What is that old depot in your town used for today?

[frisco1519]

We have two still here in Enid Oklahoma. The old Frisco depot was destroyed years ago along with the roundhouse and most of the yard. The Rock Island depot is still standing but in very poor condition. Several attempts have been made to convert it into a business but all have been abandoned. The Santa Fe Depot was refurbished with a Federal grant and is the Senior Citizens center here. Next door is the Sante Fe freight depot which houses the railroad Museum of Oklahoma. If you ever have a chance to come by this museum please stop by to visit. You will not be disappointed. Here is the website for the museum, http://www.railroadmuseumofoklahoma.org/

[Anonymous]

the milwaukee depot and notheren pacific depot are today used as a news station and the other is used as a concert and bar area.although there still are train tracks running by the np depot,they are used as a dillapidated freight yard tracks for the few ore trains that still run to the local mine.

[Anonymous]

There are quite a few around my area, and 5 in my town alone. The ones that weren't burned down by vandals are either real estate offices or restaurants. One was luckily saved and is now the Chelten Hills Model RR Club. All are former Reading RR stations. I'll get pics posted soon.

[Anonymous]

It is defunct. It used to house a dental clinic from the late '70's to the early '90's. Although, I just recently read that they are planning a $750,000 renovation to it for future passenger rail service.

[myred02]

My depot here in Hopkinsville is used as a meeting place for the Pennyrile Arts Council (Pennyrile being the region of Kentucky that my town is located in), as well as being a popular train watching hotspot. [8D]

[warhammerdriver]

It's used as a day house for the local adult developmentally challenged organization. They came to the local planning board for approval and wanted to wall off the platform. They received a resounding "NO! THOU SHALL NOT!"

The D&H freight house in Whitehall, NY (plans were in MR a few years back) is now a snowmobile/4 wheeler dealer.

[Anonymous]

Here in tropical Fargo, ND...

NP - now the offices of the Fargo Park District and also houses a seniors activity center

GN - a beautiful building that has housed an assortment of failed resturants all using the moniker "GREAT NORTHERN...(insert: bar, resturant, grill, brewery)"

right beside the palatial GN depot is the amtrak depot, erected in the traditional flat-roofed waiting room style architecture.
I always wished Amtrak would buy the GN depot and use the building as intended, but the amount of traffic that originates in Fargo...they would only need one small corner.

[Anonymous]

The Durango Silverton Railroad ticket office and museum. Come ride a
narrow gauge steam train thru the rocky mountains.
Tomas in Durango

[rrgrassi]

In Greenville, TX It still has it's MKT markings, and is now used as a railroad musuem and train store. It does have a state Historical marker. Now if only there was some way to get some stat funding to restore the building. It still has most of it's Western Union telegraph equipment.

[wpsteve]

I just happen to be writing a history of the Depots on the Old Western Pacific Railroad. Below is from the proposed text.

Today little information is readily available about these Depots and Stations. Only nine are know to exist today. Three are private residences, Sunol- Irvington and Pleasant Grove. Two are restaurants, Oroville-Sacramento. One is office spaces, Oakland. One is a women’s shelter, Marysville and Stockton is fighting the elements to just survive, slowly sinking into the ground. The Greenville depot resides in the town park waiting for a determination of its future use.

[emdgp92]

At one time Pittsburgh had a few stations.

B&O: This was used for the PATrain (Pittsburgh-McKeesport commuter service) for a few years until it was discontinued. The small yard was used for car storage. This facility was torn down a few years back when the new Allegheny County jail was built.

PRR: After many years of neglect by PRR, PC, and even Amtrak itself, this station now houses a nice Amtrak facility. The upper floors of the building were converted to high-end apartments. Part of the station's trainshed was torn down, along with part of the concourse. The busway, and a little-used above-surface subway line is there now. At least the station's original dome was saved, along with most of the building's ornamentation...including the huge PRR keystones on the trainshed wall.

P&LE: P&LE ran many of their commuter trains out of here in the 1970s and early '80s. Later, the station itself was made into office space and restaurants. The former freight house has many stores and office space. CSX recently shifted their main tracks away from the complex. There are a few pieces of P&LE rolling stock still down there.

A few former PRR commuter stops still survive as well. However, they are usually in very poor shape. Most of the other stations that were once here have been torn down.

[Anonymous]

We have a model railroad in our old freight station here. Oh wait, thats the club i belong to also. LOL Winchester Model Railroad Club, located in Winchester Virginia. Our show and sale is this saturday March 11th. Come on by and check us out. The layout is open for open house and the sale is just a mile or so away in a local firehouse.

[Jetrock]

Actually, now that I think of it, there are some other depots around here...the Southern Pacific depot, as I mentioned, is still a train station. The Western Pacific depot in Sacramento no longer serves trains, but it does serve spaghetti.

[DigitalGriffin]

I recently discovered that a section of the Ma & Pa (Maryland & Pa) railroad was reopened in Walkersville Maryland (where I grew up). They now have scenic excursions using all kinds of critters. Any way, the depot was in disrepair for a number of years besides an old grain mill. It's nice to see it in use again painting in typical C&O ocre color scheme.

http://www.wsrr.org/ (Warning, site it slow as sap)

[wairoa]

Vandals burnt my hometown station down.[:(!]

[moparman48]

I've stayed at the hotel in Pensacola when it was a Hilton (I believe) the lobby was a refurbished as the original station. It was great, I could see the trais from the window. I always wonder why the Sunset does not stop there.

[waltersrails]

also if my layout staion is a museum and still running a few passengers via amtrak and a special csx train.
http://s3.phpbbforfree.com/forums/midwestrailroad.html great site.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 depots in my hometown of Wausau Wisconsin. The C&NW depot is now a chinese restaurant. The second depot -Milwaukee Road- is the prototype for Walthers Small Town Station and currently serves as offices for the Boy Scouts. It was the depot you would see in the ads for Wausau Insurance Companies that were in print and on 60 Minutes. The third depot is a replica of the Milwaukee depot built by the insurance company on their property. They added a small section of track and a caboose in front just to add a bit of authenticity. Our depots are alive and well.
Mark B.

[Walter Clot]

Loathar, Congrats on the job. The storm knocked us out of the TCRR meeting. I was going to comment on the old Columbia RR station, when I read your message. . It would make a great place for a model RR club. Several of us had discussed it about 2 years ago. $ and time put it on the back burner whick never got lit.
Everytime I need to go across town, I make sure I drive by it.
Walter in Columbia

[Anonymous]

The Felicity terminal of the Bethel-Felicity Railroad (9 miles of track, went out of business in 1933) was still being used by a fuel oil distributer he last time I was in town just like when I was a kid.

The station 4 blocks from my grandparents house, Cincinnati Union Station, is now a museum center, Natural History, Historical Society and Children's Museums. Amtrak stops there 6 times a week (3 east bound trains, 3 west bound trains, now that is service!) You can also now go up to Tower A and watch the yard operations in the large yard that I think belongs to NS.

[Anonymous]

The NYC station in Jamestown, Pa. is now owned and used by a local woodcarver to display and sell his crafts. The tracks through town have be gone a long time. A stone arch over a road is still standing and the local historians campaigned vigorously to keep that memento.

[Anonymous]

My hometown is New Haven,Mo.in east central Mo. along the bank of the Missouri river.The train station in New haven was torn down in the 70's.but in Washington,12 miles down the road,their station and the freight station are still standing.The freight station is a store.The passenger station has been restored and is used by Amtrak and also has a small museum.For a while there was a local model RR club that had a layout upstairs,but not anymore.Theres also a nicely restored caboose next to the station.

[tomikawaTT]

In my current home town, a parking lot for (Waaaaa!!!) 18-wheelers.

In my original home town, the depot I best remember has been nicely refurbished and handles more train movements and more people than ever! (Grand Central Terminal, New York City)

[tatans]

The C.P.R. station (terminal??) in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan came very close to demolition, it is now a Government liquor store, this station is (was) a massive building, clock tower, underground approaches, gardens, restaurant, etc.

[n2mopac]

Ok, I've been looking fot this pic since I started this thread, and I finally found it. This is the old Missouri Pacific Depot in my hometown, Warrensburg, MO along the old (now UP) Sedalia sub in west-central Missouri. The station was added on to twice over the years with the original part being farthest from the camera. The station is built from locally-quarried lime sandstone, matching the Johnson count court house a few blocks to the north and the older buildings on campus at Central Missouri State University a few blocks to the south. It is completely rennovated inside and houses the Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce as well as the Amtrack station.



Ron

[n2mopac]

Here is one more. This "Mercantile Station" was from another small town in Texas and was moved to Saginaw (North Fort Worth) to house the Chamber of Commerce. I think a church even meets in part of it on Sunday mornings.



Ron

[n2mopac]

This isn't a very good pic, but here is the old Santa Fe station in Carrollton, MO. Today it is used for MOW storage, etc by BNSF.



Ron

[Anonymous]

Part of The Dauphin Canadian Northern Railway Station has been converted to a model RR display. I think the rest is office space. This beautiful building was built in 1912, it has been undergoing restoration for the last couple of years. Here's a link.
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p100.html

[bpickering]

The one on the old NP/BN line in my hometown of White Bear Lake, MN, turned into what looks like a relatively nice museum:

http://www.wblareahistoricalsociety.org/Museum.html

Brian Pickering

[Anonymous]

Here in West Michigan we have a few.

The ex GTW one on Grand Rapids Eastern RR in Ada is long gone. Only a patch of weeds shows where it was.

The Grand Rapids C&O station that was on a spur off the CSX Lansing sub is gone the land now houses the Van Andel Arena. Amtrak has since built an Amshack to use instead.

Old C&O Station on the CSX/Marquette Rail Ludington sub is still there, is now a restaraunt I believe.

Depot in Grand Haven along Mid Michigan RR is still there, used for a museum and storage.

Not sure where the PRR station in Grand Rapids was, but if I had to guess I'd say it's gone.