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| Marty Bernard posted B&O TRAINS WILL HAVE A NEW ADDRESS IN DETROIT poster. Bill Howes collection Peter Dudley: Until April 28, 1946, B&O passenger trains were hosted at Detroit’s Fort Street Union Depot (FSUD). [According to some comments on other photos in the post, B&O ran trans south to Cincinnati, OH.] |
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| Jon Talton posted Detroit's massive Michigan Central Station in 1940. Opened in 1914, it served passenger trains from the New York Central System's Michigan Central subsidiary, as well as those from the Baltimore and Ohio, Canadian Pacific, and later Amtrak. At its peak, it saw around 200 passenger trains a day, including NYC's Empire State Express, Queen City to Cincinnati, Ohio Special, as well as B&O's Cincinnatian and Ambassador. Although it closed in 1988, it's been reborn as Ford's Innovation Center (photographer unknown). |
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| Cape Cod And Islands Railroads And Trains History posted " New York Central 6024 One of New York Central's giant passenger locomotives is ready to depart Detroit, Mich. Clean and shiny, Niagara 6024 is only a year old in this May 1946 photo. Photo by Ed Nowak " |
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| Ryan Begley posted Vintage Michigan Central Station. Jim Kelling shared |
I wanted to add this photo to my posting on Detroit's Michigan Central Station because of the station in the background.
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| Mark Hinsdale posted Happy Independence Day to All! American Freedom Train (A.F.T. #1) at Detroit MI.. 7-75 |
But it appears I have never written about it even though I have seen a lot of info on the station. I never wrote about it because most of the info was depressing. To summarize --- it has been abandoned for a long time. But Mark's photo has motivated me to do some research.
The mainline still goes past this station to a tunnel under the Detroit River to Canada.
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| Peter Dudley shared On this date 42 years ago (April 16, 1975): Detroit's Michigan Central Station (MCS) was added to the National Register of Historic Places. While the move obviously didn't save the vacated depot, it helped stave off demolition in 2009, when the (bankrupt) city requested federal funds for "emergency demolition", and the feds refused (federal money can't be used to destroy listed landmarks). This c. 1921 photograph was retrieved from Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. William Worden Actually, federal money can be used to demolish National Register properties, but the approval process is lengthy and approval not guaranteed. |
The mainline still goes past this station to a tunnel under the Detroit River to Canada.
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| Peter Dudley shared A c. 1881 photograph, shot from near the center of the wood-frame Double Bridge, looks north from Baker (later Bagley) Street along the lattice railing of 15th Street toward the future site of Detroit's Michigan Central Station, near Michigan Central Railroad's Third Street Yard (foreground). About thirty years later, 15th Street Tower (which controlled access to the 1910 Detroit River Tunnel) was built on the site of the demolished 15th Street overpass. The steeple of St. Paul's Lutheran Church is visible near the right edge – that church (recently painted a dark shade of gray) still stands near Macomb Park, east of 17th Street. The steeple of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church is also visible in the distance, north of Michigan Avenue -- that parcel was in the path of Fisher Freeway (I-75) construction. The Albert Kahn - designed Roosevelt Park Railway Mail Service Annex (completed 1933) still occupies the parcel east of 15th Street (upper-left corner). The burned-out hulk is more-notoriously known today as the Detroit Public Schools Roosevelt Warehouse (photo retrieved online from Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library) (this site dates the photo "c. 1876", and mistakenly refers to "16th Street Bridge", which never existed). |
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| Tom Carter posted
Here’s the Michigan Central Station (later New York Central Station and then Penn Central Station) in Detroit I photographed on November 10, 1978, with Amtrak F40PH 231 posing for the shot. When built in 1913, it was known as one of the most magnificent depots anywhere, and was the tallest depot in the world. The lower three floors served as the depot, with railroad offices filling the top 18 stories.
After the mid ’80s it was no longer used and fell into an appalling state of disrepair, with vandals, thieves and graffiti artists taking their toll, inside and out. Nearly every window has been broken, too. On a couple occasions it was slated for demolition but each time was rescued, and it’s now considered to be of historical significance and is being restored!
There’s a ton of information about it on the ‘net, just Google “Michigan Central Station.”
[This is the first time I have seen the train shed.] |
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| Sabrina Dunn Gross commented on Tom's posting Windows replaced... Few years now |
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| Denny Quartieri posted Michigan Central Station, 1912 - 1913 Epyon Royal posted The Michigan Central Depot as it was being built. |
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| Michigan Central Station Preservation Society posted December 26, 1912 one year away from the emergency opening in 1913! Rob Doyle Why the emergency opening? Luke McGrail Rob Doyle Because of a fire at the old station on 3rd street took that station off line. Peter Dudley shared Joel Vivian And rebuild in 2018. Peter Dudley Re-building and renovation started c. 2009, and gained momentum with Ford Motor Company's $90 million purchase of MCS in June 2018. |
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| Peter Dudley commented on a post There's no evidence here that work on the station's eleven-track Train Shed had started. All of the gondolas (foreground) carried Michigan Central Railroad (M.C.R.R.) lettering, with NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES oval heralds. |
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| Randall MacArthur posted |
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| Randall MacArthur posted [Most people take a picture of just the building. It is nice to see how many tracks there used to be.] I Am a Native Detroiter also posted Peter Dudley About 1940, according to other sites which feature this photo. The view is southeast from 20th Street Tower (demolished c. 1967). In addition to the steam locomotives, there are several electric locomotives in the photo. Michigan Central Railroad maintained a four-mile-long Electric Zone on both sides of the river, with more than 28 miles of electrified track, including the 1910 Detroit River Tunnel. All tracks at Michigan Central Station were equipped with outside- and/or overhead third rail electrification. For information on the continuing renovation of Detroit's iconic landmark, go to www.SaveMichiganCentral.com, or visit Michigan Central Station Preservation Society's Facebook page. Eddie Abbott posted 1940: Detroit: Michigan Central Station; The view is southeast from 20th Street Tower (demolished c. 1967). In addition to the steam locomotives, there are several electric locomotives in the photo. Michigan Central Railroad maintained a four-mile-long Electric Zone on both sides of the river, with more than 28 miles of electrified track, including the 1910 Barry Sell shared Robert Bogie: Another date screw up. This is not taken in 1940! [After someone asked when.] It's early 1920's. |
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| Peter Dudley posted This cropped excerpt [The photo above is the uncropped version.] from "Michigan Central Terminal - A Gateway of the City" (c. 1925-1940, Burton Historical Collection photo bh007434, retrievable online from Detroit Public Library) shows steam locomotives and steeple-cabbed electric tunnel motors at Detroit's landmark Michigan Central Station (MCS). The excerpt provides a close-up of locomotives at the west end of the MCS Viaduct (the largest railroad bridge ever completed in Detroit). Originally eighteen tracks wide, and almost two city blocks long, this elevated railroad right-of-way is mostly-trackless today. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) freight trains still climb over the 1914 viaduct (completed after MCS opened in December 1913), on their way to and from the 1910 Michigan Central Railroad (M.C.R.R.) Detroit River Tunnel. The westbound climb, from the bottom of the tunnel to the summit at MCS, is on a c. 2% grade. The climb is easier, eastbound into Windsor (c. 1.5% grade). East of Windsor ON, nearly the entire, former - M.C.R.R. "Niagara Falls Route" shortcut to Buffalo NY, completed by Canada Southern Railway (CASO) in 1873, has been scrapped. More than 1,000 replacement windows were installed at MCS during 2015. Future plans for the structure have not been announced (stay tuned, but don't hold your breath).John Deitrick the owner of this bldg. has started some restoration.Peter DudleyGroup Admin For more information, go to www.SaveMichiganCentral.com, or visit Michigan Central Station Preservation Society's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MichiganCentral/). |
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| Wayne Koch posted 6024 post card. |
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| Peter Dudley posted A Wesley A. Wolak photograph from 1980 looks north from the Bagley Avenue overpass along the former - Michigan Central Railroad (M.C.R.R.) "Niagara Falls Route" mainline, as it descends eastward toward the west portal of the 1910 Detroit River Tunnel. Most of the Train Shed (center) and Express Offices (left) at Michigan Central Station (MCS) were still-standing, but a pile of rubble (right) marked the approximate site of 15th Street Tower (which controlled access to the tunnel and the station's east passenger throat). Southwest Hospital is visible in the distance -- it still may have been a going concern, at the time (DHS photo 2008.033.269, retrieved from the Online Collection at www.DetroitHistorical.org).[This is the first overview I have seen of this side of the station. It has been owned by the Detroit International Bridge Company. But Ford has announced plans to buy it for development of electric and self-driving cars. I've read that the owners of that bridge is a family and that they are essentially rich slum lords. Evidently, they own a lot of property in Detroit.] |
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| Peter Dudley shared New York Central Railroad's No. 5275, a 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive, heads a passenger train arriving at Detroit's Michigan Central Station (MCS). 15th Street Interlocking Tower (c. 1910 - c. 1967) is partially-visible at the left edge. Note the 600-volt outside-third-rail electrification system, which continued in operation until December 29, 1953. A steel framework (right) supported an overhead-third-rail, which was often accessed by electric engines running along some of the passenger platform sidings. Two steeple-cab ALCo-GE electric locomotives were also present. Daniel C Carroll Jr. posted Hudson, Number 5275, pulled into Detroit. Joe Barron Eddie Abbott posted 1922: Detroit; Michigan Central Station Ron Strachan: that may be post 1925 based on the diesel switchers ? Berry Sell shared Robert Bogie: A date of 1922 showing a Hudson at Detroit. Impossible! Can't be photographed with a date years before the locomotive was actually built. Stuart B. Slaymaker: The lettering on the tender dates it to post 1939. Robert Montanye: same photo is posted on a blog from 2017, but no 1922 date: https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../detroit-mi... [that is this webpage] Robert Montanye: According to my NYC roster book #5275 was a J-1a-e, one of 145 units built between 1927-1931 at Schenectady. |
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| Peter Dudley shared A 1990s-vintage photograph provides a last look at the Train Shed near Detroit's landmark Michigan Central Station (MCS). Amtrak started the process of partial-removal during the 1970s. The railroad was expecting delivery of new bi-level passenger cars, which were too-tall to fit under the shed. By the time the new cars arrived, Amtrak had already left the building. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) owns all eighteen tracks at MCS, including the double-track mainline that continues east under the river (via the 1910 Detroit River Tunnel). CP demolished the remains of the shed c. 2000, in order to include eleven former - passenger platform sidings in its new Expressway Yard, which briefly handled "excess height" (too-tall) double-stack container cars. CP moved its double-stack containerized-freight operations west of Livernois Avenue c. 2004. Most of the MCS Train Shed was built atop the 1914 MCS Viaduct (the largest railroad bridge ever completed in Detroit). CP has made some efforts to clean up the vacant underside of the bridgework in recent years. |
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| Curt Vote posted Michigan Central Station 1949. Source DTE aerial photos and Gigapan. Gerald Travis They can be found here. Various years 1949-1997. Works best with Internet Explorer. Coverage from Ohio line all the way to Port Huron. https://digital.library.wayne.edu/dte_aerial/index.html Brian Mohr The "gigapan" site is here. I had forgotten about this. Nice resource. http://gigapan.com/gigapans/147450 Craig Harris If you look hard enough, you can see 15th and 20th street towers! |
Charlie Whipp Flickr 1985 Photo "The Michigan Central Detroit depot before it closed from Michigan Ave. It looked great before the copper roof was stripped, Roosevelt park even looked neat."
In 2018 it was sold to Ford Motor Company.
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| Paul Bratfish commented on a share |
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| Peter Dudley posted This photograph, shot from an upper floor at Detroit's Michigan Central Station (MCS), looks across West Vernor Highway toward the station's Coach Yard (right) and coal-handling facilities (center), which handled "coal in -- ashes out" for the station's coal-fired steam heating system. Coal was dumped from incoming hoppers to a point below street level, where mine car - like vehicles conveyed coal to the station's boiler room. Ashes went in the opposite direction. Note the four heavy-concrete bumpers, which prevented railroad cars from going through the wrought-iron fence atop the retaining wall onto the street below. West of the retaining wall bordering 17th Street (right), a two-story building housed offices and workshops related to passenger car maintenance. At the far west end of the coach yard (just west of 20th Street), a light-shaded building served as a car-warming facility. 20th Street Tower (c. 1913 - c. 1967), and the shed where Electric Zone electric locomotives were maintained, are also visible. The long-trackless coach yard served as a parking lot during the recent Ford / MCS Open House in June 2018. The station's Train Shed (1913-2000) is partially-visible on the left (photo retrieved online, from Wayne State University Virtual Motor City Collection). |
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| Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared a Joseph Trepasso Flickr link Joseph Trepasso 20th street tower on the west end of the MC depot in Detroit, Mich as viewed from a departing, most likely, NYC Wolverine train bound for Chicago. The MC depot will soon look like this again hopefully. Sept 1965 Photo by Paul Kutta, Trepasso collection Craig Harris Fantastic shot, brings back a lot of memories. Just out of view to the left was the Coach Yard where pass. were stored, cleaned and restocked and a little further was 20th Street Yard. |
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| HistoricDetroit.org posted As noted during the groundbreaking this week for the Roosevelt Park makeover in front of Michigan Central Station, the park was not there when the depot opened in Detroit in 1913. All of those yellow boxes in this fire insurance map are single-family homes, showing a ton of residential around the train station and how the depot was smack-dab in the middle of the neighborhood. [The comments contain a lot of links about the past and future of this station.] |
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| Ian Bremmer posted michigan central station, detroit before and after $950m transformation from ford motors David Ballard shared |
UF School of Architecture posted three photos with the comment:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/03/ford-michigan-central-station-campus.htmlRichard Hess, AIA (BDes ’96), is the principal in charge for the major renovation of Michigan Central Station in Detroit, which reopens to the public TODAY!Michigan Central Station, closed in 1988 and threatened by demolition as recently as 2009, reopens on June 6 after a comprehensive renovation and restoration of the circa-1913 rail terminal and tower. The iconic 18-story building, which once served more than 4,000 rail passengers a day and housed thousands of office workers, now serves as the anchor building in a new 30-acre research and technology campus under development by Ford Motor Company.Quinn Evans, winner of the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA’s) 2024 Architecture Firm Award, designed the building’s transformation. The joint venture team of Christman-Brinker served as contractor and construction manager for the historic CM at-risk project.
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Buffalo Central Terminal posted 8 photos with the comment:
Did you know that our architect, Quinn Evans, led the reinvention of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station? They helped turn an abandoned railway hub into a future-facing transportation technology center that spurs economic development and jobs and houses a mix of community and commercial spaces.
The reimagined landmark opened this past June and has already welcomed over 100,000 visitors from near and far in just under 3 months! We have a feeling that their work on the Buffalo Central Terminal will be equally – if not more 😜 – amazing!
Check out these photos comparing now and then!
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19 early construction photos in the private group: Buffalo Area Transportation, Industry, Architecture & Defense
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