Bath, a small city of 9,266 in Maine, is in the middle of renovating our former train station. We expect to have train service again next year... so all that is great.

However, a local fuel company/marina owns the former train shed (and probably freight management office?). The building has been shortened, but is still 170x25 feet. The shed dates (I believe) from the late 1800s.

The company no longer has any significant use for the building. We are looking for creative reuse ideas. The building has much of its interior woodwork intact, tho it needs some roofing and foundation repairs. It sits directly on the Kennebec River, in the shadow of a new bridge. There are plans for a farmer's market and park area between the train station and the train shed, in the vacant area under the new bridge.

Has anyone used a shed such as this for a farmer's market facility? What about other uses... arts/historic/commercial? There is very little land surrounding the building, which abuts a street on the back side and has a small storage yard on the river side... the yard, such as it is, is probably all fill.

Ideas? Any photos of successful projects elsewhere? Thanks!

Brenda, I'm sure can come up with a lot of examples for you, but to do so it would help if you could tell us more about the building.

To me, a train shed is part of a passenger station building--it's the roofed structure with open sides through which the tracks run. From your description, this doesn't sound like your building. Was your building a freight depot with tracks going in it or alongside it, like a warehouse? Was it an engine servicing building with tracks going into it?

Does it appear in this picture? If not, can you point us to one?





With a more accurate idea of the type of building I may be able to select better examples of adaptive reuse for you.

Bath station built 1941, which is being restored. The frieght house in question is considerably older and down the tracks. Story here: http://www.railfan.net/lists/rshsdepot-digest/200406/msg00001.html

The massive trainshed of the Reading Company's Terminal in Philadelphia was renovated into a grand convention center. The track level is above street level, and below the convention center remains a bustling farmer's market that has existed below the trainshed since the construction of the terminal.

The Lexington, MA Historical Society is located within the old trainshed in Lexington center. Nice color image from 1949 at the link below.
http://www.bedforddepot.org/Gallery2.html

Today, a bike/walking path is briefly enveloped by the depot's roof.

Yest it does appear in your photo - it is the long grey building in the foreground next to the river. It does not have tracks anymore...and I believe it is now shorter. I'll send a photo shortly.

After looking at the building more closely to get pictures (which I can't yet upload to this message), I think the tracks always went along side the building (and then freight was unloaded into the building). The 1909 Sanborn map shows the office at the south end of the building.

The train station below was built in 1941; the freight shed is much earlier

The building needs substantial repair to part of its foundation, roof, siding (obvious from the earlier picture). However, I believe it retains some nice interior details from its time of construction that would make it a building with some character. Moreover, it is the only one of its kind left in this area.

Here are some train shed (freight shed) photos from Bath, Maine! Thanks.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeej6tc/

Hi Brenda--

OK, now we're cooking with gas. As you note in the photo gallery, your building is what people in railroading would generally call a frieght shed or freight house rather than a train shed.

A train shed was a big spreading canopy-type roof over the boarding platforms of a passenger station.

A freight house by contrast was a warehouse-like building with tracks alongside it which was used as a hub to load and unload boxcars with "less than carload" or l.c.l. frieght. l.c.l shipments going to specific cities were consolidated at frieght houses until there was enough to fill up a boxcar. At the destination the boxcars were unloaded at the freight house and the contents were sorted for delivery to local recipients by horse and wagon team (or, later, truck). In other words, this was the FedEx or UPS of its day.

Now, about adaptive reuse.

1. Farmer's Markets.

There are a number of examples of railroad structures of various kinds being adapted to house farmer's markets.

A. Jim's Market in Chambersburg, PA, occupies five stalls of an old railroad roundhouse. It was previously located in a freight house in Chambersburg until that sturcture was damanged by fire.

B. A railroad freighthouse has been convereted into a famer's market in Yipsilati, MI. However, this market is presently closed while the city seeks funds for repairs to the structure.

C. In Dayton, OH the National City 2nd Street Public Market is in a former railroad freighthouse

I'm sure there are others.

Frieght houses have also been adapted for myriad other uses. The Southern Railway freight house in Raliegh NC has just been converted into bar and restaurant space. Frieght houses in Wilmington NC provide meeting rooms for a small convention center.

Just type the words "freight house adaptive reuse" into Google and you will come up with dozens of other relevant projects.

Hope this helps.

I believe the Belfast & Moosehead Lake freight shed in Belfast Maine was converted into a little theater or diner theater. I don't suppose there is any reason that it couldn't also be an "Art Cinemaâ€

How do the trains get acrossed the river. Do they still us the old bridge?

-Eric