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

[fuzzybroken]

The old depot in my town is now the Amtrak depot, and will be a Metra depot once we get our commuter service up and running. But that will be a few years! Then of course there's the new depot by the airport, that everybody thinks was too expensive to build -- it's pretty, but sits across the tracks from a junkyard and a construction company!

The old Racine depot has been converted to a bus depot after quite a few years of disuse.

Sturtevant still hangs on, but will likely meet Mr. Wrecking Ball once the new Amtrak depot is built.

[Anonymous]

The UP depot in Salt Lake City is now part of the Gateway shopping center. Part of it is home to the Virgin Megastore, and the north end is now a private club. The main waiting room is open to the public, when it's not being used for some sort of private meeting. A couple of blocks south lies the D&RGW station which is home to a museum and restaurant. Amtrak used the Rio Grande station until moving into a prefab station located one block west of the RG building. As with the UP station, the tracks were removed as they would have passed through the Gateway.

Too bad SLC didn't make the choice to use one of the stations for the soon-to-be "Front Runner" commuter service. I guess that at the time it would have cost too much to bring just one of the stations up to standards necessary for it to be used as an actual train station again. At least the neon signs on both stations still light up at night.

[ShaunCN]

the old grand trunk, CN depot is being used by VIA rail here in Sarnia. The old Pere Marquette, C&O depot is being used by CSX.

[Anonymous]

Fairburn, Georgia: Fairburn has 2 depots one freight one passenger. Both have been restored, one is a lawyers office the other is an antique shop. This line was the old Atlanta and West Point Railroad and today is a busy, busy CSX main.

[espeefoamer]

The Southern Pacific station in Whittier,CA. is now a transit center.[8D] The UP station was bulldozed in the middle of the night[:(!].

[Murphy Siding]

The former Milwaukee Road Depot was a spaghetti restaurant 20 years ago, before it was converted into a half-way house for a mental health center.[xx(]

The Rock Island Depot sits empty. The big insurance company next door bought it, to make sure it didn'r become a wino bar-again![V]

The Great Northern Depot is used by some folks out of Texas-call themselves BNSF[;)]

[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

[n2mopac]

Here is one more. This station was from some other small town in Texas, I can't remember where, 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

[chad thomas]

Well here in San Diego where I live these days the ATSF depot is still in use.

Where I grew up in Alturas on the SP Modoc line the original tracks into town were laid by the Nevada,California and Oregon, the NCO or Narrow Crooked and Onrey. They built a two story brick office and that is in great shape and is currently used by the local Elks Lodge. I have been to several dinner, barbeque and dance functions there in recent years. The building next door to that has a big mural of a NCO steam train plowing through deep snow.

They also built a passenger depot that was donated to the city with the condition that they move it. So they dissasembled the building brick by brick, numbering each brick, and reassembled it to a new location in town. A local garden club uses it and a couple years ago a friend of mine was hired to paint the interior. Both interior and exterior are kept in excellent condition.

The SP also built a freight house when they built the line to K-Falls. When I was a teen it was used by a local liquer store to store liquer. It was broken into all the time by local teens and indians. They finaly tore it down several years ago and recently A&K used that spur to haul off the rails from the abandoned portion of the Modoc line.
I have a pic of of the freight house.

[n2mopac]

Ok, I've been looking fot these pics since I started this thread, and I finally found them. 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

[Anonymous]

In my hometown the depot is next to the Maritime Museum which wants to renovate it to add more maritime exhibits perhaps. I can't imagine anyone in my town allowing it to be demolished. Personally I think it would make a great Microbrewery which my town doesn't have yet. At present it sits empty though the lights inside still light up at night.

[Anonymous]

The old Wabash (now NS) depot here in the thriving metropolis of Clifton Hill, Mo...Pop. 124...is our City Hall.

When I lived in MN, I got to Red Wing now and then. The old CGW depot there is now a Hardees, and has some railroad memorabilia displayed there.

jonesey

[Anonymous]

The RR Station in Ocala, FL is no longer used by Amtrak. It's now the Greyhound Bus Station, and also houses a "hot dog" restaurant.

Someone on here posted about the Marion, IA station. I lived in Cedar Rapids briefly, and recall a late 1968 trip I took on the Milwaukee Road to and from Chicago from Marion.


Ocala Mike

[coborn35]

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL, the depot in my city is being used as a home for the LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSEUM, AND the railroad it operates, the Duluth and Northshore Scenic Railroad, which is normally just called the North Shore Scenic Railroad.

[eolafan]

Our town of Aurora, IL has two stations...the old station (once a CB&Q station and division offices) is now vacant and very large...we hope the city of Aurora will find a suitable use for it some day soon...the other is the new station which is housed in the former CB&Q roundhouse building which also has shops and a pretty good restaurant. The station in the next town down the main line, Naperville (also formerly CB&Q), is used as the Metra and Amtrak station and is extremely busy. Whoops, I forgot the station inbetween the two at Route 59 which serves only Metra and is kind of a cross between a bus station type building and an Amshack...it is one of the busiest on the BNSF Metra line and one of the busiest on all of Metra.

[Anonymous]

Here in Nampa it is the county's musem.

[blhanel]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Ocala Mike


Someone on here posted about the Marion, IA station. I lived in Cedar Rapids briefly, and recall a late 1968 trip I took on the Milwaukee Road to and from Chicago from Marion.

I moved here from Minnesota back in 1974- missed seeing that passenger service by a couple of years, I think they discontinued it in 1971, IIRC. My wife has taken that trip, though...

[tatans]

Try this for a treat: www.trainstation.ca

[Anonymous]

Just in the last couple of weeks we've had the old freight depot in Flatonia moved downtown to the railpark. That's basically step one in a process where the Railpark Association hopes to turn the depot into a museum. Some of that is still up in the air, but I guess ya gotta take one step at a time. We were just glad to save it (we only had till Feb 28 to have it moved). It looks good right by the tracks too, like it's always belonged there.

m

[samfp1943]

Here in Southeast Kansas there are more abandoned railroad properties than I would have imagined..In Parsons, the Big Katy Station was the victim of a large fire in the 1950's that destroyed what had also been the offices of the Katy Railroad, before it was moved to St. Louis. But about twenty miles away in Cherryvale, Ks there is a beautiful example of a masonry and brick Santa Fe station, that is in good repair and is the office for the SkOL RR [ a WATCO Co],and the Cherryvale Model RR Club.

http://www.leatherockhotel.com/railhist.htm

The link has many interesting details and some photos of both the Santa Fe station as well as the Frisco station which was demolished some time ago.. Quite a bit of area railroad history and many interesting links to follow also. The Leatherrock Hotel would be of interest to railfans as they mention having quite a bit of memorabilia to show. I found these and others while doing on-line research for a project for one of my classes.
Hope some of you will find this of interest.
Sam

[Anonymous]

The old Union Pacific Union Station in Omaha is now the Western Heritage Museum. I'ts a great museum that brings in national exhibits on the first floor. On the track level is the history of Omaha. They even have static displays of a steam engine and coach. Directly south of the tracks from the UP station is an abandoned Burlington Station. Both BNSF and UP have their main lines between these stations. The Burlington Station has major plans for renovations which will include condos, a spa, office space, and a restaurant that overlooks the busy rail lines (a railfan's dream for sure!) The Amtrak depot sits right next to the Burlington Depot. In fact, the Amtrak platform is the old Burlington platform. Check it out here:
www.ontrackdevelopment.com

[gradyo54]

I live in Monticello Il. We are lucky enough to have two old Depots, Illinois Central depot, built in 1919 at Deland Il. was moved to the site of the Monticello Railway museum and is used for a gift shop and Dispatchers office for the tourist railway, In downtown Monticello round trips depart from the 1899 Wabash depot, it also houses the Monticello Chamber of Commerce. Both are in excellent condition. The Museum is located just off I 72 half way between Champaign and Decatur Il. and is open from May to Nov. on weekends they have a web site, www.prairienet.org/mrm/homepage.html. Gradyo54

[miniwyo]

Well theese days the passenger depot is owned by the city and is used as a community center thing, you can rent it for things, and the REA / Freight depot is now owned by a company called Bunning Transfer. They store expensive things in the freight house, while the REA depot is now occupied by the Bitter Creek and Western Model Railway. The Freight depot is built directly over the old entrance to the No. 1 Coal mine in 1917 and was used until 1975.

[mudchicken]

At La Junta, CO the La Junta depot soldiers on as a railroad office & Amshack. There are four timber depots from surrounding communities (Cheraw, Keesee and Hasty plus Thatcher) that are now 3 residences plus an office for a storage yard.

A similar collection of 3 Santa Fe timber depots is a bakery in Hugoton, KS.

The Pritchett, CO depot is now a county garage in Springfield, CO. (Springfield's depot burned in 1986)

Lamar, CO; Holly, CO; Manzanola;CO; Fowler, CO; Rocky Ford, CO and Las Animas, CO (all brick depots) are all now munincipal offices.

[Anonymous]

It is still used as the Local Metra Commuter Station re-built in 1947 after a Train Derailed into the station.

[Anonymous]

The ex-CNW station here in Fond du Lac WI was renovated by the city, and then leased to a furniture store for about 5 years. It now houses a flea market/second hand store.

[Kevin C. Smith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

At La Junta, CO the La Junta depot soldiers on as a railroad office & Amshack. There are four timber depots from surrounding communities (Cheraw, Keesee and Hasty plus Thatcher) that are now 3 residences plus an office for a storage yard.

A similar collection of 3 Santa Fe timber depots is a bakery in Hugoton, KS.

The Pritchett, CO depot is now a county garage in Springfield, CO. (Springfield's depot burned in 1986)

Lamar, CO; Holly, CO; Manzanola;CO; Fowler, CO; Rocky Ford, CO and Las Animas, CO (all brick depots) are all now munincipal offices.

What is the status of the D&RGW Grand Junction depot? Over the past few years it appears to be undergoing some restoration/preservation but very slowly (probably a volunteer effort?). What is the outlook when the job is finally finished? Amtrak depot (if it's still around)?

[Anonymous]

My hometown of Guilford, Connecticut, had a neat suburban station that I believe was built in the late 1800's or early 1900's. It pretty much followed the ups and downs of the NYNY&H RR; it was closed in 1968 when Penn Central took over. As I recall, the station was then taken over by a marine repair shop and then was torn down sometime between 1980 and now. What is interesting is that passenger service has come back to Guilford- three trains a day, which is about the highest amount of service Guilford has ever seen. The stop has been rebuilt as one of those ubiquitous bus stop type platforms. I was interested to see that the warning lines for passengers were about six inches back from the edge of the platform- and that there were signs saying that high speed trains went through the station (the Acela service goes through town, alledgedly at one of it's highest speed points.)
When they tore the station down, they left what appears to be an ancient water tower there. I'm not sure how old that is, but the exterior shell, made of brick, hasn't fallen apart.

Erik

[n2mopac]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I have enjoyed reading about and seeing your local old depots. I had not idea that this topic would get 3 pages of responses here and 4 on the MR forum--but I guess everyone likes to tell about their old rail structures. This thanks does not mean to stop posting.

Ron

[Flint Hills Tex]

I was born in Allentown, PA, where the old victorian depot was (if I'm not mistaken) served by an affiliate of the Central of NJ, the Allentown Terminal Ry. As a child, I remember peering through the boarded up windows of the abandoned building. During the '80s it was oppulently refurbished and served as a railroad themed restaurant. I do not know as what it serves today.

In Dinkelsbuehl, Bavaria, Germany, where I now live, the railroad has been out of passenger service since 1985, despite adequate ridership, as the still present station agent assured me in 1992! Freight service ended in the early '90s. At first, the station was rented to the local model railroaders' club, but they were evicted when the line and all real estate was sold by the German Railway. The building was later acquired by a local real-estate mogul, who rents out the upper two floors as low income housing. The ground floor is boarded up and empty. Local and regional bus service still stops at platforms streetside, and the town even invested in a new park & ride parking lot.

While the town council is plying the state government for funds to reactivate passenger service, most people are rather pessimistic about those prospects. At least the Bavarian Railroad Museum at Noerdlingen runs excursion steam trains on 5 weekends a year to the station, so the platform, crossing signals, the runaround track and a few other vestiges of the line remain in working order. For recent and historic pictures, click onto the following link (German language only, sorry): www.woernitz-franken.de/