The Custer depot survives...sort of. Bill Heckman, operator of the Black Hills Central, purchased the depot from BN at the end of operation on the Deadwood Branch. As part of a book project, I interviewed Bob Wills, who was in train service and the lead mechanic at BHC in the late 1980s-early 1990s. He told me that with his help, Heckman removed the top story of the Custer depot and moved it to Hill City in the mid-1980s. It was set on a new foundation and remodeled, located across the street from the Hill City depot. Know as the "brown house," it was home for the collage students that worked BHC trains during the summer months (it's still there, but no longer owned by the railroad). The rest of the Custer depot was destroyed.
Heckman had a thing for removing the top story of depots. He removed the top story of the Hill City depot over the winter of 1972-73. He told the local newspaper that the modifications were made "just to make the station look a little more authentic. That second story never did look quite right...so we decided it was time to take it off." I have never seen a photo of the depot from CB&Q days without the second story, so I don't know if that was a later addition by the Q after the building was constructed, or if it was in fact built that way.
The best single history of the High Line has been mentioned before: A High Line Scrapbook: The Burlington's Branch to Deadwood by Rick Mills and Greg Walters. There is also quite a bit of info in 125 Years of Black Hills Railroading, also by Mills. Both are out of print, but can still be found on Ebay and Amazon. There will be a fair amount of information regarding the Keystone Spur when my book on the 1880 Train is finished (hopefully soon!). It has taken much longer than expected to complete the research on this pioneer tourist railroad. (Incidentally, if anyone rode the train in the the early years, or in the 1960s when they were running both narrow and standard gauge trains, and would like to talk about the experience, please email me).
Jeff Terry
jterry618@hotmail.com