St. Louis Transit Photos

wabash · May 04, 2014#12014-05-04T05:25+00:00

St. Louis has such a rich transportation history: whether it be steamboats, streetcars, the Spirit of St. Louis, Union Station, Metrolink, and so much more. After-all, we are the Gateway to the West. I though it'd be good to have a place to post historical and current photos of St. Louis' transit infrastructure.

I posted these to another forum last night, but thought it'd be a good way to start things off:
Tower Grove station for the Missouri Pacific Railroad:

Tower Grove station for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad or "Frisco."

Map showing the location of the two stations:

Gateway City · May 04, 2014#22014-05-04T06:00+00:00

Streetcars of St. Louis in the 1960's.

roger wyoming II · May 04, 2014#32014-05-04T14:48+00:00

supercool; thanks Wabash.

jstriebel · May 08, 2014#42014-05-08T16:03+00:00

Pardon my ignorance, but are these Tower Grove stations gone now? Obviously they don't operate (or at least I assume that), but the buildings?

rbb · May 09, 2014#52014-05-09T16:02+00:00

These pics I took forever ago (four years ago, actually, coming home from the Cards home opener) but I like 'em:

-RBB

roger wyoming II · May 09, 2014#62014-05-09T16:11+00:00

^ thanks for sharing.

^^ yeah, long gone. I need to read up again on the history of the area. There was a horse race track back in the day (and Race Track Street is still in existence --- that little nub of street just north of Vandeventer) and of course Liggett Tobacco came in with major operations of which many buildings still exist and are on the National Register.

danryan1 · May 09, 2014#72014-05-09T16:32+00:00

Gateway City wrote:

Streetcars of St. Louis in the 1960's.

I love the video, but it does make me question the value of a streetcar line over a well-run bus system. Besides the permanence of fixed track streetcars, what's the advantage? This might as well be video of old buses. The two modes appear to be functionally indistinguishable.

stlgasm · May 09, 2014#82014-05-09T16:35+00:00

Great thread!

Remember the old Bi-State green and blue color scheme of the late '70s/early '80s? (Photos courtesy of Mel Bernero.)

Does anyone agree that these colors are so much cooler than the current Metro colors? I'd love to see the MetroLink trains in these colors-- that would be awesome.

jstriebel · May 09, 2014#92014-05-09T19:02+00:00

If I go all designer on it (of which you may be also, so I'm not trying to pull cards here), the green and blue is refreshing and different, but I'm not sure there's anything to it beyond that.

Given our fantastic city flag, I think sticking with red and blue but adding yellow and some more direct inspiration from the flag would be a cooler and more meaningful way to go. Of course, that's the city flag and this is a regional entity, so maybe that's not really correct either.

wabash · May 09, 2014#102014-05-09T21:23+00:00

^^ Cool! I don't remember that livery. I grew up in the era of yellow, orange, brown. Makes me want to run out and buy a fresh pack of Tareyton Lights.

May 13, 2014#112014-05-13T03:21+00:00

A few looks at the Wabash Railroad / Metrolink running just west of Union Blvd.

Jun 28, 2014#122014-06-28T16:50+00:00

Before I posted photos of the Frisco Station and Missouri Pacific Station at the south end of the Grove. It turns out there was a third railroad station nearby, about a mile up Vandeventer, where it passes under the current Metrolink tracks. The station would have been demolished for the construction of Highway 40, which now passes overhead. It was a station for the Wabash Railroad:

Jun 28, 2014#132014-06-28T17:09+00:00

A few more random St. Louis transit photos:

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis bringing in some slick new Chevy's:

Here's an ad from Harper's Magazine for taking the Wabash Railroad to the World's Fair. The station was about one block away from where the History Museum is today, and its design is actually rather similar to the central hall of the History Museum. Perhaps there was some influence there for the museum's architects to work from.
Then:

Now:

hebeters · Jun 30, 2014#142014-06-30T18:08+00:00

wabash · Jul 07, 2014#152014-07-07T00:34+00:00

^Classic. I love that today the Forest Park Station would never be that empty at almost any time of day.

Sep 18, 2014#162014-09-18T19:05+00:00

I love the file photo the Post uses for stories involving Metro:

Oct 06, 2014#172014-10-06T02:21+00:00

Then:

Now:

Nov 01, 2014#182014-11-01T20:35+00:00

The Illinois Terminal Railroad used to have a commuter rail station on the southwest corner of N. Broadway & N. Market Street.
A photo from 1954, with an inbound trolley pulling out of the station. (care of cerablog.com)

An inbound trolley approaching the station on the final day of service:

(credit: Don Ross)

Here's the same location today. The cars and telephone poles haven't moved an inch, but the station is no longer.

Nov 02, 2014#192014-11-02T21:39+00:00

Delmar Station Wabash Railroad May 1950:

(credit: rrpicturearchives.net)

Delmar Station Metrolink June 2014:

(credit: nextstl.com)

stlgasm · Nov 03, 2014#202014-11-03T01:13+00:00

Great finds, Wabash! Thanks for sharing.

wabash · Nov 04, 2014#212014-11-04T03:56+00:00

Thanks 'gasm. There's so much great St. Louis transit history out there. It's fun pulling some of the pieces together.

Turns out I was mistaken about this station's design and its possible influence on the History Museum.

Actual photos show that it wasn't as neoclassical as the advertisement lets on:

Hard to believe this train station was at DeBaliviere & Lindell.

dbInSouthCity · Nov 04, 2014#222014-11-04T17:36+00:00

Metro Bus in action in West County

mill204 · Nov 04, 2014#232014-11-04T18:16+00:00

^ Oh look, New York City buses are occasionally empty as well! (Not sure I understand your rationale for trying to pass off another city's buses as one of Metro's aside from trolling)

dbInSouthCity · Nov 04, 2014#242014-11-04T18:20+00:00

mill204 wrote:^ Oh look, New York City buses are occasionally empty as well! (Not sure I understand your rationale for trying to pass off another city's buses as one of Metro's aside from trolling)

well i think the snow was give away...more of an attempt to show how much politics has sway over common sense then trolling

wabash · Nov 04, 2014#252014-11-04T21:32+00:00

You wanted to make a point that Metro inefficiently allocates resources because of political influence, but instead of finding a photo that actually illustrates that you googled "empty bus" chose a picture from the transit capital of the western hemisphere, and thought that because there's snow on the ground people could tell that it wasn't West County?

You never cease to amaze db.