Are the terms “depot” and “station” interchangeable? Are there any circumstances when one is the preferred or correct term, and one is not? Do they connote anything different? Is one American and one British? Is a depot a building but a station is a place? Who can enlighten me about this usage protocol?
In American usage and in the West, a station is defined by the rulebook as a point shown in the timetable. Where schedule time applies at a station depends on the facilites at that station. If there is a siding time applies at the first point where an opposing train can take the siding. If there is a depot building but no siding time applies at the depot. If there is no siding and no depot time applies at the station sign. This order of precedence is from 1944 Consolidated Code and the context is Timetable/Train order operations.
A depot is a building.
Mac
Wiktionary’s definitions of the two are circular, as they apply to transportation:
[quote]
depot (plural depots)
In large measure, I suppose it depends on whether you want a railroad definition or a dictionary definition. In railroad terminology, a Train is an engine, with or without cars, with markers. But we often talk about a ‘train of cars’ sitting on a siding without engine or markers. I believe ‘depot’ is a similar word.
World War I brought a bunch of French terms into our language; sorties, airplane terms, and most likely depot, since it’s a French word. ‘Depot’ could have come by way of England as they were much closer to France than the U.S. was
My family used depot much more than station but both were used; Dad was half German and half Norwegian, Mom was pure Norwegian so little French influence there. And I heard depot used a lot when working for the railroad. Station sounds more majestic; Grand Central Depot just doesn’t cut it.
(I used up my signature on the last posting)
I wonder if there is a regional difference. I recall my brother-in-law, who hales from Pittsburgh, using the term “depot,” while in the Chicago suburbs, IIRC, we said “station” or “railroad station” or “train station.”
(He also talks about going to the beer depot.)
‘Station’ in English in the appropriate context would be a railway station (train station is the sort of appalling thing you might read in some primary school pupil’s composition).
‘Depot’ has a much more general meaning, but never a railway station. A building for tramcars of course is one usage.
Andrew Harper
Bo’ness, West Lothian, Scotland.
A station in railroad terms is a timtable given specific point or place on the railroad used as a reference point to control train movement.
It is marked by a mile marker, and would be the point crews use as a location reference when dealing with a dispatcher or other train.
Often, control points are located at a station.
In dark territory, station are used to define limits of authority for train movement.
Stations often have geographical features and names, they may be located at the beginning or end of a siding, interlocker, interchange location or a street crossing.
They are places where a train, depending on its authority, may be required to stop.
A depot is a building where items are stored, delivered or picked up, whether such items are passengers or freight, and it is a station as defined above.
Not all stations are depots, but all depots are stations.
In American terminology, a place where passengers are entrained or detrained as the primary service is always referred to as a station, and a place where both freight and passengers are entrained and detrained is a depot.
Passenger stations have one purpose, delivery of people, depots have dual purpose, people and freight.
To all of you who responded, my deepest thanks. I learned something from each of these replies and I’m sure the booklet I’m writing about our town’s Erie depot will be better and more accurate because you gentlemen took the time to reply. This was also fun to read simply if one enjoys words and their meanings. Again, Thank You!
I suspect the term for your town (in the NE?) would be a depot. There was a great book dealing mostly with Pennsylvania IIRC, by Edwin P. Alexander: Down at the Depot (1970, probably in your local library.
I think you’re right about it being a depot in the case of our town. As a previous contributor noted, a depot is both as passenger station and a freight facility, which was certainly the case here.
Thanks for recommending Down at the Depot; I’m proud to say that I have my own mint copy which I bought when the book first came out. I’ve enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. That means I bought it 40 years ago (note to self: man, am I getting old!). For the single best article/chapter on the role of depots/stations in America between 1880-1930, I recommend John Stilgoe’s Metropolitan Corridor. Superb scholarship written in an elegant, readable style: my kind of railroad reading.
Today, I think the terminology is determined by local preference/habit. My station, in Shelby, MT is always referred to as “The Depot”. I never heard my stations in Fleetwood, Rye, and North White Plains, NY referred to as a “Depot”. In New York City, the original Grand Central was a station. The second iteration was called Grand Central Depot (and I might have that reversed. Gotta do some digging!). The current edifice is Grand Central Terminal. When through traffic halted, it became a “Terminal”, period! Anything else is blasphemy!!! NY’s Penn Station is just a station. Variations occurr: Jacksonville (FL) Union was often called a terminal, although it had through tracks. That might be proper. Florida East Coast originated/terminated there, so no real through traffic, passenger-wise, existed, even if trains were handed off from/to other carriers.
Anyone interested in Jacksonville Union? I have some 16mm (color) film of steam operations there, back in the '50s. Dunno if the film is still viable, but will send it to anyone with an interest (gratis). It hasn’t been out of the closet in years. Also some film of NYC operations at Harmon, NY. Not very good stuff, if I remember correctly, but… Again, gratis.
Hays – wdh@mcn.net
Send it to a reputable film restoration outfit interested in RRs. That film can be priceless.
I believe that in Great Britain the term depot is applied to what we would call a locomotive maintenance shop, or, more genrally, a roundhouse or enginehouse.
If you work for any of the U.S. railways I have worked for, or you work for me, you will use the definition that Mac laid out. That is the way I teach it, and getting the answer wrong on a test, because it has safety and operational implications, is a black mark on a record of an employee as far as I am concerned.
RWM