• Lockport passenger train station restoration ?

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

  by videobruce
 
I'm surprised no one here posted this;

I stumbled across a news article on WKBW (which I don't normally watch their news, I was just 'passing by') about the remains of this brick train station I wasn't even aware of it existing;
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/ni ... on-station

Other than whats in the article, what does anyone know about this guy and the station which is basically a brick wall shell with no roof?? It surely looked like such a nice building (as all of them were), it's too bad it wound up like this not that this isn't any different than all the other Depots that have been town down. :(

It looks like it surely needs far more than $250k to bring it back.
  by BR&P
 
videobruce wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 8:39 am It looks like it surely needs far more than $250k to bring it back.
It says he has put that much of his own into it already. Probably he has backers with even deeper pockets. I could see it easily taking several million to do the job but that's just a wild guess.
  by videobruce
 
I was guessing $2M, especially since there is almost nothing left of the structure, then add the utilities, floor and reinforcing the brick skeleton.
I can't imagine coming up with that coin especially since there is little to support any 'passenger' service except for those Autumn rides.
  by BR&P
 
I know nothing about the owner and his plans, nor the floor plan. If I were doing it I'd look for a full-time tenant(s) in part of the place, and keep part of it for excursion patrons. There have been ventures combining a full-time restaurant with dinner trains or excursions for example.

The project will probably require some degree of compromise from the original. Unless someone is in the stratosphere with their net worth, I can't see it being viable as a stand-alone passenger station only.
  by videobruce
 
I'm not familiar with that part of the city, but that would be the logical re-use for the building. I was thinking of a museum of some kind, thou there is some competition with Medina.
Of course, if one is really in the "stratosphere", it could be a nice residence. :wink:
  by DGC-24711
 
BR&P wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 9:37 am I know nothing about the owner and his plans, nor the floor plan. If I were doing it I'd look for a full-time tenant(s) in part of the place, and keep part of it for excursion patrons. There have been ventures combining a full-time restaurant with dinner trains or excursions for example.
If one use of it is a passenger shelter for excursions and the new Lockport starting point is now east of the bridge over the canal, the part that gets the ooohs and ahhhhs from the passengers.
  by BR&P
 
An excursion could pull west across the bridge and then shove east to unload, providing a grand finale at the return.
  by DGC-24711
 
BR&P wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2024 8:33 pm An excursion could pull west across the bridge and then shove east to unload, providing a grand finale at the return.
yeah good point. We rode on the Buffalo Southern a couple autumns ago, and it went from the station in Eden south to the 18 Mile Creek bridge for phots and the ooohs and ahhhs then back north past the station to Zittles in Hamburg.
  by DGC-24711
 
Walked past it Saturday (10/19), coming back from the farmers market and I could hear the RS32's blare, so I kept near the tracks. As I walked towards the station hull, I could tell the area was clean and bricks within the fence around it were neatly stacked. Then I saw this sign hung on the wall. http://www.newyorkcentraltrainstation.org
Cool photo of the NYC engine on that site (ALCO RS3) and the multiple tracks makes me think if they wanted to use it as a on/off point for excursion rides, at least a runaround track would have to be installed.
20241019_140614.jpg
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  by videobruce
 
Another building that shouldn't of gotten to this state.
But, there is plenty of money to build high end condos and corporate towers.
  by DGC-24711
 
My guess is that it was easy to disregard as it is not on a main drag. A former grocery store became an ice arena, and another grocery store in that pocket of the city has been shuttered since it closed. And a factory that used to stand at the end of Washburn on the north side of the tracks no longer does.
  by videobruce
 
As usual, the poorer part of the city suffers. The town of Lockport and the county of Niagara doesn't care.