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

[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]

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

[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

[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[;)]

[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[:(!].

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

In my hometown, there were two. The one in the center of town was torn down in the '60's and was replaced by an Agway store which is now an auto parts store. The other one is at Claremont Junction and was different restaurants for years but is now my place of employment, the Claremont Cycle Depot. http://www.claremontcycle.com will get you our homepage with an external shot of what it looks like today.

Here is a site about stations in New Hampshire. It has a lot of good historical and present-day pictures. http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/newhampshire/

[n2mopac]

I nearly forgot about beautiful old Union Station in Kansas City. When I was a kid in the area it was about ready to fall down. They finally got someone to fund a restoration and turned it into a science museum. It is a beautiful place. Here's a link.

http://www.unionstation.org/index.cfm

Ron

[Anonymous]

In Castlegar, B.C. the former Canadian Pacific station is now a rail museum. Old railroad employees used to - may still do - meet their to have coffee & swap tales.

In Cranbrook, B.C. the Canadian Pacific station is used for crew changes & administration personal.

In New Westminister the old rail station in the late 80's was a Keg & Cleaver resturant. Same for the Canadian National station in South Kamloops just off downtown Kamloops.

[cherokee woman]

Here in Louisville, KY Union Station is now the headquarters for our local transit;
called TARC. It's been their home since the early 70s.

Ironically, several years back, it served as a depot once again, for the ill-fated
Ky. Cardinal from here to Chicago. They had to put a spur line in, since they
had removed all the tracks years ago. So far, they've left the spur in place.

[Anonymous]

In Saskatoon & Vernon, B.C. the former Canadian Pacific stations are now used by small businesses. Some of the old stations on the Prairies are now used as private homes. [^]

[Anonymous]

The depot in my home town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania was a former Reading Railroad Station and used till 1981 and hopefully soon as a depot. Its currently a bank

[trainfan1221]

Ironically, still a train station.

[daveallisonpe]

The former CB&Q Depot in Ottumwa, Iowa now serves as the AMTRAK Depot as well as an inter city bus depot. The second floor of the building houses the Wapello County Historical Society. The Historical Society has a nice, though small, museum. The CMStP&P Sherman Street Depot is long gone. The site is now the location of the Ottumwa Public Works Department. The Rock Island Depot in Oskaloosa, Iowa is a restaurant, while the Rock Island Depot (and rails) in Eldon, Iowa is gone. This town was once a Division Point on the Rock Island main line from Chicago to Kansas City.
[:(]

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a small Southwest Missouri town call Bois D' Arc. If Bois D' Arc ever had an honest to God depot I never saw it or photos of it. However, in the last days of Frisco Bois D' Arc was a flag stop. If you wanted to ride the train then you got the red flag out of the "Depot" (which I am told looked more like a 1 holer outhouse than a depot) and flagged down the train. I am sure from the stories I am told that the occupancy of the so called building was no more than 2 people at any given time. [;)] You bought your ticket on the train, there was no station agent at the outhouse, errr, I mean depot. [:D]


I now live in North Little Rock, Arkansas, as many of you know. The Rock Island Depot still stands and is being used by a government agency of some sort. NLR was originally named, Argenta, and it is Argenta that is engraved into the concrete of the building along with the Rock Island symbol. I am not sure about SSW or MoPac on the NLR side of the river.

Now on the Little Rock side of the river, the most famous use of a depot (in the United States) probally is the old Rock Island Depot. It is now used as part of the Clinton Presidential Library. Here are a few photos during the opening days of construction of the Presidential Library showing the Rock Island Depot.

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?order=byposter&page=2&key=jtrainplanes

The MoPac Depot still stands and is being used as 1.) Amtrak Station, 2.) Restaurant and lounge, and 3.) office space. This is a very good sized building in somewhat good condition.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I am not sure about the SSW Depot. It still stands but is used as a warehouse I think.

[n2mopac]

Having lived in DFW for 6 years, I also love the old Texas & Pacific (later MoPac) station in Fort Worth. It is a massive old building, but the first floor is still used by Amtrack today. I'm not sure what is housed in the rest of the building. Here is a look at it today and in the past.

http://www.texaspacificrailway.org/?p=9&loc=38&cat=13

Ron

[n2mopac]

Sedalia, MO--just 10 miles from me--is home to the beautiful old brick Katy Depot (MKT). This one has been restored and houses the Sedalia Chamber of Commerce, a museum, and a model railroad club with a permanent display layout. Here is a link with pics of the original depot and restored condition.

http://sedaliakatydepot.com/

The tracks of this long abandoned line are now covered over an are the 200+ mile Katy State Park walking/cycling trail.

Sedalia's old MoPac station, now beside the UP main (Sedalia sub) is still in use by Amtrack. It is a simple brick box and not much to look at.

Ron

[vsmith]

Well in LA Union Station is still a station, in fact its a major transit hub, with Jamtrak, commuter trains, light rail, subway, and bus lines all converging there. Its quite a hopping place now compared to 10 years ago, wi***hey would go the next step and reopen the Harvey House restauraunt and find a good use for the old ticket wing, both are still vacant.

In Pasadena where I live, the old SF depot on Raymond was moved to make way for a big ... no, huge apartment/condo complex built over the whole block, but the move was only temporary as they have moved it back and restored it as the centerpiece of the complex and now its back next to the Gold Line Metrorail trolley station which operates along the old SF ROW to downtown

[senshi]

DeKalb, IL CNW depot luckly still here. Used currently as a MOW base. As part of the grand east Lincoln Hwy revitalization project a new MOW base for UP will be built somewhere in the city, I would guess probably somewhere along the Troy Grove Branch nestled in with the new distro centers.

Once the city purchases the depot and move the MOW base the plan is to use a portion of it as some sort of museum, the rest as a transportation center with bus (local and Greyhound) and cabs. Lastly once Metra does decide to grace DeKalb with a stop it will be incorporated within the transportation center. Some of the old buildings (houses and a grain silo) around the depot have been torn down so we have should have room for the required number of parking spots.

[edbenton]

We have 2 here in Streator the old CB&Q is a recycling company but still looks like a depot. The A.T.S.F depot is still were it was built now used by the MOW employees and layover crews until the late 90's also sevred the Southwest Chief.

[Modelcar]

The old depot in my area of southwestern Pennsylvania on the old B&O branch....was a small wooden building and later moved about 10 miles for another use....along a railroad, but then moved back within a mile of where it was originally and completely rebuilt. It is now on Lions Club property in Stoystown and is serving as a railroad historic spot, etc....Very nicely rebuilt, looks like it did when new, or better. Will have period pieces of rail related items inside. Now a historic spot. Depot served on {still in place}, S&C of B&O coal hauler.....and until the early thirty's, passenger trains....several a day...and this was just a 45 mile branch.
Check depot photo on link below:

http://freewebs.com/railroad_related/depots.htm

[Murphy Siding]

The illinois Central Depot accross the street from my office is The Immigration office.[V]

[dldance]

The former UP depot in Brigham City is still in its original location between two tracks. It is currently a museum and meeting place for the Golden Spike Historical Society. It is planned to become the northern terminal of the newly annouced UTA FrontRunner commuter rail service -- but that is at least 10 years away.

dd

[Anonymous]

The old depot on the Q racetrack at Lisle IL was moved and has been restored by the local historical society.

http://www.lisleparkdistrict.org/lspbuildings.htm

I've been curious about why this depot was the only one on the racetrack located on the north/outbound side of the tracks, and I think I've finally found an answer, thanks to a book on how railroads affected the development of the Chicago area. Rather than being a commuter or passenger stop, the depot was used as a milk stop and was located for easier access to the existing plank road. Farmers would bring fresh milk to the depot which would be sent on to Chicago. They would also pick up supplies sent from Chicago. Passenger traffic was minimal until much later and the passenger waiting area of this depot is extremely small.

For Chicago area people, the book is "Chicagoland - City and Suburbs in the Railroad Age" by Ann Keating. The author is a history professor at North Central College in Naperville and the book is the basis for the local PBS series. One section of the book describes the tours and historical places used in that series and includes driving directions.

[blhanel]

Although our address is officially Cedar Rapids, my wife and I are quite fond of Marion, IA, having lived there for many years. In Marion, the former Milwaukee Road depot has long since been torn down, but they did save the roof and use it for the town square park's pavilion. I tried searching for a picture, but none seem to be available here in cyberspace, so I'll have to get out and get a shot and add it later.

[larsend]

During the early 1980s the Union Pacific abandoned the Northern portion of the Blackfoot, Idaho - Makay, ID branch. Shortly thereafter both the Arco, ID and Mackay, ID stations were moved 90 miles to Blackfoot.

At the present time I am helping a lady who recently bought the Arco station, to find out all we can about the historfy of the building. She is thinking about opening a restaurant ing her station.

The local librarys, newspapers and historical societies have little or no information about the stations or the branch. When the snow drifts around here get down to a reasonable size, I intend to see if I can find some oldtimers with information.

Anybody have suggestions as to where to look for information in addition to the UPRR historical society and the UP Museum?

[JoeKoh]

a home for critters now but will be leveled on march 21.
stay safe
Joe