Stations Closed & Vacant since '71

In the derelict stations thread I was pretty surprised to learn of Gary Union Station which saw its last train on May 1, 1971 followed by closure and no further use since then.

How many other examples of stations closed on April 30, 1971 or May 1/2, 1971 (especially of large facilities) are left?

"No further use" includes rentals and/or conversion to non-railroad use. Fascinating stuff to me ...

To give one an idea of just how hard it is to find an example for this topic I took a look in Indiana (always fruitful territory for passenger abandonments) to see if there was another comparable to Gary.

I found Richmond, IN PRR depot which appears to be an A-Day closure only to find out it was just rehabilitated (finally!) last year. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and twice (in separate decades no less) included in the top ten list of Indiana's most endangered historic landmarks.

I am having trouble figuring out the end of passenger service date as it does not appear that PC was running a train on that route in April 1971.

Thoughts?

So here it is ... Penn Central Passenger Timetable effective October 1, 1970 showing #65/66 (former Red Bird/Union) running via Richmond, IN to/from Chicago and Cincinnati. With connecting service (!) to Columbus. Thus we can confidently say that the depot was abandoned on April 30, 1971 with 66 as the last through train departing at 5:10p and the apparently nameless and numberless connecting service departing at 5:20p to Columbus.

Sidney, OH appears to be another "abandoned since Amtrak" candidate. Incredibly the station is still standing, does not appear to have ever been reoccupied and was the subject of a brief but perhaps "yet to be successful" preservation campaign about six years ago.

Final service appears to have been on April 30, 1971 by PC trains #315/316 the former Cleveland Special running to/from Indianapolis and Cleveland. Final departure would have been #315 enroute to Indianapolis at 3:08p.

While some information regarding the former "Big Four" route stations indicates that facilities may have been closed in 1969 there is every reason to believe that in this case at a minimum the platform would still have been used for the final year or so given the fact that there are no other obvious station facilities in town.

Another unfortunate find in Indiana. Plymouth, IN. Depot still standing appears never to have been reoccupied. To double the insult this station actually had pretty decent service right to the very end. PC Manhattan Limited and Pennsylvania Limited, #22/23 and #54/55 respectively both stopped at the station. #54/55 even appears to have had some of the final PC sleepers running through between Chicago and New York.

That being said it appears on further research that Richmond, IN PRR/PC depot likely made it into Amtrak as a station stop for the Spirit of St. Louis which was rebranded (but apparently not rerouted?) as the National Limited in July 1971.

"Inquiring minds" are interested to know just exactly what transpired in this long ago forgotten corner of the national passenger railroad network ...

Reserving the possibility that Amtrak added Plymouth, IN as a stop on the Broadway Limited I remain a bit more confident that Plymouth really has been closed since May 1, 1971.

Clovis NM,last called on by the SFO Chief on A-DAY,at one time a major switching location for pullman sleepers to/from various locations in Tx,
and ,a connecting service(of sorts) to/from Carlsbad NM,then a mixed train to Pecos Tx(was MO PAC,now UP)
Station still stands as a crew change point for T&E crews on the transconn,unknown if the Division offices are in use.
Is a 500 mile train inspection point and does Block swapping of cars.
Belen NM Last called on by the SFO Chief on A-Day,Station used as office space fenced off from the Harvey House,now a town owned Museum .
NMRX uses a platform with shelter,across the Transconn mainlines,was the old Stockyards spur before.
Amarillo Tx,last called on by the SFO Chief,Station building sold off as office space,waiting room and platforms reported to be intact.

The once impressive station building in Pawtucket, RI was closed circa 1960 or so. Although it never saw Amtrak service, New Haven, Penn Central, and later MBTA continued to stop there until the early 80s as platforms remained accessible from the streets above. The station sits atop a fairly sharp curve, and the remnants of the platforms have now been partially demolished due to track realignment and catenary pole installation during the Shore Line electrification project in the 1990s. An attempt was made to list the station on the National Register of Historic Places but nothing came of it and the station remains boarded up and derelict.

A couple of notes ... Clovis was bought and converted into a Model Railroad museum in the '90s. It was apparently a very nice one at that. Ownership has just recently changed hands. Looks to be in good shape.

Amarillo was owned by an auctioneer and has just been bought by the City with a plan to integrate it into their adjacent convention and visitors center. Report indicates that they want to be able to better compete with Lubbock for events.

So that leaves Belen. With the exception of use by the railroad as an office, which I think for the purposes of this thread qualifies as otherwise "vacant", this station has indeed been "empty since Amtrak".

I was guessing that there would be some examples out west but wasn't familiar enough with the territory to know of them right off.

Thanks for the great post ... I think this is an interesting exploration into the economic impact of the demise of passenger service in so many places in 1971. Some have moved on. Others clearly have not.

I don't know when they were closed, but Omaha Union Station had no service after A Day, and the Burlington station was retired in favor of an Amshack since 5-6 were the only service there.

Des Moines IA had no service as of A Day v

Omaha Union Station was closed but very quickly became the Union Pacific Museum and Archives, and now houses the Durham Museum. It is completely intact. The Burlington Station was occupied by Amtrak until 1974 then vacant and eventually bought in the mid 2000's at which point the interior finishings and trim were almost completely removed. It now serves as a broadcast facility for KETV.

I strongly suspect that somewhere between Denver and Chicago on the UPRR there may be a station that closed on "A-Day" never to be used again. I remain pleasantly surprised at just how few examples there are of this phenomenon. A lot of good has been done in the past 20 years to revive these places and put them back in productive commercial use.

The Abilene, KS UP station was reused as a community playhouse.

Several of the UP stations between Kansas City and Denver were eventually demolished.

Mr. O'Keefe, I drove Chicago to Salt Lake City During '10, using US30 instead of 80 X-Neb just to see more of the UP.

By then, this impressive station at North Platte, NE was gone, however Grand Island was standing.

Mr. Norman,

Grand Island surviving station is ex-CB&Q "Burlington Station", now a museum. UP was torn down in 1973.

On the other hand Col. Perkowski's suggestion lead me to Iowa Falls Union Depot which was served by Illinois Central "to the end" and although under restoration has not been reoccupied since (that I could see).

To recap thus far ....

The following stations appear or have been confirmed to have last seen service on A-Day (May 1, 1971 +/-) and have been closed and vacant (railroad use excepted) since then.

Gary Union Station, Gary IN, (NYC/PC, B&O/C&O)
Plymouth Station, Plymouth, IN, (PRR/PC)
Sidney Station, Sidney, OH, (Big 4/NYC/PC)
Iowa Falls Union Depot, Iowa Falls, IA, (IC)
Belen Station, Belen, NM, (ATSF)

Of the railroads that joined Amtrak the following are yet to have an example represented in this list ... BN, CNW, CG (I checked and believe they can be ruled out), MILW, DH, GMO, GTW, LN, MP, NW, NWP (SP), RFP, SCL, SP, UP.

Penn Central seems to have been the "easy" one given the plethora of abandonments in Indiana and Ohio. I will be interested to see what others can be found.