Washington DC

Union Station

Inauguration Day

Those of you who are regular followers of this blog (all 1 or 2 of you) will remember that I began these postings with a piece about my "home town depot, Washington DC's Union Station. Today, in honor of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, I wish to return to this station for just a bit.

Since it opened in 1907, Union Station has been the “next-door neighbor” to 25 Inaugurations (today would have been number 26, but on his 4th Inauguration FDR, already showing signs that his condition was terminal, opted to be sworn in at the White House). While some of these Inaugurations have been memorable, others have been less so. For Union Station probably the most memorable Inauguration was the 1953 Ceremony when Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower became President for his 1st term. What made this particular Inauguration memorable actually occurred about 3 weeks before the event.

Starting in 1935, the Pennsylvania Railroad used the engine it became most famous for, the Raymond Loewy-designed GG-1, to pull the majority of its passenger train runs into and out of Union Station. For the most part, the arrivals and departures went unheralded; the GG-1 was, among other things, a very reliable piece of motive power. However, in the early days of January 1953, one of the trains comprising the Pennsylvania’s through service from Boston (via the New Haven Railroad), The Federal, got out of control. The incident started as the consist powered by a GG-1 was coming through the station trackage. As it left the station trackage and came in on Track 16 it was way too fast to stop at the bumper. Instead, it proceeded to crash through the bumper, crash through the “Gate” and roll out on the main concourse floor. Thankfully, an announcement had been made moments prior to this that a train was out of control and persons were advised to flee from the concourse. Luckily, everyone there did just that. Consequently, no one was killed or injured on the concourse floor.

Due to the weight of the engine, the GG-1 stayed on the Concourse only momentarily before the floor gave way and the huge engine crashed down into the baggage room located below the concourse. As I remember it, it did trap a baggage handler or two in there for a few minutes, and I think at least one of them did receive a few scratches, but otherwise, things were fine.

The only problem was Washington DC was getting ready for its version of "The Big Show," the upcoming Inauguration. It was only 3 weeks away. And now, Union Station had no concourse for passengers to use. So the decision was made to install a temporary plywood floor over the concourse and leave the GG-1 IN THE BAGGAGE ROOM until after the “festivities” were over. Accordingly, this was done, and except for a slowing of the baggage service, everything went on as planned. Only a few of the thousands of people coming to town through the station ever paused for a moment to reflect upon the meaning of a plywood floor on the concourse.

And after the crowds were gone, in the cold days of February, the plywood was ripped away and the GG-1 was lifted out (incidentally, it was eventually returned to service by the Pennsy). And then the concourse was re-built for use.

I remember the time well. Being a local, I, along with many others, joined in the inevitable “second-guessing” that occurred as everyone talked about what “they” would have done about the runaway locomotive. The most popular notion put forward by us locals was to question why “they” hadn’t just re-routed the train through the tunnels that led south (I suspect the answer was, in part, if there had a derailment in those tunnels, then things would have really been messed up for all the expected travelers).

In addition, there were some locals who gave pause to the possible terror such a repeat scenario might cause. For example, A. recalls that for several years after the accident, whenever she was in Union Station, particularly when she and her family were riding on the train back to West Virginia, she would always be afraid another train would come crashing through the concourse. Consequently, she was always relieved when she could finally board their train and leave.

Well, that was 1953, and this is 2009, another busy Inauguration Day for Union Station, the station that literally “re-made” a city. Happy Inauguration Day President Obama, treat Union Station and Amtrak well. They are a key to helping our country become what it should be.

Boston Massachusetts

Boston South Station

Boston, in the late 1800’s had as many as 8 different passenger depots. The city officials, recognizing that this was too much of a “good thing” convinced the railroads to consolidate down to two stations. The first to be constructed was Boston North Station, opening in 1894. It was the station designed to serve the “New England Trains,” that is to say, the Boston and Maine. It was soon eclipsed by the structures surrounding it, and today “Boston North Station” is completely engulfed by Boston’s Fleet Center, home of the Basketball Celtics and the Hockey Bruins teams.

Boston’s South Station followed 4 years later, seeing its first revenue passengers pass through its headhouse in September 1898. The Boston South Station was designed to serve the “Northeast Trains,” that is to say the Boston and Albany (later part of the New York Central System), and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad.

As with most passengers stations in America, Boston South Station was at its busiest during World War II. However, 20 years later, the New Haven Railroad, which owned the station through its subsidiary line The Boston Terminal Company, entered bankruptcy and sold the structure to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).

The initial ideas of BRA included demolishing the old structure and erecting a new complex of office development projects. However, in 1972, at the 11th hour, with demolition already started, BRA changed its mind and retained those parts of the station not already gone, mainly its signature headhouse, and decided to re-think its development ideas. The reason, in part, was the fact that America finally had a passenger rail system, Amtrak, and thus the revival of intercity rail became a possibility.

The station was sold by the BRA to the local Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in 1978. Shortly after this transaction, between 1984 and 1990, $195 million was spent to refurbish South Station and make it an “Intermodal” facility including not only intercity passenger trains, and commuter trains, but also inter-city buses, local buses, and a stop on the city’s historic subway system.

The late 1990’s saw Amtrak bring electrification into Boston, thus enabling the fast Acela trains to travel between Boston and Washington DC on a schedule which at this posting calls for a run of 6 ½ hours. Add to these speedy electrics, a complement of “Regional” runs, some through Springfield MA and others through Rhode Island, a daily train to Albany that connects with the New York-Chicago Lake Shore Limited, and commuter trains, to say nothing of all the busses and subway trains, and South Station is once more a busy place. Perhaps not as busy as 1945, but still busy enough to make many realize how close the BRA was to making a fatal city-killing mistake in the late 1960’s.

When Boston South Station was originally built, a coffer dam was constructed to keep the tidal waters of Fort Channel out of the station. Maybe there was a lesson here. Since that time, Boston, in true fashion, continued to “creep in” on Fort Channel with development, culminating with the construction of the infamous Central Artery which carried I-95 though downtown Boston.

In the 1990’s Boston realized that the Central Artery was out-of-date and started a new project intended to replace the Artery, the so-called “Big Dig.” During the planning phase, Rail Passenger advocates lobbied to have a rail connection between Boston’s North Station and Boston’s South Station become part of the project (the tunnel runs right by both stations). They were unsuccessful in their efforts and so even today, travelers coming in from the “Northeast” who desire to travel to “New England” must detrain and either catch a bus at South Station, or take the MTA to North Station where The Downeaster stops (Amtrak recommends if you do this, don’t get off your NE Corridor train at South Station, get off at the Back Bay station and catch the Orange MTA which runs from the 128th station up past Fleet Center and Boston’s North Station).

But remember the coffer dam of 1898? In a final fitting tribute to the shortsightedness of the planners of the Big Dig, it has been reported from time to time, that the new I-95 tunnel project has an awful lot of water being pumped out of it, far more, so it is rumored, than was originally projected. As the actress on the old Margarine commercial used to say: “It’s not NICE to fool with Mother Nature!”