Western Railroad Discussion > The Rio Grande Depot's Final Days

Early in 1999, Amtrak moved away from the beautiful Rio Grande/Western Pacific Salt Lake City depot to a new temporary facility at the 400 South yard, a block to the west. It was just above zero degrees on December 12, 1998, when a few friends set up our tripods to catch Amtrak #5 stopped at the depot for servicing.

In the following year the tracks were removed here to make way for new shorter freeway ramps for the rebuilding of Interstate 15. Such a shame that this glorious depot is without rail service today.

James

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James,

Nice shot. Such is the price of so called "progress."

Amtrak moved into temporary facilities in St. Louis (locally known as the Amshack) back around 1979 or so and they are still there....shame.

Regards,
Burlington John

Today's developers and city engineers have absolutely no concern for history or heritage. The only concern they have is how much the kickback check will be. Even when they pretend to be "concerned citizens" and move to restore a railroad edifice (classic example: The Santa Fe depot in San Bernardino), they make sure the "proper" contractors" get the job, and then make sure their offices will occupy the best location in the building. What it was originally built for is of no consequence.

Thanks, Sir James, for the nice shot. I wondered when Amtrak stopped using that beautiful Rio Grande station. What a shame...

Hi!


> Today's developers and city engineers have
> absolutely no concern for history or heritage.


They are doing what the people want them to do.


Tony Burzio
San Diego, CA

Yes, and Mussolini was the first recipient of The Victoria Cross.

SH:
I don't bash your profession, please don't bash mine. While I am not a city engineer, I am a civil engineer in the consulting business and we work with city and town engineers on a variety of projects. I must say that all have acted in a professional matter. It is not easy trying to manage the infrastructure of any town big or small and keep everyone (politicians, residents etc.)happy while trying to do the right thing and stay within your department's budget.

The developers tend to pressure the politicians with promises of increased tax revenue, increased property values, economic benefits etc. The politicians in turn put the pressure on the engineering and building departments to approve projects.

March 21, 1970, Rio Grande Depot

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Does it make sense to tear down a historic structure such as the SP 3rd & Townsend St. station in San Francisco, for a freeway that never materialized? Later the land to become a trailer park for RV's, then developed into condo's and stores. Sometimes developers are nearsided, granted SP was getting out of the long haul's due to Amtrak's inception, today this is perhaps the one most limiting factor in San Francisco ever getting any sort of Intercity rail service, lack of infrastructure.


kevink Wrote:
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> SH:
> I don't bash your profession, please don't bash
> mine. While I am not a city engineer, I am a civil
> engineer in the consulting business and we work
> with city and town engineers on a variety of
> projects. I must say that all have acted in a
> professional matter. It is not easy trying to
> manage the infrastructure of any town big or small
> and keep everyone (politicians, residents
> etc.)happy while trying to do the right thing and
> stay within your department's budget.
>
> The developers tend to pressure the politicians
> with promises of increased tax revenue, increased
> property values, economic benefits etc. The
> politicians in turn put the pressure on the
> engineering and building departments to approve
> projects.
>

Before we go laying too much guilt on anyone including the SP, there are a couple of things that made that structure far different from the D&RGW depot in SLC.

Third and townsend was originally constructed as a temporary depot for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition in SF. The SP had plans to have the depot relocated to the area directly behind the headquarters at 65 (now #1) Market St.It just never happened.
The right of way to that location existed and had track on it up until about 20 years ago.

The structure itself was basically a lathe and plaster building and how it even was still standing by summer of 1975 was a major feat in itself. The extension of Hiway 280 was not headed directly for the station either. It may have been a landmark, but it was far from some grand old structure. Its decline was more just the passage of time rather than the loss of passenger trains.

In short, any comparison of that building to the SLC depot becomes a basic apples and oranges issue.

I visited Salt Lake City for the first time this May. I arrived on #5 at a "station" in the middle of nowhere. This was not a great way to enter a city, but the cab I called picked me up without too long a wait and soon I was on my way to my hotel.

With respect to the D & RGW station, yes it IS a shame that trains no longer stop there. However, the station is now the headquarters for the Utah State Historical Society. The general public can walk around through much of the building. If you have any interest in railroad station architecture, by all means stop in. Additionally, one wing of the station is occupied by a Mexican food restaurant which served decent lunches.

I also concur with the comments about SP's San Franscisco station in that it was never meant to last as long as it did. While I'm sorry that I never saw the structure, there are still many interesting and attractive old depots on the San Fransico - San Jose commute line. I also feel that the current CalTrain depot is an attractive facility.

Dave

Here's an interior shot of the Rio Grande SLC depot, circa 1950ish. This image was made by my dad, who worked in the relay office that used to be in the north wing on the 2nd story from June 1947 through June 1950. I posted this photo a few minutes ago before I discovered that I had forgotten to re-orient the picture after I had scanned it. After I saw that, I deleted the first postingss of these two images, went into my photo program and got everything straightened out and now I'm reposting these two images.

Con

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Number two.

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I did straighten out the previous images, and I thought that I was reposting them as being rotated 90 degrees, however sometimes compooters do things that aren't according to the same plan or schedule that I'm on. I think that the observation by someone that compooters are of the female gender was an accurate one. I hope that y'all enjoy the sidewise images.

Con

QUOTE:
I am a civil engineer in the consulting business and we work with city and town engineers on a variety of projects. I must say that all have acted in a professional matter.
The developers tend to pressure the politicians with promises of increased tax revenue, increased property values, economic benefits etc. The politicians in turn put the pressure on the engineering and building departments to approve projects.


Try telling that to the people along the river in Fort Worth who are gonna get screwed out of their property for some damn-fool river relocation project. The city has already threatened them with condemnation and says if they don't take the offer (probably a nickel on the dollar) they'll take em to court and let their favorite judge impose a price that will be even lower. Geezus, they really can get away with stealing, all in the name of progress.

The issues around any redevelopment are always complex and one big problem is that the many hands often don't know what they're doing.

Sometimes it is developers that are shortsighted. Sometimes its the public or their officials.

In San Jose, you can now see the 1935 built SP depot beautifully restored. The waiting areas along the tracks have had their covers rebuilt in line with the originals. In all, a wonderfully redeveloped station that has the added bonus of several old industrial buildings having been removed to open up the view of the depot.

On the other hand, the 1920's era Western Pacific freight depot just one block over was knocked down about 3 years ago for condos. The culprit? Many, but the land owner is certainly tops on my list, having openly threatened to torch the building if anyone made a move to get it declared a historic structure, which it most certainly qualified for.

As a professional designer, it galls me a bit when I hear my fellows getting hit with blanket condemnation. Sometimes, everything works, everyone is committed and we get a beautifully restored area that harmonizes with the new stuff around it. Other times, its a pile of horsepucky.

Usually, money drives it all. The WP depot owner wanted BIG BUX. At the Portola Museum, we're striving to save the extremely rare and historic WP Railroad Hospital, but the huge funding required to restore this amazing building may not be available. Hands tied, there may come a time when we have no option but to see it bulldozed.

You want to see things done right? GO to your local planning meetings. Support your local historic groups. And donate to causes that preserve the history that remains.

more than likely would have been destroyed in the loma prieta earthquake anyways, so it i sprobably better that it was torn down when it was. Had it not, there more than likely would have been people in it and they would have been seriously injured.