Train Stations

[M.K.]

The ones posted by Muppet in Asia are too big and tremendous complicated that makes me scared, but wonderful stations. Maybe i would get lost in one of them and i do not like those imense places with thousand people going and coming. Well they are interesing. This one of Calatrava in Belgium is wonderful also but seems to me too cold in winter. I like this one in China which seems an old temple. That one in Washington is very nice and clean, an old architecture not more seen for those public buildings, unfortunatly. At first attempt, seemed to me the main station in Milan Italy, also very nice, but not too clean inside like this one in Washington. Beautiful

[Bedhead]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Oh how I'll never forget coming off the METRA at the LaSalle Street Station and seeing the Sears Tower for the first time

Yep, that illustrates my point!! Great pic.

Those Chinese stations are incredible. Those crowds... I think people will look back at what's happening in China now and rank it on a par with the rise of Egyptian civilisation and the colonisation of the new world - and yet I know so little about it. Bizarre.

I'm not so sure that the new stations are such a radical departure from the old. Historic train stations are fronted by amazing edifices made from brick and marble, but for me their most spectacular beauty is in the tracery of the iron/steel train sheds. I think stations like the one in Wuhan draw a lot from this - recreating the awe of the industrial revolution on a 21st century scale.

[Aleks]

Yeah, those Chinese Stations are amazing. I really love them although some feel "too" modern. They don't really seem confusing, I would imagine the architects/engineers came up with a simple system where everything can be accessed easily. I mean, look at those crowds, I'm sure the people who designed them knew it would be better to make something good than work out issues later.

Ultimately I like old stations more. They aren't as big as some of those Chinese stations yet they feel bigger. When you look at one from the outside they look small but once you're inside and every little detail is relieved you feel small and you can't help but admire the beauty.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by fleonzo

I really like Union Station alot although it would be second to Grand Central IMHO.

Grand Central is the only seriously competition IMO. Philly 30th Street is a distant 3rd.

Originally Posted by fleonzo

Can any one tell me the name of the restaruant on the left side when you're coming out?

The restaurants on the two flanks of the Main Hall are "America" and "Thunder Grill".

[Wrightguy0]

Old Penn Station on 8th ave in NYC was a beautiful station

[spyguy]

I've recently started liking Ogilvie more than Union Station in Chicago.

Main entrance on Madison

Thomas Merton
Various shops (Waldenbooks, clothing stores, etc.)

sparkle1103

DAB2084

swyngarden

Brendan Lester
Even though most of the old station no longer exists, you can still get a taste of the old by walking through the skybridge and into 2 N Riverside, which contains more restaurants

Jim Frazier
And exit out onto Riverside Plaza, where you can walk to downtown or catch a water taxi

iwonka
Or head to the old concourse, which is being transformed into more retail including a market, and exit on Canal or Clinton (Green/Pink line)

southie3

[DiamondDog_74]

Originally Posted by Wrightguy0

Old Penn Station on 8th ave in NYC was a beautiful station

That's an understatement!

Her demolition was one of the biggest tragedies in New York, and possibly US history. It was as if New York City cut its nose to spite its face. It was self-mutilation to demolish the grandest of all American train terminals.

But they underestimated her. She was a challenge: it took three years to demolish her. She didn't go without a fight.























The only way New York can atone for the sin of robbing us from experiencing her is by building her replacement: The Moynihan Station.

[DiamondDog_74]

Originally Posted by spyguy

I've recently started liking Ogilvie more than Union Station in Chicago.

This is what Ogilvie looked like when it was the Chicago & Northwestern Terminal.

















To compare, this is what Chicago Union looked like before the train concourse was demolished. We now have bland skyscrapers in its place. Only the main building with the Great Hall remains.





Can anyone explain to me why we destroy beautiful things?

[corn1971]

Colognes central train station, which was heavily damaged in the Second World War, and although it's main building was restored after the war, in the 50s they decided to tear it down and build a gawd awful 50s modernist piece of garbage.


Before WWII

http://www.anicursor.com/koeln_hauptbahnhof.jpg

During the war

http://www.anicursor.com/colpicwar.html#


http://www.anicursor.com/colpicwara.html#

Main building today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...mIBjuybxI8QYgw


Köln HauptBahnhof by corn1971, on Flickr


Köln Bahnhof_1536 by corn1971, on Flickr


Köln Hauptbahnhof_1570 by corn1971, on Flickr


Köln (Cologne) - Hauptbahnhof (Central train station) by jaime.silva, on Flickr

[Bedhead]

Great shots of that train shed! Presumably the part you photographed escaped the modernisation in the 50s.

[Rico Rommheim]

Montreal was the centre of the Canadian railway world. Unlike other major North American cities, Montreal's mighty train companies never co-operated by building a "Union Station", instead by the 1940's, there were two major train stations in downtown: The beautiful Richardsonian Windsor station and the minimalist Central Station, a few steps away.

The Canadian National Railway built a big development around Central Station, which actually obscured the station from view.

Since I discovered it, all squished in between office towers, Central Station has amazed me at how discrete and unimposing it is. Its bizarre mix of art deco and international architectures also stands out.


The front of the station, today completely hidden and rendered inaccessible by a 21-storey hotel.

© Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, © Héritage Montréal

The front. Someone once described the station as looking like a "soviet shoe factory." I concur.

© Dinu Bumbaru, © Héritage Montréal

CN's office developments surrounding the station, circa 1962.

© Ville de Montréal. Gestion de documents et archives (VM94-A-105-6), © Héritage Montréal

The front entrance of the station never seemed pedestrian-friendly. To this day, one only accesses the station from the underground city, or if you prefer, by the "main entrance", which is merely an ugly 4 storey parking garage, you can see this parkade in the previous picture. Its the big white blob.

© Ville de Montréal. Gestion de documents et archives (VM94-A-105-6), © Héritage Montréal

The back of the station, as seen in 1945, before the office complex obscured it from view. Today, this is the only part of the station that can still be seen by the public (though nobody does)

http://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/plaq...ges/11_10b.jpg

For all its uninspired shortcomings on the aesthetic level, The station does have beautiful art deco friezes, showing different scenes of the history of transportation. Though they are in bad shape and virtually ignored by everyone except me, I maintain that they are beautiful.


by dct66 http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com...-montreal.html



by dct66 http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com...-montreal.html



by dct66 http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com...-montreal.html


The Hotel which was built in front of the station wasn't just built in front of it, but literally on it.

by dct66 http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com...-montreal.html

I'll post pictures of the interior later.

[corn1971]

In Stuttgart there is a rather contentious debate over the plans to replace the current main rail station. It is an end station without any pass through. Plans are to sink the tracks and reroute their approach so the trains will be underground and can pass through. Part of this is for the ever on going development of high speed lines, with Stuttgart being along a long needed east west line which would connect to countries on both sides bordering Germany. Some folks aren't happy with these plans and have been regular and sometimes physical protests against it. Whether their position is worthwhile or not is diminished by the fact that plans were in place since the 90s to move forward with such an operation, but it was only when construction was to begin that opposition made itself known.

The existing station

http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/20611792

Which was built between 1914-28

http://www.alt-deutschland.com/Postkarten2.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ba...tgart-2004.jpg

Interior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stgtbahnhof.jpg


http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschla...l-bringen.html

Model of the finished Stuttgart 21 project

http://transpressnz.blogspot.com/201...opment-of.html


http://www.reisenews-online.de/pics/...scher-bahnhof/






One thing I really give Germans credit for, they aren't afraid of taking on big infrastructure projects unlike the US now a days.

[The_Architect]

Toronto's Old Union Station from 1858 (demolished between 1927 and 1931):





Replaced by the current Union Station (1929):









Currently undergoing renovations to the train shed, adding a glass canopy and green roof on the rest of it, as well as an additional concourse level:





Lesser known one, Summerhill-North Station (1916):
Currently an LCBO, as Union Station made it unnecessary.

[Cirrus]

Good thread to revive. Here are some more American stations that I happen to have photographed.


New York Grand Central:



Denver Union:



Boston South:



Richmond Main Street:



Pittsburgh Penn:



Seattle King Street:



Portland Union:



Baltimore Penn:



Philly 30th Street:



Chicago Union:



Nashville Union (no longer in use as a depot):



Cheyenne, WY:



Colorado Springs:



Greensboro, NC:

[photoLith]

Ive always loved small town train stations.


photo by me

This beauty is in Crowley, Louisiana.


This is probably one of the coolest train stations Ive come across, little tiny thing located in the dying village of New Blaine, Arkansas.

[THE BIG APPLE]

Union Station (St. Louis) is awesome.

[corn1971]

I remembering visiting St Louis Union Station in the early 90s not long after it had been turned into the really rather beautiful shopping center it is today.

At one of the old station entrances one of the unintended results of the building design was an acoustic whispering effect which was made use of during the Christmas season. Santa would be situated at the base of one of the entrance way arches, and due to the acoustics the sound would be carried across the arch to the opposite side where parents of a child sitting on Santa's lap could clearly hear what their child told Santa they wanted. One can still try this if they visit the former station.

[corn1971]

Berlin until recently has been a city without a main central station, was always serviced by stations spread out around the city.

Now they have a truly beautiful contemporary designed building which is located apx where Albert Speers would have built that ginormous dome.


http://czech-transport.com/index.php?id=591

Where E-W trains arrive via the elevated platform & N-S trains arrive underground.



http://opentravel.com/blogs/ten-most...lway-stations/


http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/21351950


http://de.urbika.com/projects/view/1...n-hauptbahnhof


http://bingfotos.blogspot.com/2010/0...n-station.html

I find it to be very much a contemporary styling of the 19th century train shed and is a really impressive station to arrive/depart from.

[Cirrus]

I like the inside of Berlin's new station, but the outside is a total yawn. Boy oh boy, a glass box. Yippee.

[THE BIG APPLE]

Most of these are above ground stations, and are beautiful in their own right. But in my opinion the MOST BEAUTIFUL underground train station in HISTORY is the Old City Hall Station in NYC.

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