Train Stations & Train Depots?

[hf1001]

What is the difference between a train station and a train depot? Is there any?

[AgentKid]

As I understand it "station" is originally a British term for stops along the canal systems there that predated the railways, and was adopted for railway use. It could be considered the standard term for such a thing in Canada.

"Depot" is French in origin and is in fact a technically more accurate name for the thing under discusssion. Depot seems to me to be the more common American term, although I am looking at the subject from Canada

AgentKid

 

[cacole]

I think one distinction was that if it served more than one railroad, it was a station and if it was built by and for a single railroad, it was a depot.  I consider a depot to be smaller than a station.  The term station is used mostly when referring to a larger city and its Union Station.

[dehusman]

Nothing, only semantics.

There is a difference between a "station" and a depot when you get technical.  A station is a place, a depot is a building.  The minimum requirements for a "station" is a sign with the station name on it.  Just a post and a sign (and listed in the timetable) and you have a station.

Dave H.

[CShaveRR]

Ahem!

"Down at the control point, early in the morning..."

Seriously, I think Dave has it right, and his distinction should be accepted by most writers.  Spoken colloquialisms, old habits, local lore, etc., may cause differences.

[Modelcar]

....As in Pennsylvania Station {the "former" fabulous one in NYC}....or Union Station of Chicago....Both rather sizeable.

[CShaveRR]

Point taken, Quentin--I've never heard "depot" used in the formal name of any such building that has one.  I have heard the C&NW terminal in Chicago referred to as the depot by fellow employees, but most of the time we just say "Downtown".

[tree68]

I've seen no end of "Depot Streets", but I can't recall ever seeing a "Station Street."

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

....As in Pennsylvania Station {the "former" fabulous one in NYC}....or Union Station of Chicago....Both rather sizeable.

Also consider St. Paul Union Depot and Fort Street Union Depot (Detroit).  Neither was exactly a hole in the wall.

[Mookie]

Here in Lincoln, the CBQ stopped at the "depot".  Now it is BNSF, Amtrak only and since Lincoln wants to develop the area around the old "depot" it is called Lincoln "Station".  Guess you can have it both ways!

[ButchKnouse]

I thought that the Station is where the passengers got on and off and the Depot is where they loaded and unloaded the small "less than boxcar" shipments of freight back in the old days before trucking got big.

That was the setup in Huron, South Dakota. The station was on the south side of the tracks west of Dakota Avenue and the depot was directly across on the east side.

[inch53]

The way I'd learned it, was a station handled either all passenger or freight and not both. A depot handled both.

inch

[Namerifrats]

I thought that Stations were passenger, and Depots were freight.

[sunbeam]

As mentioned earlier by Dave, rulebooks define a 'station' as a place on a main track designated by name in the timetable. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a building or structure. There could be a building referred to as a 'depot' or 'station' at such a place, but if it's not in the timetable, it's not really a station. This is a very important distinction in TWC.