Far be it from me to recommend an Eminem video, especially on this list... but the opening scenes are just striking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgT1AidzRWM&NR=1

Sad. Was that Tiger Stadium being demolished in the video too? The stadium was on the Michigan list of Historic places...

Stephen

PS - turn down the sound, unless you enjoy haphazard phrasing and inane, vapid and insipid "lyrics."

That sure was Tiger Stadium. It was listed on the state register of historic places in 1975 and the National Register in 1989. It sure helps drive the point home that those listings are great to bring attention to historic assets but in the end do nothing to help protect the assets if the owner has no desire to save it.

Kevin

Not to turn this into a generation discussion but what is haphazard and inane? Spend some time listening to ALL music just what interests you, You might find something you wouldn't have noticed... Taste in music is not limited to just when one was young or the genre you primarily listen to, Just like Rail Preservation is not limited to what one remembers in "their" glory days. If we don't appreciate everything's contribution we understand nothing..........Something that took some time to understand myself, and I am YOUNG compared to some.

Two comments ---

The MC station is being used in many movies including a new Transformer one that's currently being filmed.

Tiger Stadium was torn down in two phases -- first was the outfield stands with the stands between third and first base left in place. Second was the rest of it.

The flag pole and a bit of fencing is all that's left

Bob H

If you mourn America's industrial decline, you might find that video quite moving. I saw Detroit and southeastern Michigan for the first time last summer. All that I had read and studied about the decline did not prepare me for the reality of it.

Part of the wanderlust that drives me to seek out abandoned or soon to be abandoned places stems from a notion that I am bearing witness to something monumentally awful. The beauty I find photographing mausoleums of industrial might is not the patterns of rust and discarded materials which initially draw my eye, it's the unseen forces behind them... the decisions, events and twists of fate that lead to these places - and often their people - being discarded.

Rob

Weirdly, MC Depot has acquired a larger following as a ruin than it had as a working train station (not counting railfans and the New York Central System Historical Society). It has become a focus of a weird form of heritage tourism and has become a symbol for the inability to redevelop much of Detroit beyond the few blocks of its downtown (where Detroit's other two depots, GTW's Brush Street and the PM/Wabash/PRR Union were obliterated for redevelopment schemes). The fate of this monumental building is a small but recurring local political issue. It is owned by the firm that owns the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, and which speculates in riverfront and railroad and port land.

For some serious time wasting, check out the www.Detroityes web site for its "Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" photo tour. That site also features a bulletin board where some commenters embrace "urban exploration" of abandoned sites, and others decry trespassing and what they call, "ruin porn." (There I discovered the weirdest thing I've found on the internet yet: four LIRR commuter cars arranged in a fake train wreck last month at the former Packard plant for the "Transformers" movie.)

Aarne Frobom
Eight Mile Road, in the D, Michigan

Ruin Porn has grown dramatically with Flickr becoming a major hub for it. The whole urban exploration movement has been given a big boost by the Internet. I have been to a lot more places because of the easy flow of information, and I would bet that I am not the only RYPN'er with a list of future travel destinations that includes ruins. Someone once lamented to me that the Internet is taking the fun away from these previously secret places. I look at it the other way... the famous ones like MC or the Hasard Cheratte colliery (still on my list to see) get more famous, but it encourages exploration of new places.

I know first-hand of preservation projects, including rail preservation, that have stemmed directly from exploration of abandoned sites.

Indeed, Aarne, the MC depot has acquired a huge following from outside the railroad world. It, along with Buffalo Central Terminal have become icons far beyond their impact in their glory days.

The Transformers movies have been shot at various famous urban exploration sites, which leads me to wonder if one of the executives on the staff is into ruin porn. Transformers 2 was a mini tour of interesting abandoned industrial sites in the mid-Atlantic.


Rob

I am very filmier with Urbexing, because I.... Uh.... Have a friend who is most defiantly not me, who loves to do it. I.... I mean he firmly believes in take only photos and nothing else. This friend even belongs to an urban explorer forum, but has run into problems when people start talking about breaking into property owned by museum that I... I mean he is part of.

If we could "Like" posts on RYPN, I would be doing it now.

KL

Nice to see Buffalo Central Terminal has "friends" and the possibility of long-term preservation.

Stephen

We get rapper videos, we get movies about what amount to toys from Japan, we get an "Atomic Train," we get all kinds of other things, but we still can't seem to get an adaptation of "The General Manager's Story," "One Way to Eldorado," "Life on a Locomotive," "Fiddle Hill," "High Tension," "No Royal Road," "The Long Trains Roll," . . .a next generation "Emperor of the North Pole," "Union Pacific," "Danger Lights,". . .what we get is in a cartoon, like "Polar Express". . .we don't get no respect. . .none at all. . .

(Here's to hoping "Unstoppable" breaks the ice.)

[quote="J(Here's to hoping "Unstoppable" breaks the ice.)[/quote]

Runaway train movie. Auto-fail.

Being that I live only half an hour from the Michigan Central, it is quite sad to see. Driving down Michigan Ave. you see this TALL building standing out of nowhere, looking BEAUTIFUL until you get closer...then you can see all the broken windows, chain link fence and a tree growing on the lower level roof. The owner of the M.C. is Manuel "Matty" Moroun; and a does not lift a finger to take care of it. He can’t do anything to tear it down because it’s a National Historic Building, so he just lets it crumble. It would sure be nice to move the Detroit Amtrak station back to the M.C....maybe even having VIA stop, turn around, and go back to Canada....one can only dream...

Sorry... as a Michigan expat I am biologically predisposed toward an undue tolerance of homeboy artists. Like Eminem. And Nugent. Apparenty, as country songs must lament about your girl or your dawg... rap songs must be self-absorbed whining about the rap business.

The third place seen a lot in the video is the old Studebaker plant. But a lot of it is shot in MC Depot.