urbanSTL

I still don't have any shots at all of or around the new station. Need to bag that one of these days. And it seems like every other time I'm driving back from dropping off my wife for class there's something Amtrak rolling through the Grand Interlocking. Probably the Texas Eagle, as I think I've seen Superliners. (Or their current equivalent.) Man I wish I'd taken more train pictures as a kid. I rode out to California through Denver Union before they stubbed it and Salt Lake UP when it was in service. (KC Union too, for that matter, with the great white bubble.) The "transition cars" that linked the Superliners to the historic Superchief equipment were still in use then. (As were the historic cars.) Some of those interiors would have been stunning. (Were.) There were these classic old lighted lucite handles on the stairs in the former AT&SF equipment. Even the water spigots seemed cool. Lots of chrome. There were neat old paintings in the lower level lounges. Man oh man, what I missed. Heck, these days I even miss the Amfleet equipment. Makes me happy, every now and then, when I see an Amfleet cafe car. There's something quite cool about the inside frames on the trucks. Sporty. Probably heck to maintain though. (Since you'd have to get under the car to do literally anything. Even just to check the temperature on a bearing.)

symphonicpoet wrote:I still don't have any shots at all of or around the new station. Need to bag that one of these days. And it seems like every other time I'm driving back from dropping off my wife for class there's something Amtrak rolling through the Grand Interlocking. Probably the Texas Eagle, as I think I've seen Superliners. (Or their current equivalent.) Man I wish I'd taken more train pictures as a kid. I rode out to California through Denver Union before they stubbed it and Salt Lake UP when it was in service. (KC Union too, for that matter, with the great white bubble.) The "transition cars" that linked the Superliners to the historic Superchief equipment were still in use then. (As were the historic cars.) Some of those interiors would have been stunning. (Were.) There were these classic old lighted lucite handles on the stairs in the former AT&SF equipment. Even the water spigots seemed cool. Lots of chrome. There were neat old paintings in the lower level lounges. Man oh man, what I missed. Heck, these days I even miss the Amfleet equipment. Makes me happy, every now and then, when I see an Amfleet cafe car. There's something quite cool about the inside frames on the trucks. Sporty. Probably heck to maintain though. (Since you'd have to get under the car to do literally anything. Even just to check the temperature on a bearing.)

So the original Denver Union Station was pull-through and Amtrak changed it to a stub? And our Union Station was a stub and Amtrak made us go to a pull-through?



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gary kreie wrote:So the original Denver Union Station was pull-through and Amtrak changed it to a stub? And our Union Station was a stub and Amtrak made us go to a pull-through?

It was pull through originally, with four to six tracks and bush sheds. Sort of a smaller version of KC Union Station, but without the concourse extending over the tracks. The present configuration came from a recent redevelopment spearheaded by the city and their transit system. I don't think Amtrak had much to do with it, being only a pretty minor tenant. They have . . . two Amtrak trains a day there now? The Cal Zephyr each way? Might be as much as four, but it's actually not terribly busy in terms of intercity rail.

There's a pretty good article on Wikipedia describing what's there now. And of course you can go through google earth and see when things happened to an extent. It looks like the through tracks were already gone by the late 90s, though you can still see the ghost of where they went. It might even be that Amtrak had moved out for a time, and into a temporary facility. Looks like they lost a lot of railyards and operations too. Like all of us. But the station was never the mammoth thing that is St. Louis Union Station, and so rationalization and redevelopment would have been easier. Add in healthy growth and investment in rapid transit at the right time . . . (And a quite large underground bus facility, apparently.)

The other problem with Denver is that the California Zephyr enters from the north side of downtown and departs to the north no matter what. The tracks that continued west/south out of Denver Union Station headed straight south down to Colorado Springs. The tracks that head west to Grand Junction are on the north side of downtown, requiring the train to back out of the station regardless.

So maybe the only thing it hurt was the Ski Train.

looks like YOU supplied the art TODAY, my friend. beautiful shots.

Good stuff!

BTW, what's the deal with this shot? I love Islamic architecture, but I didn't know we had any around here. Is there actually an Islamic area at the Garden that I don't know about? Or am I wrong, and it's actually Indian or something else?

urban_dilettante wrote: ↑

May 19, 2018

looks like YOU supplied the art TODAY, my friend. beautiful shots.

*Blushing* Thank you sir! There will doubtless be more. Auntie Five is still here and we have a couple more stops to make before she leaves on Tuesday.

framer wrote: Good stuff!

BTW, what's the deal with this shot? I love Islamic architecture, but I didn't know we had any around here. Is there actually an Islamic area at the Garden that I don't know about? Or am I wrong, and it's actually Indian or something else?

You are quite correct sir. There are two Islamic areas at the garden; one somewhat subtle and the other more overt. The first is the small Moorish garden in the middle of the Mediterranean House. (Officially the Temperate House, but I, being local, insist on using antiquated names no longer on any signs or maps.)

The second, and newer, is the Ottoman Garden. It's in the extreme northeast corner of the developed property, past the Linnean House. You can see the outer wall of it from the southeast portion of the parking lot. The gated service entrance that sometimes serves as an informal second public entrance is right next to it. I can't read Arabic, so I couldn't tell you what it says, but I do believe it's fancified calligraphic Arabic writing. Very nice little garden.

That Checker is awesome! You sure don't see many of those around these days.

I actually grew up with a Checker. My dad bought it new in 1962, and we had it for about 15 years. We kids loved the fold-up jump seats in back. My how times change.

Here's my mom taking all us kids sledding at Francis Park:

As odd as this may sound, I was very curious what that was. In retrospect it seems obvious with the tag, but I had no idea there was actually a Checker Motor Company. I just figured it was a late fifties sedan. An old Plymouth or Dodge or some such. (Rather like the late fifties automobiles my grandparents were driving into the early eighties.) It's quite shocking to learn they were making cars in that style up until 1982. Neat! Thank you for the hint.

And yes, a fold up jump seat is always a fun thing.

I haven't been there since I was a kid; I'll have to get back there some day.