Awesome train stations

[marmar]

St. Pancras, London


Hauptbahnhof Mitte, Berlin


Amtrak Depot, Niles, Mich.


Estacion de Atocha, Madrid


Gare du Nord, Paris


Hauptbahnhof, Frankfurt


Central Station, Stockholm


Shinigawa Station, Tokyo

[liberal N proud]

1. Cool

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I've traveled out of this one.... Winona, Minnesota

[YOY]

3. Actually Union in DC and Union in Philly don't look to bad either.

[marmar]

6. Yes, I forget about Union Station in DC.....Love the food court.

nt

[Dappleganger]

11. I took some great photos of Union in DC this spring.

Will have to upload them up here one day. The details in the architecture are absolutely stunning.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. This beauty is no longer in use....

[snagglepuss]

8. That is fantastic. Unbelievable that it's now derelict:(. Where is it?

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. It's in Buffalo. I found out about it on an episode of "Ghost Hunters"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Central_Terminal

[snagglepuss]

25. OMG Buffalo.Looking at Buffalo today its hard to believe Buffalo had such

imposing architecture. What could be a more painful symbol of decay?

[Kalyke]

77. Ours has been rebuilt and it looks so nice now!

Too nice for freight!




You should have seen it a few years ago - dilapidated and in need of some TLC.

Ironically, the city used to use ours for a haunted house to raise money for some charity when I was a teenager/young woman.

[FSogol]

5. Cool photos, thanks for posting.

Here's my local one:



Not really active anymore (its a local museum) but, still a nice place to visit. Fairfax Station, Virginia

[asjr]

7. How I miss trains! I can remember going

everywhere on a train. When I was young in a small town in East TN, at night about 10:00 I could hear the plaintive sound of the whistle of the Southern Railway train on its way to New Orleans. I would never go to sleep until I heard that. The track was on the other side of town but back then there was very little noise to hamper the sound. The station was torn down a long time ago and the acreage changed. But I can still hear it in my head. My Granfather and I went to the station when Pres. Roosevelt's coffin was returning to D.C. That also is a moment in time I will never forget. The loading dock was crowded with people. Tears all around.

[blondeatlast]

9. I LOVE train stations. Berlin's is awesome, so is Kuala Lumpur's--and Flagstaff, AZs! nt

[northofdenali]

10. And our new one in little old Fairbanks, Alaska:

Terrific photos, marmar - thanks for the thread. I LOVE trains and the Alaska Railroad passenger trains are the best!

K&R

[JustAmused]

34. Worked for Alaska RR in the 70's

I used to work for them in the 70's. I worked the Freight House and the Passenger train. That was always fun. I do miss Squarebanks from time to time...lol.

[northofdenali]

46. Were you here during the Pipeline?

Because after that fiasco, Fairbanks turned very, very right-wing! Doesn't matter, though, the Interior is still gorgeous, come up and see us!

Here's the old (but still in use) ARR Station in Nenana, 60 miles south on the Parks Highway from Fairbanks (sits right on the river, too):



The last time I saw Dr. Norman Vaughn, the great entrepreneur/explorer, was at this station. He was 92 and starting the Nenana leg of the Serum Run dogsled/snowmachine expedition. Dead winter, and he's bopping around like a bunny, handing out replica diptheria serum to the dog drivers!

[midnight]

12. Looks like the rest of the world invested in their infastructure,

while America invested in wars......

[snagglepuss]

13. Tokyo or Stockholm are IMHO hohum. The others are great. What about

the great NY stations lke Grand Central and Penn? And what about Toronto's Union station, it certainly outshines Shinigan Station.

[Alameda]

14. Just think, this one could have been in this list....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York_City)

[LeftinOH]

17. The wretched new "station" that replaced it has a few framed photos of the original Penn station

hanging on the walls -as if to remind travelers how horrible the station is.

[BrklynLiberal]

23. My very first thought...as shown by my post downthread.

What a sickening shame.

[progressoid]

15. Gare de Saint-Exupéry TGV (formerly Gare de Satolas) near Lyon France

[snagglepuss]

38. Utterly spectacular. Hadn't seen this either. Thanks so much for posting.

[Odin2005]

63. That is fucking AWESOME!!!

[Hepburn]

16. I love this place: Union Station, Los Angeles, CA

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. The best part is that Philippe's is right across the street.

[Hepburn]

40. Will ck that out....

...only go to Union Station to catch the MetroLink VERY early in the AM and usually am not awake enough to do anything but blindly find my way to the track where I need to catch the train! Thanks for the info.

:hi:

[Initech]

51. There's no French Dip that even remotely compares.

[hardluck]

54. Have you tried Coles Lately?

I'm a huge Philippe's fan-have been going there my whole life. But Cole's is making a damn good french dip. Plus, you can get a good sazerac or old fashioned to go with it.

[BrklynLiberal]

24. Lovely, old-worldly...

[Hepburn]

42. Every time I walk through there, I pretent I am Lauren Bacall and Bogart is waiting for me.

Feels like one is in a 1940s movie. Great place.

[BrklynLiberal]

52. Exactly.

[blondeatlast]

29. Hey, Hepburn! Nice to see you!

:hi:

[Hepburn]

39. Thanks....I have been busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Nice to have a few minutes to participate in the DU again!

:hi:

[snagglepuss]

37. WOW. Never seen that. Love at first sight. Thanks for posting.

[Hepburn]

43. You are very welcome...it is a lovely old place. n/t

[Loge23]

18. Grand Central

My personal favorite...
My old man worked there for the New York Central.
When I was a kid, I would just love to go there and see my Dad.
He wasn't a big shot by any means, but when he came up from the tracks he was like a king to me. His cronies, all in dirty overalls holding enormous wrenches, kept the analogy alive by treating me like a little prince. These guys fought WW2 and then kept the RR's runing at home.
Later, I worked for Amtrak for awhile, but spent my time either in a office building in Long Island, the Yards at Sunnyside, or in the plasticized, less-than-sterile, remains of the great Penn Station - home of my Dad's rival back then, the Pennsylvania RR.
The great hall of GCS was a great experience back then: echoes of hundreds of voices, the mass of people rushing about, the annoucements: "Now Boarding on Track 10!" - with the long list of cities (stops) following! The voice of God!
I sat on the huge wooden benches and watched as anxious travellers checked the departure boards. The boards themselves were a delight for me - watching the big black cards with the destinations constantly flapping into place. Once a day, if you were lucky enough, you would see a uniformed porter suddenly appear from the gated track area with a velvet rope stantion in tow. The Limited was about to board.
During my time at Amtrak, my wife and I took the Lake Shore Limited, the poor heir to the late, great 2oth Century Limited, to Chicago out of GCS. We ate at the Oyster Bar before boarding under the massive, coved tile ceiling. Amtrak, in their infinite wisdom, discontinued all inter-city passenger service from GCS shortly afterwards.
They cleaned the place up a few years back and restored the brilliant constellation ceiling. But now it's White Plains, not Chicago, that you hear on the loudspeaker, which is no longer manned by the voice of God itself, but merely a quick reading of towns - ends without the means.
Kudos also for the great station in Chicago. If you visit, sit, and try to imagine the golden days of this station - truly the crossroads of the country back then.
Thanks to marmar, who contributed the great photos here!

[BrklynLiberal]

20. It is a sin that we no longer have this one here in NYC

Perhaps the greatest threat to noted historic buildings are the politics and economics of the moment. Here in New York City this is best exemplified by the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station. This wondrous, grandiose structure designed by McKim, Mead and White, was built in 1910, only to be torn down a half century later to make way for Madison Square Garden. I’m a Knicks fan and it may be the world’s most famous arena, but it’s far from the world’s finest arena. To add insult to injury this prime piece of New York real estate is property tax free while owner James Dolan and company have mastered the fine art of throwing money away.

A New York Times editorial from October 30, 1963 noted, “Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.”

Instead we were given a rat maze in replacement and a terrific space that had other potential applications, conference and exhibition center for example, was lost. Ironically, the daily traffic of the underground Penn Station replacement has become so great that an extension into the massive Farley Post Office opposite the Garden has been proposed. An extension designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill that I helped visualize in 2001 at KDLAB, (SOM Journal 1, pages 36/37). The Farley Post Office, also designed by McKim, Mead and White, will be the last example of their work in the area as the 1918 Pennsylvania Hotel is also slated for demolition. One beneficial outcome of this incident, it resulted in the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, spurring historical preservation throughout the United States.

Unfortunately this remains a common worldwide issue. Well, primarily in the US
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-
THIS was the train station that connected NYC to the rest of the world. Before its completion, passengers had to take a boat to NYC after getting off trains in NJ. Part of the construction of Penn Station included the tunnels to NJ..so passengers could come directly into NYC.

Its destruction was a ghastly economic based decision. The destruction of Penn Station is what motivated the creation of the Landmark Preservation Commission in NYC. Too little, too late for one of the most grandly conceived and magnificently created structures that ever graced NYC. It was inspired by the Baths of Caracalla in Ancient Rome.

If you are interested, check out "THE LATE GREAT PENNSYLVANIA STATION"
http://www.amazon.com/Late-Great-Pennsylvania-Station/dp/1568580606/ref=pd_sim_b_3
-The author of this book used to give tours of what is left of Penn Station showing where there were still some remnants of its former greatness hidden in the dreck that is now Penn Station
or
"Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels"
http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Gotham-Building-Station-Tunnels/dp/0143113240/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

From Publishers Weekly
Modern Manhattan is a miracle in many ways, but all of its imports, commuters included, must traverse at least one river to get there. In 1900, the New York Central, owned by the Vanderbilts, already gave Manhattan a northern connection over the narrow Harlem River. A southern connection over the mile-wide Hudson would be a whole different story. Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was the visionary on the project. But how to do it? A bridge plan fell through due to expense; a tunnel would lack the oxygen needed for steam engines. The breakthrough lay in the cutting-edge electrified locomotives developed in Paris. Historian Jonnes (Empires of Light), demonstrating impressive immersion in the Gilded Age, ably spins the tale, which bears some similarities to The Devil in the White City. This is a vivid story of hardball Tammany Hall maneuvering and mind-boggling engineering. Once construction began, the two-track narrative settles on the daunting construction of the tunnels and Charles McKim's much-admired design of the terminus at Pennsylvania Station, prized by New Yorkers only after its ill-considered demise in 1963. Jonnes can claim an important addition to the popular literature of how New York became the archetype of a great American metropolis. (Apr. 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Commemorated in many a rueful history book after "barbarians" demolished it in the 1960s, New York City's Pennsylvania Station was the visible manifestation of a titanic subterranean project. Its sweeping story, involving engineering challenges, an inflexibly honest corporation leader, flexibly corrupt politicians, and street-level sociology, comes together marvelously in Jonnes' admiring history of the undertaking. It arose from the Pennsylvania Railroad's determination to run its trains directly into Manhattan; in the 1890s, Penn passengers had to alight in New Jersey and board ferries, a scene Jonnes evokes with an excerpt of Penn president Alexander Cassatt's experience of the inconvenience. The main impetus to the enterprise, Cassatt, operating in an era of lightly regulated capitalism, wielded substantial power, and his decisions structure Jonnes' narrative. Cassatt's siting of the station in the city's notorious den of iniquity, the Tenderloin, introduces the outstretched palms of Tammany Hall, while his taste for the classical aesthetic introduces Charles McKim's design of the station. Equally interesting on the technical hazards of the tunnel work, Jonnes has produced an exemplary construction epic. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Destruction of Penn Station
http://www.amazon.com/Destruction-Penn-Station-Barbara-Moore/dp/1891024051/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Review
...grand cathedral-like Pennsylvania Railroad Station was torn down…Moore documented that sad, historically controversial process on large-format black-and-white film. -- Popular Photography, May 2001 --M.R.

Curiously, his most bracing images record the early stages of destruction, when commuters were moving through unfazed… -- The New Yorker, April 9, 2001

The sequence and editing of photos…gives you a strong sense of something almost alive that is slowly dying. -- Paris Photo, Summer 2001 --R.S.

…guaranteed to shock those who’ve only known the station’s undistinguished replacement. Peter Moore’s light-filled paeans to preservation… -- New York Magazine, April 9, 2001

…the loss of the old station was a factor is the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965. -- The New York Times, May 20, 2001

…ultimately, by allowing contemporary viewers to experience freshly that slow-motion tragedy, they illustrate why New Yorker’s sense of loss endures... -- The New York Times Book Review, March 25, 2001 --David W. Dunlap

Product Description
Opened to the public in 1910, McKim, Mead & White's Pennsylvania Station featured a dramatic vaulted glass ceiling over its expansive main concourse and was inspired in part by the Roman Baths of Caracalla, giving visitor and commuter alike an experience of grandeur in entering and leaving the city. The decision in 1962 to replace the old station and its subsequent demolition ultimately proved to be key moments in the birth of the historical preservation movement--a movement that came too late to save Penn Station itself. But during this period one might on any given day of the week, have seen Peter Moore in the station, carefully photographing the building and the process of its destruction, even as above his head--and above the heads of the 200, 000 commuters who transversed the station each day--cranes were beginning to take down what had been one of the grandest public buildings of the 20th century. Moore visited the Station again and again between 1962 and 1966 to document its architectural form as well as the drama of its ''unbuilding.'' The resulting photographs combine compositionally elegant images of architectural form and details with haunting pictures of glass and masonry stripped away from steel girders as the building is progressively demolished.

"Moore's images are permeated with a sense of time and loss. There is a rhythm and flow to them as they unfold, from the arrested, classical quality of the still-intact station to the crescendo of the Dresden-like ruins."--Eric Nash
Clothbound hardcover, 10 x 11 inches, 128 pages, 1 color and 140 duotone illustrations.

and
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SPEC/GAL-PENN.htm
http://www.nypost.com/p/classroom_extra/item_Ol0RomHVBbsgTkFyj5DrfL;jsessionid=8EF25DFFE52BC005A931F1A431172132

[Warpy]

21. I remember being dragged through there when I was a little kid

and barely able to walk, pissed off that my mother wouldn't let me stand and gawk for a while.

[BrklynLiberal]

28. It was a magnificent place.....in so many ways.

Its destruction was truly a tragedy.

[blondeatlast]

30. That's a tragedy. I've never been to New York but am a huge architecture fan--that beauty had it all

That's kind of sickening. I mean, with all due respect, MSG isn't all that special.

Thanks for the link; I have to get that book; beauty!

[BrklynLiberal]

35. No apology necessary. MSG is a piece of crap. An insult to NYers on many levels.

I have "The Late Great Penn Station' and went on the tour with the author. It was heartbreaking.

They are all great books.

When you look at what was there..what we could have in the heart of our city...and how it was so callously destroyed...there really are no words.

[BrklynLiberal]

36. more pics of the original Pennsylvania Railroad Station

at night from above


looking up thru the glass vaulted ceiling


Where carriages unloaded



http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Penn%20Station/penn.html
Between 1910 and 1964, though, a great monument to travel existed on this site. The largest building ever erected for rail travel, Pennsylvania Station, commissioned by Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Cassatt and built by architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, stood between 31st and 33rd Streets and 7th and 8th Avenues -- over eight acres. It was truly a temple of transportation.

With the 277-foot long waiting room designed to resemble the Roman Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Constantine, the grand edifice used 500,000 cubic feet of granite; was supported on 650 steel columns; required the digging of tunnels over 6600 feet long under the Hudson River; required the demolition of over 500 buildings and the removal of over 3,000,000 cubic yards of soil and bedrock. It had a 150-foot ceiling.


This is one of 22 nearly three-ton eagles that appeared on Penn Station's exterior.

...the first of the six stone eagles that guarded the entrance was coaxed from its aerie and lowered to the ground. The captive bird was surrounded by a group of officials wearing hard hats. They clustered about their trophy and smiled for photographers. Once the servants of the sun, symbols of immortality, the stone birds that had perched atop the station now squatted on a city street, penned in by sawhorses as their station came down around them.

In all there were twenty-two eagles crowning the station, each weighing fifty-seven hundred pounds, each given its form by the noted sculptor Adolph A. Weinman...

Two of the stone eagles were rescued and placed outside the new entrance.




In its glory days the floor of Penn Station was laid with thousands of glass bricks like the ones at left, which are still in a baggage area near Track 1.


Possibly the most intriguing find is the discovery of part of an original track indicator in the baggage area near Track 1.

Lorraine Diehl:

With acute attention to detail, the train indicators, placed at the boarding gates, had been specially designed to conform to the ornate fencing that enclosed the platform area. Each indicator stood sixteen feet high and was of cast-iron painted black. The aluminum sign cards, which displayed the name of the train as well as its stops, were painted bright red, the only touch of color in this room of black and grey.




This track indicator has been compromised since its heyday. It only has one face (others had four). The track number appeared in the semicircular area on top. The two numbers on the bottom were used in the departure time.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.powwmedia.com/pennsy/

Live Tour Schedule

While Lorraine Diehl no longer does tours, you can still have a free tour of Pennsylvania Station. Tours take place every fourth Monday of the month at 12:30pm. Meet John Turkeli at the 34th Street Partnership Tourist Info booth in the Main Rotunda of Penn Station to participate.

To take a "virtual" tour, click below.

[snagglepuss]

44. Thanks so much for posting. I had only seen a couple of stunning inside

pictures of Penn Station - never saw a bird's eye let alnoe so many stunning inside shots. I had no idea it was so masssive. How utterly sickening. I can't believe something so magnificant would have been destroyed for a stadium. I can't in anyway understand the mentality of people who saw no value in its perservation. Utter disbelief that this was razed.

[Hannah Bell]

61. criminal. this says it all: "property tax free"

[LostinVA]

26. Main Street Station -- Richmond, VA

http://www.flickr.com/photos/f33/3959745849/in/photostream/






?v=0

[Blue_Tires]

interesting -- i've never been in there before....

[Blue_Tires]

75. interesting -- i've never been in there before....

[Uncle Joe]

27. Union Station in Nashville

This has also been converted to a hotel.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[JCMach1]

31. Antwerpen Central

For me one of the most beautiful...

[Initech]

50. Been there, amazing place.

[JCMach1]

58. It is also plain old-fashioned huge... there are at least two metro lines that pile line on line in

this place. It is actually four or five different layers of rails.

[Blue_Tires]

32. I was in Frankfurt last month

and got plenty of station pics...

[spinbaby]

33. I've been to two of those stations

Frankfurt and Shinagawa. They're both great stations. How I wish we had sane train travel in this country.

[AnArmyVeteran]

41. The one is St Louis is beautiful!

[snagglepuss]

45. Check out Stadelhofen in Zurich.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/Stadelhofen_Railway_Stati.html/cid_2437299.html

[suffragette]

47. I'm fond of Zurich's Hauptbahnhof, mostly because of Nana, the Angel

[me b zola]

48. I a fan of older American train stations

Many were Deco.

[MajorChode]

59. I am too

Unfortunately many of them are being lost to history.

[me b zola]

68. Every time I stumble across one that is abandoned or dying

...I have fantasies of buying it. I can literally feel the lives that have passed through there. Love love love Deco, it seems to add to the human experience. It is as if it breathes itself, for it certainly whispers to me.

[Initech]

49. I've been in the Berlin station. I'd also add LA's Union Station to the list.

[Liberal_in_LA]

53. wow. Love the Marid one

[Warren DeMontague]

64. I know. I'm envisioning some tired old guy with a giant watering can, though.

That's a lot of greenery.

[Omaha Steve]

55. I still remember goiong from Omaha to Southern Indianna in the early 60's

I've loved trains as long as I can remember. I grew up living next to the Chicago & Northwestern. The Florence Depot was in site. So was my dad's plant. Our home (Marta and I) is next to the BNSF main line as it winds through Fontenelle Forest. We are one of only a few that can see the line from our home in our addition. :-)

At one time Omaha had 11 different rail roads. Now the US only has 5 majors left.

K&R!

OS

[alfredo]

56. Union Station Cincinnati Ohio

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ijHWEGnFQwg/SWmWroSvbbI/AAAAAAAACmM/M6l2f7kLdIQ/s400/Cincinnati+Union+Station-4Pierre+Bourdelle.JPG

[rucky]

69. Some fine museums in there, too.

[alfredo]

72. I should go there some time. I live about 70 miles from

the museum.

[OxQQme]

57. 100 year old Portland, Oregon

more links at site: http://www.splintercat.org/UnionStation/UnionStationPhotoTour.html

[Hannah Bell]

60. king street station, seattle: original

phase 1 of renovation to original style:

[Odin2005]

62. OOH! I love the one in Madrid.

One more reason to support High-Speed Rail!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

65. Another old one in disuse and disrepair

Detroit

[Blue_Tires]

76. very grand...

[AtomicKitten]

66. Beautiful photos.

thanks for posting this

K&R

[NYC Liberal]

67. Grand Central here in New York:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

70. It's no longer used as a train station, but the Prime Osborne Center in Jacksonville....

[redwitch]

71. I am loving the photos!

Prettiest thread ever!

[alfredo]

73. Union Station Louisville Ky The L in L&N. Nashville is the N.

I worked this yard back in the mid 60's. Dirty work. Even though the coal powered trains were history, coal dust still remains from the trains carrying coal. After a 16 hour shift, you looked like you just got out of a mine. My family goes way back in the railroad. They had a hand in constructing High Bridge over the Ky River. Other's worked the yard or repaired rail cars.

[tilsammans]

74. Hoboken Station ~ Hoboken, New Jersey

One of my all-time favorite stations! :hi:

[snagglepuss]

78. That's Hoboken? Who'd have thunk it.

Completely gorgeous. Thanks for posting and setting me straight about Hoboken.

[tilsammans]

79. Parts of "Julie & Julia" were filmed at Hoboken Station, but . . .

. . . in the movie, the location was used for stations in Paris and Boston. I don't think Hoboken even got mentioned in the credits! Harumph.

Hoboken also has some of the grandest brownstones in the area.