Here are a couple stations along the old Erie Railroad Northern Branch. The large one is Tenafly, NJ (now a restaurant) and the one that looks like a church is Demarest, NJ.
Thanks for those pictures pajrr! Aren’t those stations gorgeous? Built for the ages.
See where those cars are parked at the Tenafly station? That’s where the old Public Service (Originally Bergen County Traction Co.) Englewood Line trolleys from the Edgewater Ferry Terminal used to terminate. The line was abandoned in 1937.
http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1148
http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1149
I couldn’t think of whatever current thread would be most appropriate, so I will mention it here. I wanted to make a comment about the Photo of the Day from last week, “Small Town Station Ritual”.
I really can’t remember anything about railroading before seeing a CPR Combine and Caboose standing in front of our station at Irricana, AB. Sadly, business wasn’t usually this good by the time I can remember scenes like this.
Bruce
Wanswheel— You grew up in Davenport, Iowa, or were very familiar with it? Nice station in any case. Long Live the Rock.
AgentKid-- CPR maroon of any type, combine or not, was a fixture across the land, something I thought was eternal.
I would have nominated the Berea depot:
But I’m a bit saddened by it’s current status:
Yolks! Yikes! That’s about as bad as it can be. Maybe add in a bus with chickens in crates on the roof.
So where are we here? Ohio?
Born there, lived there 6 years. First train trip at age 3, always remembered.
My hometown of Camrose, Alberta boasted three railways and their stations for a time very early on, but of course it was too good to last. First to go was the Grand Trunk Pacific, after the Canadian National merger the ex-GTP line through town was abandoned and trains rerouted to use the ex-CNoR line and station.
Canadian Pacific’s original classic wood station lasted until 1956 (a few years before passenger service ended), when it was replaced with a brick-shaped cinder block building similar to an Amshack (CP was ahead of the times?). That building has since been demolished too, small photos of both are on this site:
http://forthjunction.ca/cpr-stations.htm
The ex-Canadian Northern (later CN) station has been far more fortunate, it saw passenger service until 1980 and today has been beautifully restored into a museum:
The last passenger service was CN/VIA’s central Alberta dayliners to Calgary and Drumheller (the ex-CP Edmonton-Calgary dayliner did not go through Camrose, and lasted until 1985). The train would leave Edmonton with two budd cars, which would be split at Camrose with one following the ex-GTP line to Mirror and Calgary, and the other taking the ex-CNoR line through Stettler and Big Valley to Drumheller.
Due to the late end of this passenger service multiple stations have survived in good condition, and have been restored by the Canadian Northern Society:
The stations at Stettler and Big Valley are still used by summer excursion trains operated by t
Sude, that’s a lovely station. Did the agent and his family live upstairs?
They did originally. I am not sure when that practice ended on CN (dates varied depending on the location), but I am sure they had moved out by the end of passenger service in 1980.
You bet’cha.
In the accompanying link of CPR Stations, the station we lived in at Hatton, SK is listed as a “CPR Standard A2 Western”. Mom used to say that the Beiseker AB Station, the next station 5 miles TT noth of Irricana, pictured was so close to how the Hatton Station looked it was hard to believe they were two different buildings
Our station at Irricana is listed as a “CPR Standard #5 Station”. One thing mentioned throughout the page is “Ladies Waiting Rooms”. It was soon found that pioneer women didn’t need separate waiting rooms, and they were converted to “Heated Freight Rooms”, which given the Canadian Prairie climate were well used.
Dad thought it was cool when during a renovation on the Irricana Station in 1958 the workers found, still in place, the glass Ticket Wicket Window and related counterweights and tracks to lift it up and down, boarded up inside the wall between the offce and the heated freight room.
Contrary to what is said on the webpage, the picture in my Avatar is a #5 Station at Heritage Park in Calgary, relocated and shortened from Shepard, AB. To appreciate the full size of both our stations look at the pictue of the Beiseker Staion in the A2 section.
There are other nits I could pick about the website, but life is short, and the author did a pretty good job overall.
Bruce
Dude, that’s a lovely station. Did the agent and his family live upstairs?
Yep. Berea is along the Dearborn division (I think) of the old NYC main. It’s a great train watching spot, especially if you like seeing auto racks and parts cars going in both directions almost daily.
I watch the Berea webcam daily. It is a great train watching spot.
Berea is an interesting spot. It was the crux of NYC’s Ohio operations. It’s where the Cleveland downtown and bypass routes converged, and the Chicago and St. Louis routes diverged. Now it is the symbolic spot where the NS/CSX split of Conrail’s “Water Level Route” takes place.
Now how could I forget these? Prominent features of where I live now…
Two really magnificent structures…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Station_(Richmond)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Main_Street_Station
Going in that last one is like being a time traveler, a great restoration!
And this little gem…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashland_station_(Virginia)
And then there’s what a local writer called “…that thing out on Staples Mill Road…” included just for general interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Staples_Mill_Road_station
Yeah. Looks like it was designed by the same guy who did Denny’s restaurants.
Well, it does not look much like a station for a state capital–but it is far superior to what is passed off as the Salt Lake City station. At one time, there was a promise that after St. Louis had a better station than what looked like two or three trailers put together there would be a decent-looking station built here. There has been no change since the station was moved from the baggage room of the Union Station, which was better than the current Amshack.
Well, there’s one good thing about the Staples Mill station. See that photo of the loading platform area? When I’m picking up someone coming to visit us, usually Shotgun Charlie, it’s a nice place to sit with a big container of coffee and a smoke, especially if there’s a slight chill in the air, and watch the trains roll by.
On a good afternoon I might catch an Amtrak train and maybe a freight or two.
The Ashland station’s a much better place to watch trains, though. Comfy seats at the station, sometimes other railfans to shoot the breeze with, plenty of places to get a snack or two, the RF&P mini-museum in the station is fascinating, AND there’s a train store in town about two blocks south, “Tiny Tim’s Trains and Toys.”
OK, I’m plugging 'em, but they advertise in “Classic Toy Trains” so I suppose it’s cool.
Oh, and Johnny, the old Broad Street Station was THE showplace station for anyone arriving in Richmond decades ago, as you so well put it a prestigious place for the state capital, “History City” and the old “Capital of the Confederacy.” Anybody who was anybody came through there at one time or another.