Passenger Trains > Decay and Functionality Exist at Toledo CUT

I have thing about train stations. Maybe it stems from when my mother would take my sister and I to St. Louis aboard a New York Central passenger train.

The excitement of seeing St. Louis Union Station probably prompted my enduring fascination with passenger trains and railroad stations.The station is, after all, the portal to the train.

I have a particular fondness for large union stations, including images made at those stations after they have passed their prime.

Amtrak still serves some of these stations but in many cases has no need for the level of infrastructure that exists in them. 

Therefore, what exists is a combination of functionality and decay. Such is the case with Central Union Terminal in Toledo, Ohio.

Opened in September 1950, Toledo CUT was one of the last depots of its kind to be constructed in America.

It served passenger trains of the New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio and the Wabash.

Parts of the four-story structure have been remodeled and/or rehabilitated and look good. Yet other parts have been left as they are and look it.

During a recent visit to Toledo CUT to attend a National Train Day festival, I spent some time looking to document the latter.

I didn’t do it to tell a story of decay and deterioration even if that is part of the narrative.

Rather I saw what I did as a form of railroad archeology. What does what has survived tell us about what once was?

I view these images as a way to go back in time and imagine what it must have been like in a previous time when passenger trains played a larger role in America in providing transportation.

Trains still provide a viable transportation option, but the passenger train culture is far different than it was when CUT opened.

Perhaps someday intercity rail passenger service in Toledo will move beyond its current skeletal form and CUT will need to be repurposed to accommodate that.

Infrastructure that looked like it is still the 1950s will get a new look. If so, something will be gained, but something lost at the same time. It is time to enjoy and appreciate the latter while we still have it.
 
Photo 1: The front door and waiting area may have been where passengers spent the most time waiting for trains, but it was the concourse stairway up or down to the tracks that was the gateway to the train itself.  With the exception of the doors at the bottom of steps, everything else that can be seen here probably is original. It is Spartan and functional and few people probably paid much attention to it as they descended to or ascended from the platform. The image, though invites thinking about the countless number of people whose footsteps echoed off the walls and experienced every emotion that you can name depending on their purpose for traveling. For some, this was the last stairway they descended in Toledo.
 
Photo 2: The light fixture may be original, but the signs probably are not. They may be battered, but they seem too contemporary for the early 1950s. The light blue seems to match the color of an Amtrak sign, leading me to conclude that this sign was installed when Amtrak resumed service to Toledo in October 1975 after a nearly four-year absence.
 
Photo 3: I look at this scene and see years of wear and tear as well as neglect and decay. But I also note the wide spaces between the concourse doorways and the concrete support posts at right. It was designed this way for a reason that I can’t fully explain. But with a little imagination I can see passengers cars of the four railroad tenants sitting where tracks have since been removed. I can also see streams of passengers heading for or coming from the doors of the concourse stairways.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/15 03:34 by SDP40F600.

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Photo 4: I was attracted to this image by the tunnel-like effect created by using a telephoto lens. Then I wondered why these cut-outs are here. My best guess is that these alcoves housed the hoses used to put water in passenger cars. Although no longer capable of proving that function, some remnants of the watering system remain, such as hose supports, on-off handles and pipes.
 
Photo 5: A close-up view of one of the alcoves that line up to create the tunnel effect described with the previous image.
 
Photo 6: There is no mistake about the heritage of this sign. It probably was put up when Amtrak resumed service to Toledo on Oct. 31, 1975. That was 40 years ago. Can it have been four decades? It has been and the sign shows it. These signs likely would have been replaced already if Amtrak had more money to spend on image-related matter. But it doesn’t and the signs remain functional so they remain regardless of what message the cracks and faded colors might convey. The most modern touch in this scene is the lightbulb.
 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/15 03:35 by SDP40F600.

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Photo 7: There is much in this view taken from an abandoned street bridge over the tracks just west of the station that conveys the design of Toledo CUT. The rounded trainsheds and concourse building have not changed that much over the years. But the tracks to the three outermost platform islands have long since been removed and the scene has the feel of unneeded infrastructure that no one wants to remove. Will tracks be put back in here again? Will passengers again walk the platform to and from their trains? Those seem to be questions for future generations to answer with the present generations doing just enough to keep this infrastructure in place so that there will be something to work with if intercity passenger rail service makes a significant comeback.
 
Photo 8:  Railroad fairs have a long history in America and National Train Day has given some cities an opportunity to reprise this largely lost event. The crowd of onlookers admires three diesel locomotives that serve three distinct functions with a regional railroad, Class 1 Railroad and the country’s only national rail passenger railroad. When Toledo CUT opened, no one thought to paint locomotives in bright colors with an artist’s rendering to honor the veterans even if World War II was less than a decade behind. No one in the 1950s would have thought to promote the idea of “green” or environmentally friendly machines. If neither NS or Amtrak existed in 1950, the Ann Arbor railroad did, although not with locomotives once owned by Union Pacific, another company that existed in 1950 and which painted its diesels in the Armour Yellow still used today. If the onlookers were to look up, they might take note of the boarded up windows on the second floor of CUT. They probably noticed the crumbled concrete at the end of the platform and that the rusty rails of a station track ends rather abruptly. It is far from what this scene looked like in the 1950s, but is representative of how revival and decay co-exist at Toledo CUT.
 
Photo 9: If I had to give this image a name it would be “glass.” Glass is the dominant element of the Amtrak Sightseer lounge car in the foreground. That glass is a prominent design element of the passenger car and station building is by intent. Amtrak designed the Sightseer lounges to maximize visible outward and upward. The use of glass block windows is more pronounced when viewing the front of the station and was intended to represent one of the city’s major industries. The liberal use of various forms of glass – glass blocks, plate glass, double-glazed and tempered glass – led journalists to refer to the station as the glass palace. Designer Robert Crosbie incorporated square and rectangular edges to create the geometric pattern that can be seen here. The Amtrak Sightseer lounge, by contrast, prominently features curves. 
 

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I always like those curving covered platforms with the graceful ends.  Photo is from Summer 1978.  They have put some money into the building, but somehow feel that Amtrak's downstairs location is a downgrade.  I miss the entrance from the circle drive upstairs and the entrance hallway.  My wife's hometown BTW.  Nice photos and summary!

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Thanks, good views, I only stopped there late at night once and thought best not to do too much exploring, so interesting to see.

Is there any problem going on the platforms at train time.  I saw that old bridge, to the west, didn't know it was highway.
But again, thanks for taking the time.

Bob Jordan

What a beautiful narrative! This is art!

Tor in Eugene

Did you have a chance to enter thru the upper doors from the upper parking lot into the original lobby ?
The Bakelite Murals located around the upper floor are something to behold. 
Another large grouping  of Bakelite Murals done in the same motif are part of the main Toledo Lucas County Public Library.
Last year the upper level was opened used as an exhibition area.
My first visit was in 1968 when the CUT had many more trains.