Someone was asking recently about train sheds (it might have been in that other forum). Anyway, they aren’t too common any more. I can think of only four I’ve ever been in, and at least two of them are gone.
So answer me this: the shed I’m thinking of belonged to a Union Station that served the passenger trains of three of the city’s five railroads at one time. The shed was open on both ends. The station was demolished in the early 1960s to accommodate a highway–by that time only one railroad (out of four) offered passenger service to the town.
Here’s where it gets good: there are, amazingly, currently five railroads serving this city. And part of the train shed survived up until recent years (it may still–haven’t checked!) after having been moved to a lumber yard south of the city, serving as a lumber shed.
Where was this?
P.S. After you tell me where it is, maybe you could point me to some good exterior and interior shots, and possibly something to indicate how many tracks were under the shed. I’m sure it was four or more.
I was once told that Kansas City Union Station had a train shed to the west that was pull through and torn down in the late 50s to 60s to allow the midtown freeway construction (now I-35). The train shed components were supposedly given to Shutte Lumber to construct lumber sheds (They burned down several years ago). If this is the one the Union Station history book has some good shots.
Looking at Carl’s post, it looks to me that the station was torn down for the freeway.
I don’t know for sure, but I think all of the US class ones, except KCS, come into Chicago, which would make six railroads (BNSF, CN, CP, CSXT, NS, and UP). Then there are BRC, EJE, and Metra, perhaps others also. Or do not all of these railroads come into Chicago proper?
No, it wasn’t Chicago. However, one of the passenger lines that departed from this train shed ended in another shed in Chicago that survived a little longer.
I’m going to say either St. Paul or Minneapolis, since the Soo Line served Chicago almost to the end of its passenger service at Grand Central Station, whose balloon shed lasted until it was closed in 1969.
Here’s another hint: I just found out that “my” station was built in 1871. In the 1870s four railroads of the six serving the city used this Union Station. Just before a 1900 merger, those numbers were pretty much the same; after 1900 it was as was described in the original post.
Postcard illustrations suggest at least six tracks under the trainshed.
Don’t know if this is a hint, but where the station was, there is no longer any evidence of railroads having been there. North of the station, the tracks curved west to cross the river (the bridge is still there, but not used for railroads any more), then curved north again. Trains of two railroads exited north out of the station for almost as long as it was around. All of the other railroads (including these two, again) exited from the south end. Trains to Chicago (and Paul correctly stated which Chicago station) exited from the south end.
If I give the destinations of trains that went northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south, and southwest of the city, it would give it away. I’d bet that even one direction/destination pair would do that.
You guys are gonna hate me! I’m being too predictable in where my "is-it"s are!
The major yard and shop facilities for one of the railroads involved was in Wyoming (that will throw some folks completely off, and clinch it for others.)
I should point out that all of the guesses so far have been for cities considerably larger than this one, though this is no small town. You don’t have to be too big a city to have a station called Union Station (as witness Durand, whose population has been under 5000 for the most part).
The only direction not mentioned above was west. A railroad did go west from the city, too–however, it was one of those that didn’t use this Union Station. It had a nice passenger station all to itself, about a half mile away–an unusual case of a stub-ended terminal being used for through passenger trains (this building’s gone, too).
P.S. No, Murph, no railroad with “Pacific” in its name is involved in this city.