified the Ardmore Oklahoma Santa Fe depot briefly appearing in a getaway scene.
That's the depot I saw in that split second scene. I didn't even think of Rock Island and thought it was ATSF. Karl is da man!
I’ve been digging very deep and I think I’ve ID’d that station In Ardmore: Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific Railroad Depot “Ringling Road Station” N. Washington & 3rd Avenue NE 1982 #82003671 attached is a current photo of this building, heavily modified from when the movie was filmed. The building must’ve been neglected at the time of the movie, because a flat roof has replaced the hip roof and all the gables seen on the film. Also, it appears that the second floor wall had four windows at film time, but was reconstructed with three windows later. I can say this because I worked as a historical restoration architect for years, and I can see that the three windows there today are more modern windows than the ones on the side and appear to be replacements. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma,_New_Mexico_and_Pacific_Railway
I looked up on Google maps at the site of Palecek Mills in Enid, the location determined as per a Google search. It’s all demolished now but if you look along the street towards the top, you’ll see that a Railroad goes in the same direction that the getaway was filmed is going in the movie towards the brick depot. I’ll buy the fact that this is where the sequence was filmed and that the depot is long gone. Does anyone know what Railroad that is on the map?
The fact that the Palacek building and the unknown brick depot are in the same camera shot says that this is in Enid, Oklahoma. And the current city map shows a Railroad in the appropriate place as per the film. What confounds me is that if this is in Enid, that such a large and impressively monumental building has no record of trace of on the Internet or any historic photographs of it. It still appears very similar to the building that I put up the picture of in Ardmore and I wonder if there was a standard plan being adhered to.
There is a railroad museum in Enid and perhaps they can shed some light on this. if you do the U-tube frame by frame, you can see the names on other buildings, like a grocery warehouse.
Confirmation: The building right across the street from The mystery building is the Rock Island passenger depot. So It is certainly a Rock Island building.
Apologies to all since this thread wandered so far away from the Frisco. At first I was certain that with the movie having been filmed in the Midwest, and upon the discovery of it being filmed entirely in Oklahoma, there was a very good chance building it could have been a Frisco building. In spite of this, it was an interesting journey into the railroad depots of the area, and a very fun exercise in research. I even looked up the 1911 Sanborn maps of Enid, found the earlier Rock Island depot, and found what appears to be the freight house somewhat southwest of the depot….. although it was not located quite as I had thought. Following an erroneous earlier clue, I discovered the Ringling Railroad which is interesting in itself, which raises another interesting question ,which is why did such a little railroad have such a grand depot at one end. Unless it reflected the grandiose dreams at its earliest conception before management decided that the newly discovered oil fields were good enough to assure profitability. Railroad history is a rich and wonderful thing and I always enjoy pursuing it.
As a wrap up to this off topic thread, I would like to say that I followed the lead offered and called the museum in Enid, Oklahoma. The president himself answered the phone, and I had a nice very long conversation with him. of course he knew the building and when I asked him about it, he told me that that was where the museum had originally been planned to go, but the Rock Island bankruptcy and multiple changes of property ownership basically made the building fall through the cracks and it got demolished in the 80s Sometimes. He said that when they were planning to put the museum in there, one of the members went around and took a good number a very detailed photographs of the building so I’m going to get them at some point. I also told him I might be interested in building a model of that building and he Of course was interested in that. In closing, I told him that I was retired and could waste someone else’s time better than almost anybody. He laughed at that and said that it was a real pleasure to talk to someone who is deep into railroad history, and that they don’t get that very often at the museum.
