Passenger Trains > Views of Grand Central Terminal in NYC

While on a recent trip to NYC with some friends, I passed through Grand Central Terminal after hopping off the subway enroute to our next destination. Here's a few photos of this beautiful station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/18 21:41 by trainmandan.

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Couple more.

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An American classic!
Great shots!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

All along the New York Central RR route were stations that mimicked Grand Central, or had similar features. Look for them only in books, as they are nothing more but crumbling ruins of the glory days that once were. One can only hope for a partial restoration, but much has already been lost to the ravages of time..... 

After a long day at work with a client in NYC, I often enjoyed coming here for dinner, to "unplug" and to just relax.

Great place. 

Grand Central TERMINAL.

Posted from Android

stash Wrote:
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> Grand Central TERMINAL.
>
> Posted from Android


Darn, I was gonna use it and thought otherwise. My bad!

Yesterday was the anniversary of date the building was saved from the same fate as Penn Station thanks to an effort led by Jackie Kennedy. Interesting they left one small square of stone with years of grime not cleaned in the last restoration to show the difference. It's near the ceiling  in the Concourse. 

A great building with a unique interior.  Walking into the main hall is like walking in to a history exhibit in a fine museum.

Very hard to find a place to sit, and nowhere near the train gates, unless you head to a food court.
Historical waiting room on 42nd Street side is converted to other uses and the remaining bench roped off.  

Terrific views! Thank you.

I was the first Amtrak ticket clerk to work at Grand Central Terminal in the early 80's. I volunteered to work my day off and for a couple of weeks there while Amtrak made arrangements to permanently staff that office. Amtrak assumed staffing for the small group of Amtrak ticket windows, about 4 or 5 if I recall, taking it over from Conrail clerks.   I was working a regular assignment in Pennsylvania Station and no one else wanted the 5 am sign up at Grand Central Terminal on a Sunday morning, so I volunteered for the extra work.  

That morning I took the subway up to GCT from my neighborhood near 23rd and 3rd.  I worked that day, and the two weeks going forward on the special assignment. While I was wearing my Amtrak Ticket Clerk uniform, the clerks from Conrail (mostly former NYC employees) who had not come over to Amtrak as employees, who wore street clothes to work in. I looked rather odd and out of place in their midst. To my recollection, additional Amtrak employees from Pennsylvania Station followed me on later shifts and over the coming month and the following years. The Conrail men and women, who were at least 30 years older than me, elected to remain with Conrail and eventually went on to other clerk assignments keeping with the employer they knew.  While Amtrak had but a small handful of windows, the NY commuter train windows occupied the majority of that former NYC ticket office.

Today, that Amtrak ticket office is gone, as is Amtrak's presence at Grand Central Terminal, from what I understand, as all operations are centered at Pennsylvania Station.

Like Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal was a fun place to work and the clientele was certainly different from the riders and foot traffic you observed at Pennsylvania  Station.

Hubert
 

Back then, all too many of the tradtional ticket windows at GCT had been taken over by Off Track Betting. Very tacky. 
The 42nd Street wating room was a de facto homeless shelter, as was a phone booth area (with every phone book in the country it seemed) at the east end of the concourse. 

A huge, lit Amtrak logo sign hung over the gates to Tracks 23 and 24. You can still see a slight discoloration in the filler material they used to cover the bolt holes where the posts hung. 

jp1822 Wrote: [in part]
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> All along the New York Central RR route were
> stations that mimicked Grand Central, or had
> similar features. Look for them only in books, as
> they are nothing more but crumbling ruins of the
> glory days that once were. 

The grand Utica Union Station, built about the same time, stands today, restored to its beauty.  It is still a union station, has a barbershop, restaurant, and now intermodal facilities as well.  Work is underway to fully restore the adjacent Railway Express Agency buildings for county use and to house the weekly farmer's market during the long, hard winters. 

An elevated pedestrian bridge now connects to the northerly platform, built in a style to match the main building (the original tunnels -- passenger and mail/baggage -- were abandoned because of water infiltration that causes minor flooding and horrible mold.  The tracks/platforms lie on the original location of the Mohawk River which was moved when the station was built, hence the "moist" conditions.  Where the multiple other platforms and tracks once were (serving the NYO&W and the DL&W as well as branch lines of the NYCRR, the paving stones of an outdoor plaza now mimi platforms, rails, and ties in their historic location.


 

thanks, very interesting

Charles Rice
Saint Louis, MO

Don't get to NYC often, but when I do the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal is always a must stoo.

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All along the New York Central RR route were
> stations that mimicked Grand Central, or had
> similar features. Look for them only in books, as
> they are nothing more but crumbling ruins of the
> glory days that once were. 

Just a little way up Metro-North, you can visit and enjoy the same architecture and features at Yonkers and Poughkeepsie, both very much in the GCT mold, and beautiful stations to this day. A visit to Poughkeepsie also includes the bonus of a walk across the Walkway Across The Hudson State Park, the old New Haven Railroad bridge across the Hudson that's been converted to a walkway.