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Stations & Depots


John B

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Port Alberni, British Columbia

The busiest station on Vancouver Island, it sees a short summer season of Alberni Pacific steam-hauled excursions to MacLean Mill, the only working preserved steam-powered sawmill left in Canada. The island's VIA stations currently see no trains at all - and are never likely to again.

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Cowichan station, VIA Rail. The wooden shelter is one of the last of its kind left on the island, not replaced with a VIA glass and log shelter. It has been moved as part of a big tidy-up operation but, ironically, it is never likely to see another passenger train. The track has been allowed to deteriorate so much that service was suspended in April. The likelihood of it ever returning is slim to zero. Closure by stealth, we'd call it in the UK.

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The former C&NW depot for Wheaton IL is a charming and interesting building.

 

It was moved to a spot where it forms part of a children's zoo. I probably have some photos somewhere but Google was not very helpful. This view from a blog on Cosley Zoo is the best I could find online.

 

Predictably a restored caboose is parked nearby, but I can't recall its provenance.

 

Wheaton was the intersection of the C&NW and the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin electric interurban.

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San Diego, still displaying it's Santa Fe parentage proudly..

Another preserved faux-Mission style depot is the Southern Pacific depot in San Antonio, TX.

 

It is now branded as Sunset Station after the SP's Sunset Limited between New Orleans and LA and is available for events/parties.

 

The stained-glass window with the SP logo is quite impressive.

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Santa Fe depot, Grand Canyon, AZ. I took this about 1980, after the Santa Fe had stopped service, but before the Grand Canyon Ry took over.

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I visited the Grand Canyon with my family in the late 1950s, and at that time, a boiler-equipped GP7 brought up coaches and sleepers from a connecting train at Williams Jct. There is a boiler house near the station that as far as I can determine supplied steam heat for the cars overnight:

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When you think about it, this would be a good subject for a UK style branch line terminus layout, especially if you like passenger equipment, though there was freight on the line, too. The Santa Fe ran whole extra sections of its passenger trains chartered by travel agencies, and I'm almost certain they would have run up the line to Grand Canyon.

 

And look at the opportunity you'd have to model the hotels behind the station in reduced-scale low relief.

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If I remember rightly there is a "balloon" type turning loop just aft of the station at GC.

 

Another thing stuck in my mind if you want to model the rim of the Canyon in "N" you'd have to start in the attic of a two story house and then the Colorado River would be in the basement..........

 

And another thing! The GC Railroad is best photoed from the outside as the return journey effectively takes up a whole day (if you are on tight schedule). The best approach to the Grand Canyon (in my view) is to take the road east of Flagstaff (that heads up towards Cameron) - the scenery is far more impressive and interesting.......................

 

Best, Pete.

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The backdrop would be a major challenge, but if you could bring it off, you'd have something. No need to go down to the river, just a suggestion of the opposite rim, with reduced-scale low-relief hotels and trees in front. I'd stick with the Santa Fe diesel period, as I don't believe the balloon loop was there then, just a wye, and you could even get away without the wye if you could tolerate running the GP7 in reverse (or paired). A-B-B-A warbonnets wouldn't need to be turned, either.

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Here are some pictures of the very recent East Gwillimbury GO commuter station (built in the last 10 years).

 

The station building:

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The platform with the ramp for access by those with limited mobility:

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Two views of a platform shelter:

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These photos and more of the station details are in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/23117-craigs-canadian-project/page__st__25

 

Adrian

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Santa Fe depot in Amarillo, TX, now a well-preserved museum and restaurant. Last used for passengers in 1971, though the Southwest Chief detours through Amarillo now and then, and there are periodic noises about permanently rerouting it off Raton Pass.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Here's the answer to the question 'Where is Waldo?'

 

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It's in Florida, and it's still in use. An Amtrak Thruway bus calls once a day in each direction, connecting to the Silver Star:

 

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While these photos aren't of active depots, they do show depots being put to new uses. Here's the old Central of Georgia main station in Savannah, Georgia converted to a visitor center (sic) and museum:

 

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You can see the depot in its original state in the mural inside the visitor center:

 

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In Charleston, South Carolina, the visitor center is also in a converted railroad depot, though this was a freight depot, not a passenger station:

 

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This is close to where the first American-built railroad locomotive (the 'Best Friend of Charleston') ran on the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company in 1830.

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  • 1 month later...

I thought I had added Ringoes NJ already. Part of the PRR in New Jersey from 1871, now the Black River & Western. The station is still in use as part of the heritage line sector of the BR&W:

 

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It looks remarkably similar to a station kit in the Walthers catalogue.

 

The town of Ringoes is named after Johnny Ringo who owned a Pub close by in the Revolutionary period of the USA.

 

Best, Pete.

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