Greetings,

I'm working on a project pertaining to restored small town depots that have been particularly successful. In looking at the vast number of projects out there, the principle is definately successful. I'm looking for specific projects.

God Bless,
Gerald W. Kopiasz
Heartland Railroad Historical Society

hrrhs@aol.com

Gerald,

How do you define successful?

Until later,
Chris Hauf
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum
Owners of the Erie Railroad's Industry, NY depot.

R&GV Railroad Museum

crhauf@frontiernet.net

I'll keep an open mind to this one and let the poster define success at his/her discretion. However, one of the first characteristics that come to mind is operationally self-sufficient at least in the context of the project I'm working on.

God Bless,
Gerald W. Kopiasz

> Gerald,

> How do you define successful?

> Until later,
> Chris Hauf
> Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad
> Museum
> Owners of the Erie Railroad's Industry, NY
> depot.


hrrhs@aol.com

The L&N depot in Bowling Green, Kentucky comes to mind as a sucessful adaptive re-use of a depot. The beautiful limestone structre was badly deteroriated when I was a freshman at Western Kentucky University back in 1998. Then, a local authority that had been created to work on the depot began the restoration. They worked in stages as funding became available. By my junior year, most of the project was complete, and a branch of the library had opened there. There are parts that are still unrestored, but they are sealed from the weather and the building is in overall great shape. Also, the authority acquired an L&N business car, an L&N sleeper and a SP streamlined dinning car and placed them by the platform. I don't know what future plans they have, but it is a lot nicer to look at then when I remember seeing it several years ago. Also, the quality of the restoration was amazing. They put modern restrooms in part of the express/baggage room. The doors and moulding matched that of the rest of the building. Hmm, may have to dig out some photos and write a story on this one for an article.

Toot-Sweet

david.wilkins@inisightbb.com

> Greetings,

> I'm working on a project pertaining to
> restored small town depots that have been
> particularly successful.

The Northern Pacific Railway Museum started in 1989 when a group of people tried to figure out a use for the abandoned 1911 Northern Pacific Depot in Toppenish, WA (small town under 10,000 population). A nonprofit group was formed, and with the assistance of the City of Toppenish, the depot was leased and subsequently purchased with the help of an ISTEA grant. The steam locomotive Great Western 51 was loaned and permission to run on the Washington Central Railroad was obtained. Even though the use of the GW 51 was short, the organization pushed on. When the nearby White Swan branch line went up for abandonment, the group was able to get the state to place the line in its railbanking program with our nonprofit group as the operator. With great trepidation the museum took on the responsibility of freight operations. With tremendous volunteer effort the depot museum has continued to expand and the freight operation became the Toppenish, Simcoe and Western Railroad. A 1930's Northern Pacific freight train is on site and under restoration (NP 1364, 7 cars and caboose). The freight operation which was a sinkhole for money and effort has flourished, and it now is operating as a wholly owned for profit subsidiary of the museum. More detail is available on the website.

Northern Pacific Railway Museum

shearerd@charter.net

Here is a page of information to wade thru.
The Dennison, OH depot is a sucessful restoration housing a museum group and serving a a srating point for rail excursions ... their website does not work however.

http://www.cybrtown.com/~reiterfam/railroads/resto
lamontdc@adelphia.net

Another example of a successfully redeveloped train station is Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was built in 1909 by Southern Railway and used as their main passenger terminal in Chattanooga until 1970. In the early 1970s, the station was purchased by the Chattanooga Choo Choo Corporation and has since been successfully redeveloped as a hotel and tourist facility. One track is still connected to the general rail network and the station is served on weekends in the summertime by trains from the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

awalker2002@comcast.net

The Marietta and North Georgia Narrow Gauge (L&N) depot in Blue Ridge, GA - offices and boarding location for the Blue Ridge Scenic RR.

Branchville, SC - small local museum and venue for various other meetings, etc. Was the junction of the Southern and H&B I think.

No doubt more will come to mind.

dave

> Greetings,

> I'm working on a project pertaining to
> restored small town depots that have been
> particularly successful. In looking at the
> vast number of projects out there, the
> principle is definately successful. I'm
> looking for specific projects.

> God Bless,
> Gerald W. Kopiasz
> Heartland Railroad Historical Society

Gerald:

Wooden depots or brick depots (or does it matter?)

Les Beckman (HVRM)


midlandblb@cs.com

There are several depots that live on robustly in Orange County California:

Fullerton Santa Fe Depot: Amtrak/Metrolink Station
Fullerton Union Pacific Depot: Spaghetti Factory Restaurant
Fullerton Pacific Electric Depot: Il Ghiotto Restaurant
Anaheim Union Pacific Depot: Gov't Daycare facility
Orange SF Depot: Restaurant
there are several others.

It seems that three uses that work in our area: well-run restaurants, transit centers, or Public Use facilities such as Care facilities, gov't offices and the like. I wonder how unique Fullerton (my hometown)is with three restored Depots within 500 yards of eachother.

Riverside, California has two restored and one still standing unrestored all in close proximity.



wyld@sbcglobal.net

> Gerald:

> Wooden depots or brick depots (or does it
> matter?)

> Les Beckman (HVRM)

Doesn't matter.

Thanks,
Gerald

hrrhs@aol.com

> Doesn't matter.

> Thanks,
> Gerald

Gerald:

Here are a couple of successful depot projects in the midwest:

1. DeMotte, Indiana (had been used by a church as a food depository.)

2. Momence, Illinois (had been used for storage by a building supply firm.)

3. Beecher, Illinois (had been used at a local winery which was long out of business and the depot had deteriorated horribly.)

4. Elmont, Kansas (had been used as a hay barn and was about to be burned down before being rescued by a local businessman who has restored it almost singlehandedly.)

All of these are frame (wood) depots and all were in poor shape when the work to restore them was begun. For the record, the first two depots listed were originally Indiana, Illinois & Iowa depots (later New York Central), the Beecher depot is Chicago & Eastern Illinois and the Elmont depot is Rock Island.) There are a number of other successful restorations that I know of, but these stand out for the quality of the work and the fact that the depots were all in poor condition at the start.

midlandblb@cs.com

Thanks for the responses. This helps me out a lot regarding my research.

God Bless,
Gerald W. Kopiasz
Heartland Railroad Historical Society

> Greetings,

> I'm working on a project pertaining to
> restored small town depots that have been
> particularly successful. In looking at the
> vast number of projects out there, the
> principle is definately successful. I'm
> looking for specific projects.

> God Bless,
> Gerald W. Kopiasz
> Heartland Railroad Historical Society


hrrhs@aol.com