Passenger Trains > North American Railway Stations Final Part - a Day Early

I've finally run out of digital station photos. Since I'll be away for a week, I'm presenting the last two stations now.  First is Winnipeg's former CN Station....built as Union Station.  It's still in use by VIA Rail serving the Canadian and Hudson Bay. Future plans include the addition of light rail. There's a small railway museum located at track level. For anyone laying over on the Canadian, there are two things i've done that are close by. Out the front door is the Fort Gary Hotel...a former CN facality. Interesting it was built so far from the station...about 2 blocks to the west as many Canadian railway hotels were either attached or above. They have a nice bar to kill off the hour or more wait while the Canadian is being serviced.  Out the back door to the right is The Forks. A market, shopping and entertainmnet center built on the site of the former coach yards. Some of those buildings still exist. There's even a skating rink that in Winnipeg is probalby used throughout the year!

The second station is Brightline's in West Palm Beach. A smaller version of their Miami station. Signage was never changed to Virgin which was the train operator at the time of my rode earlier this year. Glad I got to go before they suspended operations for who knows how long.

I hope everyone enjoyed this series. Thanks for all the nice comments, corrections, and additions including photos.

Bruce

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A few years ago we walked to the Fort Garry from the station at 1:30 am after arriving from Vancouver on a very late eastbound Canadian. It felt perfectly safe. Our SCA called the Fort Garry "a big old haunted hotel". It was great. We spent much of the next day at The Forks and then walked to Bell MTS Arena for a Jets game (vs San Jose Sharks) that evening. Winnipeg was a terrific host, at least until Winnipeg weather canceled our flight out the next day. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/20 16:02 by ccn511.

I really enjoyed your series.  Very interesting to see what is still around, even though some have been repurposed.

Steve

Great series of pictures!

Posted from Android

Photo journalism at its best, great images and thoughtful captions.

MANY thanks Bruce for a wonderful tour....VERY well done.
    Arlen   Portland, OR

Thanks for this wonderful series.
It has benn most interesting.
ALLEN
 

Great series!  Enjoy your upcoming trip.
Scott iin VA

Thanks for all the nice comments. Glad many enjoyed the series. Maybe I'll get ambitions, buy a scanner and present some more taken from slides. One more note regarding Winnipeg. The CP station still stands. A bit to the north of the city center. Not sure it's current use. The CP Alexandria Hotel which was attached is long gone. If that name sounds familiar, all CP Canadian dining cars were named after CP Hotels. 

We took The Canadian a couple years ago in late January, cold cold cold.

At the Winnipeg stop we visited both Fort Garry and The Forks, and watched folks skating
on the river.  There was a kiosk of sorts at the forks that rented skates.  We had 4 hours and thought about
renting some but we are Texans and neither of us had ever ice skated, so we decided this would
not be a good time to learn.

My wife shopped inside the shops and I wandered outside looking for photo ops.  A car drove by
and the passenger rolled down her window and asked me where they could rent skates.  I told them
I was Texan and this was my first hour ever in Winnipeg and I knew nothing about the town.  As she was rolling up
her window, I yelled wait!  I do know exactly where she could rent them and pointed to the location.  We both
had a laugh at that.

Theis has been an excellent series.  Great job, Bruce and I look forward the next version.
Bob

Over the past years, we have spent a few hours in Winnipeg about a dozen times while traveling aboard the Canadian and always had a really nice time between The Forks, a tour of the city and just hanging out while walking about the station area. In The Forks, there were many interesting small shops including Tallgrass Prairie Bakery, which our car attendant suggested on one of our early trips. We were told that the best cinnamon buns were made by this bakery and they really were great: we brought one back to the attendant. A few years later, while at home in Ithaca, NY, we decided to make these buns and I emailed the bakery if they could share the recipe with me. I received a properly scaled recipe and then thanked them, they responded that the recipe was based on one from the first major vegetarian restaurants in the country, Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY!  There is also a massive museum very near the station which took years to construct which is devoted to human rights. We were told that Winnipeg is the most diverse city in North America and also one of the coldest, a really good stop while traveling aboard one of the great trains in the world.

Thanks from me as well.  Enjoyed it very much!

-John

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Thanks for all the nice comments. Glad many
> enjoyed the series. Maybe I'll get ambitions, buy
> a scanner and present some more taken from slides.
> One more note regarding Winnipeg. The CP station
> still stands. A bit to the north of the city
> center. Not sure it's current use. The CP
> Alexandria Hotel which was attached is long gone.
> If that name sounds familiar, all CP Canadian
> dining cars were named after CP Hotels. 

I also appreciate the effort required to post so many great photos. Thank you.

Regarding the former CPR station, since 1992 it has been the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg. About 10 years ago a retired VIA service manager took me there to see the main concourse which I hadn't seen since VIA moved the Canadian to the CN station.  It was through the CPR station that I made my first visit to Winnipeg in 1968.

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/cprwinnipeg.shtml
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/20 20:37 by DrawingroomA.