Well it is December! The month Santa pays a visit and for many a return to fond memories of trains under the tree. Riding a Christmas train at the local city park, museum, or maybe one offered up by a full on prototype railway. Maybe a Christmas trip on a train to visit friends and/or family can be shared.
We had a request a while back to take a look at railway corporate head offices. I don’t think we have done that before, so why not. Being December it is the time to show and tell all things Christmas and trains, so have at it.
I wonder how many corporate head offices will have a Christmas tree on the roof?
My son and I have the shortest conversations possible and it makes my wife just roll her eyes and shake her head. We are efficient I said.
The phone rings and I answer. Son says" I have the box for the Canucks next Saturday, you in"? “Yup” I say. “bye” he says, “bye” I say. Why does anything else have to be said? I’ll never understand women.
Good morning from Kansas where I no longer have to dream of a White Christmas. A cup of coffee for me while I head out the door. I’m going to need it!
Today I remember the biggest difference between Kansas and Oklahoma: winter weather in Oklahoma almost guarantees the closure of the university! That sentiment doesn’t seem to apply anywhere north of Wichita
Looks like we received accumulations of an inch so far, maybe more, and the snow doesn’t show signs of stopping until after lunch. I saw a single snowplow this morning in downtown, so hopefully that means the drive back won’t be as slow.
Have a great December 1st, y’all, and to any fellow Midwesterners enduring the snow, stay safe!
I went to college in the upper great lakes - my freshman year at university held the highest all time cancellation for weather in a single semester at my alma mater, 3 days, and that was due to the windchill being low enough that walking from one end of campus to the other would be almost guaranteed frostbite. We also got 3’ of snow but that much snow was pretty common place.
I’m enjoying finally getting a cold snap here in Minnesota, I love some snow and cold weather. Was 4°F on my commute in. The snowstorm over the weekend disrupted my travel plans to get back from my mom’s for thanksgiving but traffic wasn’t too bad.
Got the opportunity to play some pool with my girlfriend while I was there, and she is significantly better than I am! Guess we’ll have to go out and play more if I’m ever going to stand a chance.
I’ll be taking my morning french toast to go today, busy day at work catching up from the week off and a lot of people are having a slow start today in the office.
Good morning, Brunhilda! I’ll have the my usual, plus a hot chocolate!
I’ll start the ball rolling on corporate headquarters by noting that over its long history, Cleveland has been the Home Office of a number of different railroads. I’ll submit photos of several of the buildings used for that purpose, beginning with this one:
Yes, this is a depot, but I learned yesterday that the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, later an important component of the Pennsylvania RR and now an NS line, was headquartered in this 1865 Union Depot on the lakefront (demolished in 1959). Although the C&P was chartered in 1851, they probably moved their offices here shortly after its opening. In 1871, the PRR leased the C&P for 999 years, so headquarters then became some building in Philadelphia which I hope someone else has a photo of.
The C&P offices here must have been compact; most of this building was a giant shed, said to have been the biggest such in the USA until the first Grand Central opened in 1871. As attractive as the building is in this photo, it certainly didn’t look like this for long. Cleveland’s industrial smoke and building-vandalism by thoughtless railroad owners took care of that in short order.
While the PRR used this depot until its closing in 1953, it was used by co-owners LS&MS Ry (NYC) and the Big Four (CCC&I) (NYC), too, until the CUT opened in 1930.
Happy D1 everybody! Clear and chilly with frost on the roofs around here (Corvallis, OR) but no snow - but we rarely get it here. Still I’ll take the clear weather so I can finish up putting up our Christmas lights.
Our house last year on Christmas Eve.
A short walk up the hill, then south a few streets, brings one to a real shrine of Cleveland’s railroad history, the Hoyt Block, built in 1875 and today repurposed as residences (I believe):
This was the headquarters of Cleveland’s hometown railroad, the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (NKP) from its founding in 1881 until 1928, when the offices were moved to the new Terminal Tower atop the Cleveland Union Terminal:
First, though, notice on the right the Richardsonian Romanesque depot-cum-office building of another railroad, the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railroad. From 1898, until the Baltimore & Ohio acquired it in 1909, their corporate offices were located here. This railroad’s line from Cleveland to Akron today survives in part as the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
The Terminal Tower was the heart of the Van Sweringen brothers’ railroad empire. They are shown in their offices there. Their offices used English oak panneling and contained a living suite with a 2-story room, the “GreenbriarSuite.”
Thanks to them, the Terminal Tower became the corporate headquarters of the Nickel Plate, the Erie, and the Chesapeake & Ohio railroads. All in all, the Terminal Tower was a hell of a fine place for a corporate headquarters.
Good December morning to all the diners. Chloe, I’ll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
We had a good Thanksgiving, including watching several basketball games with the grandson playing. I wish they lived a little closer. The bad news … we arrived at home and I had to scoop the driveway. The good news … the snow covered all the leaves on the lawn!
Having only daughters, my phone conversations are usually pretty short. I answer the phone and say, “I’ll get your mother”.
David, post all the photos you want of the ships – I enjoy looking at them. Don’t worry about one person who is having some kind of issue.
The old Union Pacific headquarters in downtown Omaha:
The Copper Range Railroad’s “headquarters” was in its passenger station in Houghton, MI. I use the quotation there as the railroad, despite being a common carrier, was essentially in captive service for the Copper Range Mining Company, so some administrative work also happened in various other locations that the mining company had offices, primarily Painesdale, MI (not to be confused with Paynesdale, MI, which is just outside of the Copper Range’s service area).
The depot is still standing and has a pretty decent restaurant in it now!
