Nostalgia & History > Amhut

Back in July 1984, Altoona PA was a little on the derelict side. A Rust Belt candidate indeed.

Amtrak joined in by using a famous Amhut for a station. It all seemed to fit,

Here, a Conrail manifest is making the run for the mountain while Amtrak patrons look on. 

---

Reminds me of a story I read somewhere about the old original PRR station in Altoona.  Sometime in the eraly 1960's the mayor and other city officials traveled to Philadelphia to meet with PRR management regarding getting a new replacement station for the then rundown building.  Upon arrival the PRR official inquired if they enjoyed their trip on the train to Philly.  The mayor replied that they had driven.  The PRR man's reply was simply: That is why you will not be getting a new station.  The mayor left empty-handed.

Altoona's previous station was demolished in 1972.  Here is a link to a set of images of this station.  The two photos of the station in white show the station's appearance during its final years.

https://www.west2k.com/papix/altoonaprr.jpg

In October 1986. a mew station was built which was incorporated into a multimodal transportation center with a parking garage, an intercity bus station, and a local transit hub.  Here is a 1997 view of the existing Altoona station platform:

https://west2k.com/papix/altoonaamtrak.jpg