Great Train Stations

Before jet airliners and Interstate highways, trains were the way to travel long distances. Every small town had a depot, and every major city had a magnificent railroad passenger terminal. Many cities had more than one big station. Some were audacious expressions of corporate power; others were outsized embodiments of civic pride; all were temples of transportation — railroad transportation. In this issue, the 25th in Classic Trains’ series of special editions, we present articles on great stations from past issues of Trains and Classic Trains. More than half were first published in the 1940s — the decade in which, thanks to heavy World War II traffic, many stations experienced their busiest years. We start in Chicago, whose collection of six mainline terminals, unrivalled in North America, helped earn the…

No other city in America has such a fascinating assortment of railroad stations as Chicago, the nation’s “railroad capital.” In its six terminals serving intercity and long-haul trains you’ll find architecture styled when horsecars ran on Clark Street and yet with interiors as modern as tomorrow. Some seem prematurely old, and no two are alike. Four cater to both through and commuter traffic, and two ignore the monthly ticket-holder altogether. To enter some terminals, you walk directly in from the street, but in others it’s a matter of going up or down, and in one case you actually go up and down. No, there is no uniformity to Chicago’s stations, although there is one aspect all have in common: they are served by the “limousines” of the Parmelee Transportation Co.…

North meets South at Washington, D.C. New York City has its Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station; London its Waterloo, Paddington, and other terminals; and Boston its North and South stations. In Washington, our nation’s capital, however, there is only one: Union Station. It neither handles the volume of traffic nor the number of trains that any of the aforementioned examples do, yet Washington Union Station is an important point for five American Class I railroads. Long recognized as the logical dividing line between the North and the South, Washington is a transfer point for many coach passengers. Most important trains carry through Pullmans, largely to and from New York, but train travelers not in Pullmans must change trains at this gateway. Washington Union Station is both a through and…

Los Angeles, fifth largest city in the United States, is served by only three Class I railroads: Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. This in itself is unusual for a city of 1.8 million inhabitants. Even more unusual is that the shortest run made by any train leaving Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal is 60 miles. All but seven trains from LAUPT go at least 470 miles. Moreover, all four Union Pacific trains serving the city are bound for Chicago. Compared with the average American city of a million or more population, Los Angeles is served by a small number of trains, and their ultimate destinations are limited. Further, departure times, like California grapes, come in bunches. Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, largest such railroad facility on the West…

To the millions of Americans who have never seen New York City, Grand Central Terminal is the embodiment of all the glitter and bustle that is the borough of Manhattan. To New Yorkers, “Grand Central” is a utility, yet it is their very own railroad station, the one terminal on Manhattan which has grown up with the island. It is to New York the symbol of the far-flung New York Central System. Seen from 42nd Street, Grand Central Terminal — not “Station,” that is the Post Office facility — might be a disappointment to the bumpkin who gazes upon it for the first time. True, it looks just like the pictures, but it is dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers, and its magnificence does not become apparent until one is inside. Then…

A new city gateway — efficient, thoroughly modern, and attractive — has been added to the ranks of North American railroad facilities with the completion of Canadian National’s Central Station (or Gare Centrale, in the French spoken by much of the local population) in Montreal. The terminal will be used by almost all regular Canadian National trains serving Montreal, as well as by trains of two U.S. railroads, the Rutland and the Central Vermont, a CN subsidiary. Central Station replaces historic Bonaventure Station, which now is used only by troop trains, other special movements, and a limited suburban service. Thus has a dream which has been in the minds of railway and city officials for nearly 50 years been fulfilled. The new terminal, which officially opened to traffic on the…