Another Find From the Slide Box I Bought

This image was inside a slide box that I purchased at a thrift shop. An unidentified photographer caught the original ex-Hanover Junction Railroad passenger station in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1960s.

Collection of Robert Farkas

Down at the AC&Y Depot in Copley

Here is a series of image made in Copley, most of which were made on July 10, 2022. The photos feature the restored former Akron, Canton & Youngstown station. Also shown is ex-AC&Y caboose No. 63, which is displayed at the station.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

An Afternoon in Smithville

The Ohio Pioneer Village in Smithville has that town’s original Wheeling & Lake Erie station.

It was moved from next to the tracks to the corner of North Milton and East Main streets.

With it are an ex-Baltimore & Ohio caboose, a few railroad-related artifacts, and a mural depicting old Smithville.

These photos are from the afternoon of Saturday, June 18, 2022. Shown are the south and north ends of the station along with the caboose at the south end.

I also photographed that day more images the ex-B&O caboose and the Smithville mural. I could not find the original roster number for the caboose.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

A Sight to be Seen No More

CSX earlier this month razed the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Deshler, thus making scenes such as this a thing of the past. That said, there probably are thousands of images in railfan photo collections similar to this of a westbound passing the Deshler depot, which was in rough condition then.

This image was made on June 22, 2014, during an Akron Railroad Club longest day outing.

Photograph by Craig Sanders

SEPTA to Rehab 19th Century Depot

The Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvanian Transportation Authority plans to restore the interior of the nation’s oldest surviving passenger station.

Railfan and Railroad magazine reported on its website that SEPTA expects to award a $1.25 million contract to rehabilitate the Shawmont station, located along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia’s Roxborough section.

It is not clear what use will be made of the Greek Revival-style depot, which opened in 1834, after the restoration is completed.

Shawmont was a SEPTA flag stop through the 1990s. It is located adjacent to the Schuykill River Trail and is on the list of Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

For more information, visit https://railfan.com/septa-looks-to-restore-oldest-surviving-passenger-station/

Hamilton Accepts Donation of B&O Depot

The city council of Hamilton, Ohio, voted 5-2 this week to take possession of the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station.

But the building’s fate is far from decided and some council members are opposed to spending city funds to move and preserve the depot that is more than a century old.

Preservation supporters have urged the city to move the building 500 feet away and renovate it into a community and business center.

However, moving the building is estimated to cost $600,000 and the cost of renovating the station and the site on which it would sit has been put at $1.5 million.

“I struggle with the cost to relocate the historic depot,” Hamilton mayor Pat Moeller said. “I really, really struggle with the loss of a historic building that connects Hamilton to Lincoln, Truman and Eisenhower.”

Council member Susan Vaughn argued against spending city funds to move and preserve the building, but seemed open to some sort of city matching donation.

 “We received thousands of signatures on petitions,” she said. “Maybe if each one of those came with a $100 commitment, maybe we would’ve raised $200,000. Maybe that would help with the moving.”

Another council member, Carla Fieher, said the money that might be spent on saving the depot would be better used for other purposes.

Yet mayor Moeller countered that no other building in town has the history the depot has. “We seem to get more and more convenience stores, but less and less historic buildings.”

The council ultimately voted to accept the depot as a donation from owner CSX, which no longer uses the structure located along the Toledo Subdivision.

The council will discuss at its next meeting what to do with the depot it has now agreed to accept.

Hamilton Gets Another Year to Save Depot

Officials in Hamilton will have a little more time to save the city’s former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station.

CSX has agreed to give Hamilton a year to raise money to move the depot to another location.

Officials have discussed moving it two blocks away to a site near the CSX Indianapolis Subdivision.

CSX had indicated that it will raze the historic structure if local officials do not move it off site.

Estimates are moving the station will cost $300,000 and restoration will cost another $300,000.

Michigan Depot Turned Home For Sale

A former railroad station converted to a home in northern Michigan is for sale.

The 2,750-square foot home in Negauee is on the market with an asking price of $324,900.

The former Chicago & North Western depot was converted to a private home in 2001.

Many of its original station-related features have been retained including the ticket windows having been converted into pass-through windows between the kitchen and dining room.

Kentucky City Selling C&O Depot

A Kentucky city is seeking to sell a former Chesapeake & Ohio passenger and freight station that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mt. Sterling said it is seeking sealed bids to buy the depot, which is located on Railroad Street.

The buyer must buy the building and adjacent property, which is less than a third of an acre.

The winner bid will be “conditionally accepted” and the bidder will have six months to submit a proposal for refurbishment of the depot to the city.

Final acceptance will only become effective once the city approves the renovation plan.

More information is available by calling the city at 859-498-8725. Bids are due by Oct. 15.

Mt. Sterling is located on the former C&O Lexington Subdivision, which was abandoned in the mid 1980s.

The station was built in 1910 and active through the 1970s. It was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

New Perspective in Berea

Thousands of photographs of trains have been made in Berea over the years.

Most were probably made from or near the parking lot of the former Big Four depot, which is now a restaurant.

The photographer has stood just south of the CSX tracks to capture trains on those rails or the nearby Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.

I know all about that because I’ve made countless such images.

Recently, though, I found a new angle I hadn’t considered before. I was walking on the bridge carrying Front Street over both railroads.

An eastbound CSX intermodal train came along and the idea came to me in a flash to get the train going past the depot.

Although I had a clear line of sight, there was a row of tall vegetation along the tracks. That hinders the image somewhat, but there was enough of an opening in it to get a reasonably open view of the lead locomotive’s nose.

This is, I believe, train Q020 and it has a distributed power unit toward the middle of the consist.