This is the S/D American Railroad Stations thread

http://www.mykreeve.net/california/los_angeles/downtown/union_station_by_day.jpg

Spencer Chow and Elvis Telecom to thread! They can speak on it much more thoroughly than I.

(x-post!!!)

search: windsor station (defunct)
destroy: central station (depressing)

Y'know a Southerner would have to ask this question...

http://www.eyrie-productions.com/~gryphon/Worc/union.jpg

(and I'm not really a southerner, btw)

http://arrts-arrchives.com/images/qqpy6.jpg

Detroit's Michigan Central Station

Currently this building has been moved slightly from its original site, and is propped up on blocks waiting re-installation in the vecinity. It will be a commercial building of some kind. The train to the above-pictured LA Union Station just has an outdoor platform here now.

So why do all train stations have the same name?
They're named after the railroad...

http://www.koyote.com/users/whsulliv/unionstation1902.jpg

But sorry, any railroad station that has been irrevocably converted to some use other than being a functioning railroad station is in the "Destroy" category for me. Nashville Union Station is a hotel. The desk clerk works out of the ticket windows, how cute.

Here's what's worse: the train shed, "the longest single-span, gable roof structure constructed in the Unites States" and a designated National Historic Landmark, was allowed to deteriorate by its owners and was knocked down for parking in a particularly noxious bit of log-rolling by the city and private developers.

This business doesn't happen to working train stations. When I say "destroy," I mean "destroy."

Best shot I could find.

http://www.rpmotoring.com/stations/pictures/USA/hoboken.JPG

This business doesn't happen to working train stations.

It happened to Penn Station, New York, didn't it?

I always thought that a Union Station was Americanese for a joint station - one shared by several railway companies' services.

Also, you can absolutely destroy the New Haven version of Union Station. What a complete shithole. Current Penn Station is also quite honestly full of shit but I do actually kind of enjoy the weird chaos and absolute panic they have going on there as an actual system of transportation. I somewhat enjoy their method of waiting until 4 minutes til the train's scheduled departure time for posting the track, resulting in a madhouse of people bumrushing the track, screaming back and forth at each other "14E is this way! This way!" and bowling over small children and old people. I ESPECIALLY love this when the train they are running for is a reserved train ie wtf you will not ever be forced to stand on that train unlike the other 10,000 people at any given time in Penn Station.

I'm actually not being sarcastic. I do wonder how come so many of the Amtrak Northeast Corridor patrons haven't figured out the SECRET and just position themselves by the right track TEN MINUTES earlier than the announcement (hint: NEW YORK IS NONE OF THE TRAINS' ORIGINAL DEPARTURE SITE). I pity the people waiting for NJ Transit there.

Ah, I'm not the only one! Yes, this is a lovely station indeed -- discovered it in recent years when it became my nearest station, after dealing with the charmlessly efficient Irvine station for a while. The Santa Ana one is a bit like a miniature Union Station LA from the outside, nowhere near as tall but the same kind of mission/Mexican-variant style. The inside's not bad either, and they have a great inner courtyard where one waits for the train.

http://snow.prohosting.com/usarail/santaana1.jpg

http://snow.prohosting.com/usarail/santaana2.jpg

http://snow.prohosting.com/usarail/santaana4.jpg

i am glad that there is finally something in the worcester train station. it is very beautiful, but when i was going to school up there, it was empty. are there still only one or two trains that go between worcester and boston on the weekends?

Aaron is Walter Becker and I claim my $5.

(xpost)
ive been outed! dammit! so, how did you all like the last album?

But anyway I am quite used to homeless people, sketchy types, etc being about train stations. I've just never been in a train station, even the godawful New Haven one, with ONLY super sketchy people. The glamorous shops and well made station becomes nothing but a receptacle for really, really unsavory people at night, and the security guards are few and far between. I would think it'd be better at 8am, altho bus stations tend to be more sketchy than train stations.

The broken window in the second pic gives it just the right amount of ambience.Looks like the old station down on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn (from the outside). Speaking of, has that station been hosed down and modernised yet? Can't remember....

Atlantic Ave.'s been under (re)construction since I lived on 4th Ave. in 1997.

Yeah, I get to walk that locker room of a train station every day. I inverted the logic there, oops-- take the trains away from a station and you're weeks away from seeing it converted to a coffee bar or a weekend home.

anyway, i kinda grew to love 30th street station -- between the birds flying overhead while you eat in the food court (with a bar that serves YUENGLING), that WWII statue thing at the 29th street(?) exit, the big-ass xmas tree that GOBSMACKS you when yer coming up from the amtrak platform. and they used to have a mini-exhibit with pictures of all of the old major philadelphia train stations back in the day -- including the old broad street/suburban station and the original reading terminal! (surely, some pix exist on the web.)

including this one of the main concourse:

http://www.chesco.com/~apu/prr/images/30th_skyway.jpg

and that wwII statue:

http://www.chesco.com/~apu/prr/images/30th_statue.jpg

http://www.prrths.com/PRR_Images/broad.jpg

as always, anything hstencil writes, including the initial post starting the thread, is overlooked.

http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/images/Philadelphia/RegionalRail/MarketEast1.jpg

http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/images/Philadelphia/RegionalRail/MarketEast2.jpg

http://personalwebs.myriad.net/lruback/Philly/SEPTA/SEPTA_MarketStEastStation_Philly.jpg

http://personalwebs.myriad.net/lruback/Philly/SEPTA/SEPTA_MarketStStnMural.jpg

the mosaics:

http://www.digitalburn.com/scans/philadelphia/mass-transit/c-market-east-0184.jpg

http://www.digitalburn.com/scans/philadelphia/mass-transit/c-market-east-0183.jpg

i love the philly stop because when travelling between dc and nyc there is enough time to smoke at the philly stop.

and ally's right ... hoboken terminal looks NOTHING like grand central. though it is kinda nice after having been restored.

on one side (31st street?), you get a panoramic view of lovely west philly (and the drexel lion). on the other, the center city skyline (and, at night, the PECO Tower and whoever's advertising a message across it that evening).

When did Hoboken get restored?

(i've seen folks smoking on the amtrak platform at NYC penn station, too, though i dunno if it's legal [dunno if it's legal at 30th street, either, for that matter].)

(i won't pay yer fare, though. i may buy you a coffee or a beer.)

you have to smoke fast though. and somebody has to know that you have to get back on. it generally works better when it is an off-peak time. if nobody is really getting on or off, they still have to wait for 5 minutes, which makes everything a lot easier because the conductor will see you, and you will be able to start the cigarette at the same time you are stepping out of the train.

Dude if there's a Phillies home game involved, me and my girl might be up for one round (and save the return trip for Chinatown bus). Gotta retrieve my Keith Hernandez autograph that I mistakenly left down there!

So, hstencil, were you in Philadelphia long? I guess I should have offered to meet, but I have yet to make any face to face contacts via ILX, and I almost think it's better to just leave it like that.

x-post, oh baseball. I think I'll pass.

Rockist, we were only in town for a night. And you'd like Citizens Bank Park - it is beautiful and nice and they have a thing where you can make your own Philly Phanatic doll! You gotta be into that!

(i had off from work last yom kippur, so on that day i went to take a last look at the vet ... if i had been AWAKE on the day it was imploded, i woulda watched it simulcast on the web -- the phillie phanatic AND greg luzinski did the honors!)

I thought it might have to do with "The Union" i.e. the North, but there are some in the South also .. so why is the railway called "Union" ?

.. but according to wikipedia, caitlin OTM.