Question about the cargo and luggage depot portion of the train station.
Was the cargo section fully isloated from the passenger section of the depot by a partition? Or were there doors between the two sections?
Does anybody have pictures of the inside of a typical depot?
I’m taking apart the walther’s built-up Pella station depot and want to model the inside of it. (Take out the depot door and put it full of boxes, and put an actual station worker at the station teller window, and light up the inside)
Not sure this helps much, but here is a period picture of the SP depot in Martinez, CA showing the waiting room and ticket window. Still standing but now superseded with a modern Amtrak building, it was a combination depot with both passenger and freight sections (I think SP type 18, later modified to eliminate the second story residence). … Travelers and ticket agents were much better dressed (suits, ties, hats, etc.) in those days.
There looks to be a door at the rear of the ticket office for access to baggage and freight sections of the building. However, it would appear that any baggage would need to enter from the exterior of the building.
to begin at the beginning, the type of train station to which you are referring is a combination station, a type which became prevellant in the US about 1890. before then most towns would have had seperate passenger and freight stations. the freight handled at this type of station would most likely have been passenger’s baggage, express and some LCL freight. After 1920 the Railway Express Agency consolidated the forwarding business and you would see signage for REA in and around the station. For the interior there would be a wall dividing the passenger waiting area from the station agent’s office. Usually there would be a dutch door with a REA sign above it and a separate ticket window. There would also be a rate desk, and a telegraph desk, usually looking out of a trackside bay window. There would be a door between the station agent’s office and the freight room. The freight room would also have a door on the platform side of the station and another, usually on the rear of the building with a loading dock. Those doors would be kept closed except when accepting or delivering freight.
Have a look at HABS/HAER (Historical American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Records) at the Library of Congress website: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query