Nostalgia & History > Then and then and now - Crestline,Oh

A couple images of the very old Union Station in Crestline,Oh built in 1863.
First image from around 1880 - originaly a three story structure. 
The second from the 30's or 40's (photo by B. Lorenz).
This was at the crossing of the PRR Chicago line (right) and the Big Four Route (New York Central).
The small city of Crestline was a major railroad town especially for the PRR - a division point and major shops/roundhouse/yards nearby.
All those windows and rooms in the building, I guess part station, offices and maybe a hotel ?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/25 04:17 by gcm.

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When I stopped by in December 1978 the station was abandoned and down to its bottom floor.
Amtraks Broadway Limited still stopped here and just like in the PRR days changed crews - the main reason it was an Amtrak stop.
Nearby Mansfield with a population of 50,000 - no stop.
The station didn't last much longer and the Broadway along with the Capitol Limited were rerouted to the B&O line in 1990.
The last image is from Google and the overpass showing the open area in the middle where the station was.
It's sad to visit Crestline today especially if you know how busy it once was.
Gary


 

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Thanks for the photos -- and the memories. In the early sixties, I, along with many fellow students, took the Pennsy from Brunnerdale Seminary High School in Canton to points west. (I got off in Gary but had classmates who traveled on to Kansas and even New Mexico by rail.) If memory serves, we took the Manhattan Limited in both directions.  I do recall my first meal in a dining car with a classmate in December 1960. At age 14, we must have looked pretty geeky as we scanned the menu and ordered using  those little pencils. 
I recall the long station stop in Crestline for the crew change. I don't remember much about the staton or environs. That station along with the Gary station (5th and Chase) are now gone. 

First photo:  Notice the two guys with bicycles:  certainly dates to late 1880s or early 1890s.

Second photo:  Looks like a PRR M1.

Great shots from the past, sorry to see the later demise of the Crestline railroad scene.

Great pics and look back, lots to see in those old photos. Sad to see the depot basically decapitated, and all that infrastructure now gone. Wished I could've seen Crestline back in the day, among other places...

JG

As a student at nearby Ashland College, I caught the Broadway at Crestline several times in the early 1970s.  My somewhat fuzzy recollection is that the waiting room was unlocked, unstaffed and unheated.  Not really a comfortable place to wait for a several hours late Broadway (which it often was in those days).  Here's a PC pig train westbound on the Big Four passing the depot in April 1973, and the hand lettered sign on the door to the waiting room: "Beautiful Downtown Crestline, Amtrack Station, Waiting Room, Welcome".

mike woodruff
north platte ne

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Superior examples of the passing of time.
Bob

Wonderful photos, thanks!

Nice PC shot at the station !
Gary