I thought of posting this so people could see this, looks like a project’s forming for me to scratchbuild. This was a great find and I wish I could have stayed longer but we were driving home and tired. There’s real train action, station refurbishing, model trains inside and out, real car and engine restoration outside.
this station is in Matthews, NC and serves as their town hall. Beautiful inside and out and nice people too!
…Very nice photos. Love RR architecture. Beautiful depot’s of the past. We have a beautifully restored C&O depot here in Muncie that now serves as a Trail Head. Has RR memorabilia on display inside too. Besides the trail there is a very active NS line just beyond the Trail. It is now open weekends too.
The station in Matthews NC is NOT our Town Hall, which is across the street, but it is our Chamber of Commerce office, and houses a small museum. As Public Works Director for the Town of Matthews, renovations to the station was my project, and it was a pleasure. The station was built about 1880 by the Central Carolina RR, later a part of the SAL. In served its last passenger train in 1958, and was closed as a freight agency station in 1968. A little trivia- during the renovation I went up to Washington to look up the 1918 Valuation records for this section of the SAL at the National Archives. Those records show that the station was built by the CCRR for $7,600, and the records even have a full inventory of everything in the station on that day, even down to the number of shovels, inkwells and dustpans. Anyway, including architect fees, we spent $360,000 to fully renovate it to Historic landmarks Commission standards. Inflation anyone? Anyone interested in more details can PM me, or try the Matthews website www.matthewsnc.com. There are some other pictures there, too.
– matthewsaggie
The “Erie” station is actually in North East, a smaller town about 10 miles east of Erie on the CSX Lake Shore Line. It is a former New York Central station. The NS former Nickel Plate main also parallels CSX about 100 yards south. The station is the home of the North East Rail Museum, which is quite active and a friendly place to visit. As Enginear says, there is plenty of train action to enjoy.