Toledo, OH: 1886+1950 Central Union Terminal (Station)

(Satellite, Street View)

Information concerning Swan Creek Tower has been moved to here.

Joe Barron posted
Union Station at Toledo, 1905
https://www.toledohistorybox.com/.../toledos-old-union.../
[This one was built in 1886. It was considered a dump by the time it was replaced in 1950, two decades after it had burned in 1930.]

Barry Sell posted
Passenger Yards of L. S. and M. S. R. R., Toledo, Ohio

Barry Sell posted

Union Station and Yards, Toledo, Ohio

Ken Levin Postcard Collection

Date of original

Apr 2 1910

Wayne Koch posted three photos with the comment: "Toledo Aerials 1945/1950."

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Wayne Koch posted
NYC Toledo Union Station Ohio ~1950s.
Robert Bogie At least three of the switchers plus the GP7/9 are in the cigar band paint scheme, so that would put the date of this photo in the 1960's, not the 1950's. As all the tracks are still in place, it's probably in the early 1960's. A B&O passenger train is just to the right of the locos.

Gregory Molloy posted
4/03/1965.  New York Central opened the Central Union Terminal in September of 1950 to replace an older station opened in 1886.  It was one of the last major rail stations built in the USA and local management swore it would be the last major station built on a curve.  The NYC's "Chiocagoan" provided a late-night departure from New York City and operated as a day train Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - Chicago.  My photo.

Michael Blair: My Step-Father, Jerome G. Pfaller RAN this station, he oversaw the operation here until he was moved to Grand Central and was made Chief Division Engineer of the New York Region of the Penn Central Railroad.

He was really proud of that CT Board in the lobby. Wonder where it went to now?

(Personally I rode the 20th Century in and out of here many times,with great pleasure.)

 

Tom Brooks commented on Gregory's post
As a footnote to this great image, the terminal also has an iconic outdoor art installation that was a collaboration between the students from the Toledo School for the Arts and Flatlanders Sculpture of Blissfield. It is comprised of metal castings from artifacts that were important to students of TSA. If you visit the terminal, which is beautiful, make sure to take a few minutes to view the sculpture named Artifacts of Childhood.

safe_image for citylab
When the Future Looked Like ToledoToledo's sleek Central Union Terminal in 1950: Inspired in part by a forward-thinking plan for the city's future, it ended up being one of the last new major passenger rail stations in the U.S. New York Central Historical Society
[His 1939 vision of a 1960s city did not have flying cars, but it did have lots of elevated walkways and self-driving cars. Much of the $11m used to renovate it was federal funds.]
"In Toledo, the economic fortunes of the city turned as well, in part because of the fall of the railroad industry, which employed even more than the glass industry did in 1950. A generation later, the Glass City would be part of what had become known as the Rust Belt. The city has shed more than 100,00 residents since its population peak of 383,000 in 1970."

One of four images posted by Mike Honeycutt

Jim Etchie posted
Toledo Central Union Terminal from high above. (not my photo)
[The Maumee goes north/south here so the tracks are east/west.]

Stu Nicholson posted
Toledo (Ohio) Union Station in the 1950s: the last modern station built by the New York Central. Much has changed since then. All but two sets of tracks are in use (way off to the left and closest to the station. All the rest are gone, along with the steam era water spouts. The mainline to the right is now Norfolk Southern. (Photo from Trains Magazine)
Stu Nicholson Still a beautiful building inside since it was restored. I'll be up there for National Train Day in May.
Robert Bogie Stu Nicholson, this photo is actually taken in the early 1950's and not the 1960's. The E7 diesel has the coupler covers and the openings in the sides of the car body confirm that time period.
David Both I spent a lot of time here with my dad in the '50s. He worked the RPO on the Wabash Cannonball and would pick it up here and go to St. Louis and back. We would stand on the bridge (old even then) over the yard throat and watch the trains. Great memories.

Mike Breski shared

Barry Sell postedposted
Toledo, Ohio. Most likely just before the tragic creation of Amtrak.

Center for Railroad Photography & Art posted

Wally Abbey made his best-known Ohio railroad photographs at Cincinnati Union Terminal on assignment for “Trains” magazine in September 1952, and he also recorded some excellent views around Toledo’s two-year-old Central Union Terminal on the same trip. In this one, New York Central 4-8-2 no. 2727 steams west with a morning freight train past the twelve-track passenger facility. In addition to the NYC, the station also served the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Wabash railroads. Visible in the background at left is the Anthony Wayne Bridge spanning the Maumee River.

When choosing photographs for “A Life in Railroad Photography,” the Center’s book about Abbey, I faced a difficult decision between this one and a similar perspective of a diesel-powered passenger train. I opted for the latter in the book since I thought a passenger train was more fitting to include at Central Union Terminal, but the 2727 hauling freight still makes a fine sight here. It was one of 100 4-8-2s in the L-2a class, all of which came from Alco in 1925.

The NYC rostered more than 500 4-8-2 locomotives, which it called “Mohawks” after a river in New York the railroad followed. A few years after Abbey recorded this view, his colleague and by then “Trains” editor David P. Morgan assured that No. 3005 (of the later L-3a class from 1940) would be the NYC’s best-known Mohawk when he made it the subject of his memorable article, “The Mohawk that Refused to Abdicate.” That later became the title of Morgan’s book about seeking out the last operating steam locomotives in the U.S. with his friend and photographer Phil Hastings.

Abbey had abdicated his position at “Trains” magazine by then, but only because he refused to abdicate his ambition. With Morgan, who was the same age as Abbey, ensconced as the magazine’s new editor-in-chief, Abbey sought his future elsewhere in a journey that would lead him to the executive suites of two Class I railroads.

Photograph by Wallace W. Abbey, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Abbey-09-107-11
Oren B Helbok A real beaut there! Morgan did indeed immortalize the "elephant-eared aristocrat of an Alco", and sister 3001 survives in Elkhart, Indiana, at the National New York Central Railroad Museum. The 2933 survives at the The National Museum of Transportation outside St. Louis. And no other NYC engine larger than a 4-4-0 or 0-6-0 exists anywhere at all.
By the way, the Central rostered exactly 600 4-8-2s -- as Morgan pointed out, in stark contrast to the Chesapeake & Ohio, which originated the wheel arrangement and which had exactly two of them!
Brian Hebert Oren B Helbok There are more NYC steamers. A 2-8-0 in the Midwest, and another deep in the woods of Maine.
Oren B Helbok Brian Hebert I'd forgotten about the one in Maine; what 2-8-0 in the Midwest?
[Someone felt a need to complain about poles in railroad photos. I agree with the poster, I didn't see them when I first looked at the photograph. If poles are over the train, I'm still happy if it obscures a car instead of the locomotive. I'd much rather have the information in a photo than a perfect "art" photo that never gets taken.]

John Peters shared
Thomas Jameson Those American Locomotive (NOT ALCO) were the best looking steamers in the world! Have a brawniness and balance to them unmatched by any other manufacturer (IMNHO).
Thomas Jameson John Peters Part of it also no doubt created by the clearance restrictions on the NYC trackage (shorter exhaust stacks, lower and wider sand domes, etc) to clear tunnels) that required subtle proportional changes. Maybe part of the reason other lines aren’t allowed to run their heritage equipment on NYC tracks?

Seems too bad when you imagine what a reunion of American Locomotive steam engines would look like in Schenectady! Heck, I’d even return to my original home to see that! Imagine - I’m here in northern Colorado near UP #844 (4-8-4) and #4014 (4-8-8-4 BigBoy). And all the other alumni of the Schenectady shops scattered across the country. What a show that’d be ... yassss... what a show! Crazy that won’t be since all that equipment had to get from Schenectady to where it was in service.

Richard C. Leonard commented on Stu's post
The station under construction in 1950. Photo by my father.