Galesburg Illinois

The Chicago Burlington and Quincy Depot

This depot, which is still in use by Amtrak, is of uncertain (at least to me) origin. I do not know when it was built. But I do know that the town it serves is a thorough railroad town even in this day and time.

Knox County Illinois, Galesburg is the county seat of Knox County, was founded in 1825 and the first settlers arrived shortly thereafter. Things were put on hold for a while in that area when the last major dispute between the settlers, and those who had been there first, erupted into what became known as The Blackhawk War. This affair was chiefly noted for two things, first, it was the last attempt east of the Mississippi to stop the settlers, and a young man, one A. Lincoln, was elected a Captain of his militia company that was raised to do battle on the side of the settlers.

By 1841 a College, Knox College, was founded and by 1854, the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad arrived. Thereafter, Galesburg became known as a railroad town. Even today, it is the site of the 2nd largest hump classification yard on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

But that is not Galesburg’s only connection to railroading. Galesburg is also the home town of poet, author, Lincoln biographer, and troubadour, Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, in a certain sense, is recognized by many as the “Father of Modern Folk Music.” While Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and The Weavers (and many others) are all credited with the popularizing of this genera of music, Sandburg is often credited with being the first to sing it in public, for a fee.

Prior to Sandburg, if you sang “folk music” you could sing only songs that had been composed by who knows whom before the invention of the printing press. Any song composed since that event, was written down at sometime or the other and thus was not considered a “folk song.” Sandburg changed all that when he started collecting tunes he heard in what he called his “Song Bag.” Sandburg spent part of his young adulthood as a "hobo" who rode the rails. Many of these individuals were musically inclined and sang many songs. Most of these tunes were of uncertain origin and uncertain parentage. Yet, Sandburg wrote them down and then sang them. Not co-incidentally, many, though by no means all, or even a majority, of these songs he collected were either about railroading, had been composed (or were believed to have been composed) by someone on the railroad (often as a work song), or were sung by railroaders. Thus, Galesburg, and not co-incidentally its railroaders gave birth, albeit in a very indirect way, to what we called “Folk Music” today.

The Galesburg Depot is still a very busy place today, with 4 trains a day each way, serving points as distant as Los Angeles and San Francisco California, Denver Colorado, and Quincy Illinois. The town celebrates its continuing railroad heritage each year in September during “Railroad Days.”

Etowah Tennessee

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Depot

The town of Etowah was a creation of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, thus, in the truest sense, it was, and indeed remains, a railroad town. In 1902 the Louisville and Nashville Railroad upgraded their route between Cincinnati OH and Atlanta GA. As part of this upgrade, the route up the Hiwassee River Gorge, complete with the famous Hiwassee Loop lost its status as a mainline (a truly dastardly deed in the eyes of many fans of mountain railroading), and a new Division Headquarters was established in a field of mud that probably took its name from a nearby watercourse, the Etowah River (note, there is some debate about this version of the origin of the town’s name). What is generally agreed is that the word Etowah is the European way of transcribing a Creek word that means “tribe” or “town.”

The station, and the adjacent yards were constructed in 1906. In order to build the yards and station, the railroad had to drain the land and built it up over 3 feet from the original level in an attempt to surmount the mud that covered the area continually. However, mud remained a part of the station’s existence for many years.

Up through the introduction of steel freight and passenger cars, Etowah, and its shops, remained fairly busy. However, with the introduction of steel cars, the L&N decided to phase out Etowah. The first big reduction occurred in 1928. Up until that time, 14 passenger trains a day stopped at this depot.

One day, April 6, 1927, a very special train stopped at Etowah. On that date, according to a report from the era reprinted in the book Murderers’ Row, by G.H. Fleming, a train traveling north carried the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals (the victors of the 1926 World Series over this same Yankee team). It arrived in Etowah 1 hour late (Amtrak is following in a well-worn tradition). Etowah was, and still is, a crew change stop. Thus, the stop that day was scheduled to be a bit longer than was normal for a town of this size. But this stop turned out to be even longer than scheduled.

The Yankee Team on board was the one destined to be called by many the greatest baseball team ever assembled. And their star was none other than Babe Ruth. According to the report in the book, Ruth and some of his buddies were engaged in a poker game when the train arrived in town. This being a railroad town, everyone in town knew who was on the train. Therefore, it is not surprising that according to the printed account everyone in town was at the station except for 4 individuals. It was pouring the rain that day, and of course, the station area was muddy, and so 3 of the 4 absent individuals were still looking for their overshoes. The only other absentee was home in bed with pneumonia.

The mud was up to the shoe tops of the townspeople, but they stood there in the pouring rain and cheered away. They would not let the train leave until they saw their one true hero, Babe Ruth. And so Ruth left the card game, just as he had raised the stakes owing to his strong hand, and went out onto the platform of the car. He smiled at the people and waved and that was enough. The people responded with a loud cheer. That was it, they had seen their hero, and thus the train could leave.

As noted above, the railroad began to began to “downsize” the Etowah shops (and thus the town) the next year, and all passenger service into this station stopped in 1968. In 1977 the L&N no longer needed the depot for any purpose and eventually sold it to the town. It has now been restored and has, among other things, the offices of the town's Chamber of Commerce, and a Museum dedicated to L&N memorabilia on the first floor.

And while it was dry when we were there a few years ago, I understand, the mud still returns every now and then. And while I am sure they are few and far between by now given the passage of years, it would not surprise me to find that there are still those who remember that muddy day Babe Ruth came to town.

Richmond Virginia

The Main Street Station

This station was originally proposed, and plans were developed, in the early 1890’s. At that time Richardson Romanesque Architecture was in fashion. However, due to “economic conditions” (i.e. the famous depression of 1893 and subsequent years), construction on the building was not begun until the spring of 1900. By that time Daniel Burnham had begun his Beaux Arts masterpiece now known as Washington Union Station, and Richardson Romanesque architecture was “out of fashion.” Nevertheless, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, with its headquarters newly relocated to Richmond, spearheaded the building of Main Street Station as originally designed. The Seaboard Airline Railroad, joined with the C&O in the construction efforts.

On November 2, 1901, the first train to officially leave the station was an SAL train bound for Tampa Florida. A C&O Newport News to St. Louis train followed shortly afterwards. And Main Street, located in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond near the beginning of the historic Kanawha and James River Canal, became a busy station for the next 50 years.

But as happened in many other cities and towns in the US, after World War II cars and airplanes became the “preferred” mode of transportation for many people, and Main Street Station declined. Symbolic of this decline was the routing chosen for the Richmond portion of the new North South Atlantic Coast “Speedway,” I-95 (note, don’t laugh, this now congested, slow-moving roadway was once seen as a “Speedway”). The road was built in such a way that piers for the bridge built to carry auto traffic through the area, were constructed cheek by jowl beside Main Street station.

In 1949 a photo in the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper showed Main Street Station surrounded by the bridges of the C&O, SAL, and Southern (down beneath the area). This view later became a popular post card sold in the Richmond area. One can’t help but wonder if some highway engineer, full of an overweening pride that only access to unlimited amounts of project money can give, saw this I-95 routing as a way to take “revenge” for the earlier technology that Main Street represented.

SAL left the station first, choosing to route its trains through the Broad Street Station via a switchback shortly after its construction in the 1930’s. Thus, when I was in college and would take the train home, I would arrive via the C&O at Main Street, and then have to catch a cab, along with all 200 other college students going home on “break,” and dash up to the Broad Street station to continue my journey north.

On October 15, 1975 Amtrak, the inheritor of all passenger train operations, pulled out of Main Street. After that the Main Street Station went through a rather checkered history as a “Mall” of sorts. The problems were many. First there was a devastating fire almost 8 years to the day from when Amtrak pulled out. Second, urban decay became the fate of the entire Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond. Third, through the years there have been a series of high water “events” (call them floods if you will). These events culminated with the waters of Hurricane Agnes washing to first floor of the Main Street Station in August of 1972. At last a floodwall was constructed. But since then, there has been yet one more flood owing to a design flaw in the floodwall. All of these factors contributed to the continuing decline of the Main Street Station.

Finally, in the 1990’s the City of Richmond got involved in the effort to restore the station. They sensed that Main Street Station was the key to any restoration efforts in Shockoe Bottom This was sort of ironic because at one point, after the fire, city officials almost destroyed the tower of the station, considered by many to be the “key” to the whole Richardson Romanesque structure. Their goal at that time was to “save” I-95. However, cooler heads prevailed and the tower stayed and thus the building was intact when the restoration effort finally gathered momentum. Amtrak agreed to work with the city and so, in the fall of 2003 train service returned.

However, even that return was filled with drama. On the day of the Official Grand Re-Opening, officials gathered at Main Street Station to wait for the first Southbound Amtrak NE Corridor Train to arrive. Unfortunately, the train never made it. CSX had a derailment up near Alexandria that completely blocked their North-South Rail line (the old Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad) for the entire day. And so the eagerly awaited NE Corridor train was aborted at Alexandria’s Union Terminal.

But now, the trains come. Currently, it is only those trains heading down to Williamsburg and Newport News. But Richmond would like to have the Florida Trains stop at Main Street as well. Belatedly, the City Officials have discovered that the Staples Mills Station, while it is great in terms of parking your car and “commuting” up the east coast, makes a terrible destination for folks coming into Richmond (I mean, you are greeted by a series of strip malls and fast food places, and that ain’t Richmond).

However, before Florida trains can arrive and depart out of Main Street, massive work to the track both into and out of Main Street, needs to occur. This will take time and money, lots of it. In addition it will take a greater understanding on the part of the freight railroads as to the importance of providing good passenger service as a way of developing greater public support for their enterprise. However, there are those, including yours truly, who believe that one day these two items will be in place. And then Main Street Station can assume its rightful place as a truly beautiful historic gateway into one of our nation’s most historic cities.