In order
Reading Terminal
30th Street
Elizabeth NJ
…Let me enter another depot as seen through a kids eyes…That would be the beautiful white cut stone Ligonier Valley Depot in Ligonier, Pa. with train shed elongated in back covering the boarding area alongside the track…{Time period: Mid 1940’s…}
Building and train shed still exist…! Railroad long gone…Last run: August 1952…and ripped up a few years later…That operation to me as a young teenager was oh so interesting…and it was in later years just a short line coal hauler along with a doodlebug…for the trip back and forth to Latrobe. In earlier years important people from Pittsburgh, etc…would come in on special trains for special events at nearby Rolling Rock areas…If anyone stops to take a look…find the brass plate with the history of the depot located at front entrance…{now school district offices of sort}.
Wayne Junction Station in Philadelphia. That is where my father introduced me to rail fanning when I was only three years old. The Reading Railroad and the B&O used that station and the parade of trains was never ending, including at that time steam locomotives. I can still recall watching those smoke belching, steam hissing black monsters approaching the spot we occupied, pretty close to the tracks, too, as I remember, and being both terrified and awe struck at the same time. Wayne Junctioin hooked me for life. The station still stands but the parade of trains has been reduced to mostly Septa MU’s and the occasional electric motor driven locomotive and the area is no longer in the kind of neighborhood I would take little kids to but every time I drive past that station I see myself as that toddler and even now I glance at the tracks to see if just maybe the B&O’s Royal Blue has pulled in.
I like to thank everyone for giving the info on your favorite Station.
Park Falls, WI-classic old wooden Soo Line small town depot with bay window
Green Bay, WI-100 year old C & NW depot, large brick building with clock tower and long covered platform. Currently houses a nice restaurant/brewpub (Titletown Brewing) and busy CN line still operating out front. A few years ago Milwaukee Road 261 ran excursions from here one weekend which was quite a sight.
Probably Chicago Union Station…but I can’t judge quite yet because I havn’t been in many others!
Fort Worth, Texas
Texas & Pacific station
not far from Tower 55
A couple that haven’t been mentioned.
- Omaha Union Station–because I worked there in the 40’ s and 50’s and we saw
lots of traffic. - Norht Platte, Nebr. on the UP. USO was great there during World War II.
- Shawnee, Oklahoma on the Santa Fe. No more trains but the station is still standing.
and its architecture is oustanding.
Paul
york,sheffield victoria,doncaster.did all my early days trainspotting there.
MOST IMPRESSIVE STUB: HBf, Frankfurt am Main (1200-trains/day).
MOST IMPRESSIVE THROUGH: HBf, Cologne (catenary everywhere + very busy).
MY FAVORITE PRE-AMTRAK: Chicago Union Station between 1 and 5pm. The parade of Q-streamliners coming-and-going including The California Zephyr, The Denver Zephyr, The Empire Builder, and the North Coast Limited (and even the Pennsy’s Broadway Limited) was most impressive.
MY FAVORITE PRE-METRA: That ugly-as-sin-on-the-ouside but warm-and-inviting-on- the-inside C.& N.W. commuter terminal in downtown Chicago. Watching, from near Lake Street tower, the well orchestrated parade of green-and-yellow “Commuter Streamliners” during a snowy, evening rush hour could be most fun!
MY FAVORITE VEST POCKET STATION: The old Linden Ave., Wilmette station located at the very north end of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Rail Division. The architecture was “Insull Spanish;” Leo, who ran the news stand had been there so long that he was maybe part of the “original equipment trust;” and the cacaphony of air operated turnouts, pumping air compressors on the Cincinnati Heavyweights, and singing trolley wires overhead meant that this dedicated traction phreaque had entered a little corner of heaven.
HONORABLE MENTION: Denver Union Station.
MINOR MENTION: The C.M.St.P.& P. stub station in Butte, MT (now tv-studios).
2nd MINOR MENTION: The Milwaukee’s Missoula, MT depot. With the right mood and just the right mix of gins, wines, and liquers winding their way through the corroded recesses of my imagination, I can still see the orange-and-maroon splendor of a Bi-Polar pulling a matching consist of The Olympian Hiawatha through town.
MOST HONORED MENTION: Grand Central Terminal, New York.
MY FAVORITE LOST TO THE MISTS OF TIME: The C.& N.W.'s pre-WW2 brick depot in my hometown of Barrington, Ill. It had a ticket office whose staffing requirements gave the bean counters at
-
Chicago Union Station: As a train-crazy boy arriving on the San Francisco Zephyr and California Zephyr, this station had it all: Amtrak long-distance and commuter trains pulled by E units in old Milwaukee Road or Burlington Northern livery. I returned there this past summer after 22 years and it’s not quite the same. All the individual commuter route ticket offices are gone–replaced by a bland Metra office. The “Great Hall” was like the “Great Library.” The other areas still looked like they did in 1983 when Gary Coleman was living there in that TV movie with Lisa Eilbacher. Worst of all is being unable to prowl the tracks–I mean Gates now–thanks to Bin Laden and his crew. But still the best for nostalgia sake.
-
Manchester Piccadilly: Much better since the 2002 Commonwealths Game remodel.
-
Los Angeles Union Passenger Depot: Love that classic Mission style architecture.
-
Central Railway Station Copenhagen: Some shady characters about but this station had everything besides just trains and the commuter subways: a grocery store, drug store, CD shop, two or three restaurants…
-
London Euston: Just huge.
-
San Jose Diridon: Spent many days growing up watching SP/Caltrain commuter trains and Amtrak’s Coast Starlight come in.
My favorite train stations are Chicago Union Station and the Metra station at Aurora Illinois built into the former CB&Q Aurora car shops. I haven’t had the fortune to be in other great stations mentioned in this thread though.
Lehigh Valley station at Laury’s Pa. ( the second station built on the site not the first).
Erie freight and passenger station at North Randall, Ohio.
East Broad Top Station at Orbisonia
That would be Kenilworth depot on Chicago’s Metra/UP North line. The building is of greystone in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, but unlike most such buildings, which usually were of red brick with some lighter trim, the greystone gives the station a healthy aspect of grace while remaining solid, practical and yes, Romanesque (ca. 1890). [8D]
Cincinnati Union Terminal
Toronto Union
Grand Central Terminal
Washington Union
Stuttgart Hbf
Amstertdam Central
Many more but CUT has to be my all time favorite as I was in there many times when it actually had seven railroads coming and going each day.
Forgot to mention it before but Bob Fryml, I’m from Chicago and your choices are excellent and well-thought-out.
- Northwestern Station (CPT)
- Chicago Union Station
- Cincinnati Union Terminal
- Philly 30th street - bilevel design (commuters on top, long distance in “basement”…highlevel platforms, catenary, art deco like architecture, the huge statue/memorial, polished brass fixtures everywhere, and it marked the "we’re almost there point for childhood rides to suburban station).
- Philly Suburban - stub terminal (pre-commuter tunnel) with highlevel platforms in the “basement”. The starting point of urban adventures - shopping trips, meeting with relatives, etc.
- Reading Terminal in Philly. The only trainshed I’ve ever visited and riden trains (rdc’s, MU’s) out of to “exotic” locations on the Reading RR. Now it is a convention center.
I prefer small rural depots that were the center of rail activity in small towns across America. two that come to mind in my area are,
in no peticular order,
Illinois Central Depot in Amboy Illinois, nicely restored into a rail museum.
http://www.pbase.com/image/45957348
Milwaukee Road Depot in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. This depot has the distinction of being the first to be constructed in that state.
(sorry no picture)
Later Bill
Hinkle OR on the UPRR. In he middle of nowhere. A lean to with no bench & a Atrak & Hinkle sign tacked on it. [:o)][:p][:)]
Just kidding but since I never saw any of the western or midwest staions I would have say the old PRR in NYC or Philly would be my answer subject too change if I ever get to see say a union station in like LAX or St. Louis. [:o)][:D][:p]
Grand Central does not qualify? [:o)][:p][:)]
[quote]
Originally posted by SILVERCHAMPION
[