December 29, 1968: a snowstormclosed the Albany airport. Buses were

stalled in the streets. Albanv Union Stationwas packed with travelers-for the firsttime in decades. "How ironic," smiled As-sistant Station Master E.1. Bernard."Tonight's the last night this old station willsee a train."

Out on the platform, the sound of thebell of New York Central (now Penn-Cen-tral) E-8 No. 4057 grew louder as it glidedinto the station on the head end of the six-car Train No. 61, the Chicago-bound latter-day replacement of the Twentieth CenturyLimited, with its model 567 two-stroke en-gines idling. The Boston section of thetrain, with E-8 o. 4068, was due to arrivemomentarily. The falling snow muted thehubbub of the crowd as the public addresssystem announced Train 61's 9:10 p.m. ar-rival. ..ten minutes late. Along the length ofthe train, steam leaked from the stainless

AlbanyUnionStation

BY TIMOTHY TRUSCOTTAND THOMAS FINNEGAN

Above: The famed Twentieth Century Limiteddeparts Albany Union Station on a snowy nightin 1967 with one of the most illustrious membersof the New York Central's "Great Steel Fleet"(either "Sandy Creek" or "Hickory Creek") carry-ing the tai/sign that was a virtual trademark ofNew York Centra/ passenger service. While Hud-sons and Niagaras had powered the Dreyfus-styled Century at an earlier time, steam hadbeen gone from the Central for over a dozenyears.

Tex Benson, who for ten years hadoperated "Texas Service" shoe shine stanel(the sign painter had evidently confusedthe possessive of "Tex" with the 28thstate), remarked, "Maybe it'll be better inRensselaer, but it's still kind of sad to leavehere. There are a lot of memories."

Eddie Wolf, assistant crew dispatcher,also had lots of memories of the station. Hewas busy now, though, loading a typewriterinto his car for the ten-minute drive to thenew Rensselaer ("Albany") station acrossthe Hudson River-a steel and concreteButler-type building served by a singletrack and one canopy rather than UnionStation's eight tracks and four canopies onthe upper level-and two tracks and onecanopy on the lower level that served theDelaware & Hudson and the Central's WestShore Line. The first train into the Rens-selaer station was due to arrive in twohours.

With that throaty E-8 rumble, train No.61 accelerated into the driving snowstormtowards West Albany Hill, the steepestgrade on what had until recently been theCentral's four-track main. Earlier in the day,the Delaware & Hudson's PAs, the last AlcoPAs in existence, purchased from the SantaFe by D&H president Frederic C. "Bucky"

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988/ PAGE 19

steel cars as passengers lined the trackbeneath the deteriorating canopy. Sixty-eight years' worth of creosote, diesel ex-haust, and other familiar railroad odorspermeated the falling snow. To the south ofthe station, a steam-heating car parked ona siding was supplementing the boilerplant, already being shut down. At theinstruction of the conductor, passengersboarded the last train out of Union Station.An era ended.

Fifty-six feet beneath the sooty ceilingof the waiting room, two college girls, asailor on a seabag, an elderly man wearinga wide-brimmed stetson, a derelict-partof the crowd of nearly 550 people-hadawaited the train's arrival, sitting on the 24-foot, double-sided, wooden benches. Thegranite structure, usually abandoned, hadonce again hummed with activity. The facl-ing green paint covering the iron facadesand balconies of the offices lining the wallsof the waiting room gave the impressionthat surplus Pullman green paint from theWest Albany Car Shops had been usedyears before in the interest of economy.Passengers had passed from the waitingroom to the platform beneath a red neonsign marked "To Trains," alongside it alarge white sign touting the low cost ofsleeping car travel. At the cigar stand, sen-sational captions headlined the covers oftabloids, while only a few feet away, next tothe ticket counter, The Railroad Evangelistmagazine promoted a much different mes-sage. As if to foretell the fate of Union

1-. Station, the Western Union office, once so0.,

~ busy, was deserted; none of the nearby~ coin lockers were in use; customers still~ sat at the lunch counter, though its spare~ dishes were already packed.

Dumaine, had visited the station on thepoint of the Laurentian and Montreal Lim-ited. After 68 years of hosting great trains,the station was closing to make way for aninterstate highway.

Along with the development of motivepower, coaches, and all other aspects ofrailroading in America, the railroad pas-senger station evolved into a prominentstructure in almost every community.Much of the social and economic activity(and in places like Albany, political aswell) was inextricably tied to the localrailroad station; it was often the busiestplace in town. It was where business peo-ple arrived and departed, where the localWestern Union telegraph office was oftenlocated, where Christmas gifts and otherpackages arrived by Railway Express, andwhere one -could pick up the major out-of-town newspapers. Even more importantly,it was the local terminus for virtually allintercity mail.

In the case of Albany, capital of theEmpire State, history makers, too, hadpassed through its station doors for morethan a half century-presidents, govern-ment leaders, dignitaries such as TeddyRoosevelt, Al Smith, Adlai Stevenson, evenBritain's David Lloyd George. It was praisedby Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roos-evelt, and Mark Twain.

IGREEN ISLAND

Albany Union Station served both the New YorkCentral and the Delaware & Hudson railroads;the Central utilized the upper level of the station,while the D&H occupied the lower level. Imme-diately to the west of the station, West AlbanyHill, the steepest grade on "The Water LevelRoute," led to the West Albany Shops, Schenec-tady, Buffalo and Chicago.

The Delaware & Hudson's main line toMontreal ran north along the west side of theHudson River. South of the station, the D&Hmain ran to Binghamton, with the NYC havingtrackage rights for a short distance to its WestShore line connecting to Selkirk and New Jersey.For many years, the Central and the D&H jointlyoperated Beltline service between Albany andTroy in a circular fashion over one another'stracks.

TROY

IRON WORKS

MAP DRAWN BY DON BARBEAU

Albany became one of the early centersof railroading in North America when

the "De Witt Clinton" steam locomotiveand its train of three coaches made itsinaugural run between Albany and Sche-nectady on the Mohawk & Hudson Rail-road on August 9, 1831. The Mohawk &Hudson, chartered by the New York StateLegislature on April 17, 1826,was also thefirst railroad chartered in the United States.The operation of the "De Witt Clinton" waspreceded only by that of the "Best Friend ofCharleston" as the earliest revenue steamtrain operation in the United States. Theportion of the original Mohawk & Hudsonright-of-way from the west side of Albany tothe outskirts of Schenectady is today theearliest predecessor route of Conrail andAmtrak.

The Hudson-Mohawk region in 1831was one of the most prominent centers ofthe industrial revolution in North America,a logical place for a major railroad center todevelop. The Erie Canal (which, at the timeit was constructed under Governor De WittClinton, was the largest-public works pro-ject ever undertaken by mankind) hadopened five years earlier, creating a con-duit to western New York and the GreatLakes for finished goods and raw mate-

D&H PAs and New York Central E-units rest in Albany Union Station on March 30, 1968, only a fewmonths before the station closed. While the Es had visited Albany from their earliest days on theCentral, the PAs and a dozen passenger cars had just been acquired by the D&H from the Santa Fe inD&H President "Bucky" Dumaine's effort to upgrade passenger service at a time when other railroadswere downgrading theirs.

No. 19, the PA on the left, was the last of its kind to operate in North America. Leased by the D&H toMexico, it operated until damaged by a cab fire three years ago when, but is reportedly intact. Severalgroups are interested in returning this historic locomotive to the United States.

PAGE 20 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

rials. The canal made the Hudson-Mohawkregion the gateway from the Hudson Riverand New York City to the west. Because ofabundant water (for power and transport)and labor, the Hudson-Mohawk regionrapidly burgeoned with industrial com-plexes producing iron products, textiles,and other manufactured goods. The intentOf the Mohawk & Hudson Railway was notto compete with the Erie Canal, but tosupplement the Canal by transporting pas-sengers directly between Albany and Sche-nectady rather than by the circuitous routeof the of canal locks.

The series of railroads across New YorkState that were constructed between Al-banyand Buffalo during the second quarterof the nineteenth century brought rapiddevelopment of communities across thestate and promoted expansion of the Mid-west. Superceding the Erie Canal, the sev-eral railroads were consolidated in 1853byErastus Corning, an Albany businessmanassociated with the State Bank of Albany,into the ew York Central Railroad. Thecharter stipulated Albany as the base of thesystem in perpetuity. In fact, all annualmeetings of the ew York Central wereheld in Albany until as late as 1938.

While the Erie Canal had made long-distance public transportation possible,the creation of the _ ew York Central madeit fast and convenient. The ew York Cen-tral was merged in 1867 with CommodoreVanderbilt's Hudson River Railroad (whichhad been built along the east bank of theHudson River between ew York City andRensselaer), thus creating the long-dreamed-of "Water-Level Route." Subse-quently, Albany became a division head-quarters astride a four-track mainline.

Convenience led to the desire for luxuryand even splendor, and the New York Cen-tral's general passenger agent, George H.Daniels (reputed to be a former patentmedicine salesman), obliged by creatingthe concept of the prestige passenger train.

Drifting down West Albany Hill, Niagara No. 6004 approaches Albany Union Station with a l3-carconsist, having just made the 17-mile trip from Schenectady. The New York Central dedicated the twosouthern tracks (on the left) of its four-track main line to passenger service, while the two northerntracks were restricted to freight service. West Albany Hill, which was situated between Albany UnionStation and the West Albany Shops, was the steepest grade on the Central's mainline. Even thepowerful Niagaras (61,570 pounds of tractive force) required pusher service to get long passengertrains up the grade.Below: EL Henry's famous painting, "The first Railway Train on the Mohawk & Hudson RailRoad" -Chartered on April 17, 1826, the Mohawk & Hudson was the predecessor of the New YorkCentral.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 21

·UNION·STATIONAlBANY-N:Y··N£\.l·YO'-.K<ENT'I\tJ.·II·IiUD.SO/'I.·1\!~"'·1\:CORfOI\.AnOl'!·

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The Empire State Express, a product of theWest Albany Shops, was the first of the NewYork Central's great name trains. Daniels, apromoter at heart, envisioned exhibitingthe fastest locomotive in the world at theColumbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.Therefore, the "999", a super 4-4-0, wasbuilt at the West Albany Shops with un-usually large drivers. It was designed forthe record-setting run of 112.5 miles perhour with the Empire State Express on May10, 1893, near Batavia in western NewYork-celebrating the first time humanswere able to travel at speeds higher than100 miles per hour.

The power and prestige indicated byname trains and speed records did won-

ders for New York Central's image. As aresult, unprecedented numbers of pas-sengers poured into Albany from Boston'sSouth Station (then the largest and busieststation in the country) and the second ofwhat would be three Grand Central termi-nals in New York City. Albany's modest1872depot was being overwhelmed. It wastime for the New York Central to erect agrand monument to itself and to the capitalof the Empire State.

Albany Union Station was designed bythe architectural firm of Shepley,

Rutan and Coolidge, the successor firm toH.H. Richardson. Richardson had served

The great station is an immense undertaking. Strong backs and simple shovels excavated thefoundations and wrestled IS-ton granite blocks onto the wooden derrick platforms; now the workersuse their brawn to elevate track and to construct subterranean walkways and bridges. All while thetrains, unimpeded, roll in and out with their visiting spectators.

PAGE 22 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

as architect for Albany City Hall and wasone of several involved in the design of theNew York State Capitol in Albany. Bothfirms were well known for their design of anumber of public buildings and railroadstations, particularly along the Boston &Albany line (Shepley, Rutan and Coolidgedesigned Boston's South Station). The gen-eral contractors for the building were Nor-cross Brothers of Springfield,Massachusetts, a well-known and highlyqualified firm that had built Albany CityHalL

The architecture of Albany Union Sta-tion is an example of creative eclecticism,incorporating features of both the Beaux-Arts Classical and the Second RenaissanceRevival styles. In general, the pink Milfordgranite exterior of the station suggests theSecond Renaissance Revival style with itsclear geometric massing and facades ofclassical divisions, as well as other charac-teristics. However, the sculptural decora-tions that break the skyline profile of thestation are examples of Beaux-Arts Classi-cism. The vast space of the interior designwas not a response to functional needs, butto the desire to create palatial surround-ings. These features include the elab-orately coffered plaster ceiling, cast-ironbalconies and galleries with their small-scale ornamentation, and the great archesat the ends that opened into the light wells

is of the wings.~ A number of railroad improvements ac-~ companied the station's construction, in-8 cluding the remodeling of the station yard,'"~ elimination of grade crossings, and the[5 rebuilding of the Maiden Lane railroadzIii bridge across the Hudson River. Albanyb;: Union Station was an early example of the8 use of subterranean passageways, or "sub-

ways," as a means of reaching the plat-forms from the station interior. This was amajor improvement over the dangerouswalkways across the tracks in the Old De-pot. Finally, the Albany platforms had can-

opies, rather than the mammoth trainsheds already out of fashion.

"The ew Depot," Albany Union Sta-tion, opened without ceremony on Decem-ber 17, 1900. Shortly thereafter, the OldDepot was torn down.

During its life Albany Union Stationunderwent several minor alterations. In1902, two years after the station opened, abalcony-like metal structure was added tothe north end of the building under thecanopy, providing direct access fromBroadway Street to Track One. In 1950 thesashes of a number of windows on thenorth end of the building along ColumbiaStreet were replaced by glass blocks. Theexterior of the building was cleaned at leasttwice, in the 1920sand again in 1941,priorto its most recent cleaning in about 1979.

The interior of the building underwent anumber of substantial changes. The origi-nal mosaic tile floor of the waiting roomwas replaced during the 1930s with ter-razzo flooring. The original horseshoe barwas removed, and other changes weremade to the restaurant by 1940. In that yearthe open light wells in both wings werefilled in. This detracted from the spatialconception of the architects' interior de-sign, which had harmoniously connectedthe light wells beyond the large end archesto the waiting room area. Such changeswere for the most part utilitarian, to thedetriment of the beauty and integrity of theoriginal concept of grandeur.

A railroad station accommodating thevolume of traffic found at Albany de-manded supporting facilities. The Rensse-laer engine terminal, located on the eastshore of the Hudson River from the stationand connected by the Maiden Lane bridge,was an integral part of the operation ofAlbany Union Station. As many as 22 0-8-0switchers were on hand at the Rensselaerfacility for use as pushers on westboundpassenger trains heading up West AlbanyHill out of the station, as well as serving inother switching capacities at the stationand in Rensselaer. Often two pusherswould be required on a passenger trainheaded up the hill. Pushers would nor-mally be cut off at Tower 3 at West Albany.

This seemingly ceremonial but func-tional pushing of long passenger trains upWest Albany Hill in order to maintain tightschedules was exciting and almost a ca-lamity on at least one occasion. FrankDoherty, a conductor for 41 years on theline, recently related that the coupler onthe front of the 0-8-0 pusher jammed, thusfastening the pusher to the rear of whatbecame a high-speed train once it reachedthe crest of the hill. This mismatch of apowerful and speedy "Niagara" with a little0-8-0was definitely not in favor of the smalllocomotive. During the pre-radio era therewas no direct communication availablebetween the head end and the rear of thetrain. The little pusher was dragged pastthe West Albany Shops and towards Sche-

nectady at nearly 80 miles per hour, its 52inch drivers revolving furiously. For-tunately, the operator at Tower 3 (WestAlbany) observed the difficulty and at-tempted to remedy the situation by sendingword up the line. The engineer on the"Niagara," however, did not get the signaluntil he reached Tower 7 at Carman, 12miles from West Albany. The overwrought0-8-0 was towed back to West AlbanyShops for repair, its siderods clanking fromspeed inflected wounds.

The sprawling West Albany complex,for many years the principal shops of theNew York Central, included facilities forheavy steam locomotive repair as well aspassenger car repair. The busy West Al-bany yards, which at one time had con-tained stockyards important to thetransport of cattle from the Midwest to NewYork and Boston, were largely replaced

Below: The westbound Twentieth CenturyLimited with heavyweight cars pulls into Al-bany Union Station off the Maiden Lane Bridgewith K-3d Pacific No. 3385 on the point in 1927.Tracks of the Delaware & Hudson "AlbanyMain" serving the lower level of the station arevisible on the left. To the right beyond the signaltower is part of the post office facility whichhandled virtually all of the mail in and out ofAlbany at that time. Transportation traffic in thisarea was remarkable; the Albany boat basin,where Hudson River Dayliner steamboatsdocked, can be seen adjacent to the bridge.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988/ PAGE 23

around 1925 by the Selkirk yards to thesouth of Albany.

Albany Union Station was host to anarray of classic steam power, as well as toclassic passenger cars on name trains. Inaddition to the New York Central's "Hud-sons" (some streamlined for a period) andthe 4-8-2 "Mohawks," the 4-8-4 "Niagaras"(in many minds the most beautiful steamlocomotives ever built) closed out thesteam era. Besides the Twentieth CenturyLimited and the Empire State Express,name trains such as the New EnglandStates Limited, The Lakeshore Limited,The Pacemaker, and Ohio State Limited inlater years carried name cars of the "Creek"series, the "Brook" series, the "Stream"series, and many others.

The first streamlined Twentieth CenturyLimited, styled by designer Henry Dreyfuss,was introduced by the New York Central in1938.This train most often was powered by"Hudsons" (until the "Niagaras" beganservice in the mid-1940s), although it occa-sionally used "Mohawks," and featuredsmooth-sided Pullman-Standard cars inthe classic two-tone grey paint scheme andthe familiar round-end observation carswith illuminated tailsigns that became avirtual trademark of the New York Central.

After World War II, the most famous ofthe Central's lightweight cars, "SandyCreek" and "Hickory Creek" (smooth-sided, 5-double bedroom, lounge-observa-tion cars) replaced the prewar observationcars on the Twentieth Century. The prewar

PAGE 24 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

EarlyJ-la Hudson and crew at AlbanYJn 1928.

observation cars were inherited by theCommodore Vanderbilt. In the late 1940sthe stainless steel "Brook" series of round-end observation cars were substituted onthe Century. The "Wingate Brook" carriedthe famed Twentieth Century Limited tail-sign on that train's last westbound tripthrough Albany Union Station on Decem-ber 3, 1967. This wonderful array of long-

haul passenger trains operated by the NewYork Central came to be known as "TheGreat Steel Fleet."

Albany Union Station also began host-ing the famous Dreyfuss-styled EmpireState Express, a stainless steel consist builtby the Budd Company, when that servicewas inaugurated on December 7,1941. TheEmpire State Express was particularly

Albany'sVisitors

A number of noteworthy locomotives and trainsvisited Albany Union Station in its lifetime. Per-haps the most unusual was the Coronation Scot,newly constructed for the London Midland andScottish Railway when it stopped in Albany onApril II, 1939, during an eastem states tourculminating in a display at the New York World'sFair.

The locomotive and tender, streamlined as aunit, were about one half the weight of a typicalAmerican pair and visibly smaller than domesticequipment. On a test run, though, the "Scot" dida creditable 114 miles per hour. The Albanypublic got a good look at the train's eight sump-tuously appointed air-conditioned cars, a pointof climax to railroading's age of opulence.

Almost exactly five years earlier,a slippery speedster of a more for-ward-looking bent was at AlbanyUnion Station: the Burlington's still-experimental No. 9900, the originalZephyr. The crowd which passedthrough on inspection may haveglimpsed the futuristic diesel-elec-tric powerplant which, a month la-ter, would set a world speed record

by covering 1,015 miles nonstop injust over 13 hours. In the words ofDavid P. Morgan of Trains maga-zine, "this sliver slip of a train whichdoesn't look or feel or sound like atrain at all" went on to log over threemillion miles before it was retired in1960. Today it is preserved at theMuseum of Science & Industry inChicago.

New York Central 5429 in 1941.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 25

York World's Fair. These six cars, Nos. 201to 206, were used on the Laurentian upuntil that train's demise. Painted grey witha classic maroon window band and fittedwith curved end windows and the distinc-tive round "porthole" windows in vestibuledoors, these cars were the product offamed industrial designer RaymondLoewy.

In 1967 D&H president Frederic C."Bucky" Dumaine committed his railroadto upgrading passenger service when everyother railroad in the northeast was down-grading theirs. That year Dumaine ac-quired a dozen cars from the Denver & RioGrande (five lightweight coaches, four bag-gage cars, two diner-lounges, and a buffet-lounge), as well as the Alco PAs, soon tobecome the trademark of the Delaware &Hudson. All of this newly acquired equip-ment, as well as the "World's Fair" cars andthe remaining heavyweights, were painted

grey with a blue window band, yellowstripes, and silver roofs and undercar-riages. The PAs, which had been pur-chased from the Santa Fe Railroad, wereaffectionately known by D&H employees(and still today by D&H veterans) as the"Santa Fe's." They closed out the D&Hpassenger era in Albany Union Station.

At its zenith in the early 1920s, the NewYork Central's net income was ap-proaching $50 million. Trains were stillsupreme, and the Twentieth Century Lim-ited was the luxury train on the North Amer-ican continent. At the time, of course,those golden days were little appreciatedas such. Now, decades later, we can lookback and identify that time as the apex ofthe business curve ...and know what was tofollow.

Many railroads struggled through theDepression. The New York Central did bet-ter than most, but it was never again sub-

unique in that its J-3 "Hudson" locomo-tives (Nos. 5426 and 5429) sported stain-less steel skirting, while the tenders weresided with fluted stainless steel. This train,like the Century, was known for its round-end observation cars, although unlike theCentury these were stainless steel. All thecars of the Empire State Express werenamed for New York State governors.

The Delaware & Hudson also gracedAlbany Union Station with its classic "Pa-cific" and "Northern" type steam locomo-tives, outfitted with "elephant-ear" smokelifters. (While for years the New York-Montreal name trains of the D&H, the Lau-rentian and the Montreal Limited, by-passed Albany and stopped at Troy,beginning in the fifties these trains, too,came into Albany.) The Laurentian and theMontreal Limited were actually jointly op-erated by the Delaware & Hudson and theNew York Central, with the Central carryingthe train between New York and Albany (orTroy in earlier years) and the D&H carryingthe train between Albany (or Troy) andMontreal. In the fifties it was common tosee a New York Central stainless steelround-end observation car on the rear ofthese trains.

While the D&H had a long tradition ofheavyweight passenger equipment, proba-bly their best-known lightweight cars werethe so-called "World's Fair Cars," built byAmerican Car & Foundry Company in 1939in an effort to cash in on traffic to the New

On May, 1946, a one-year-old Niagara heads out of Albany for New York City with the Missourian.Great stations are known in part by the power that served them, and the Niagara was one of the mostsignificant engines to pass through Albany-often in charge of one the 12 daily trains (in eachdirection) between Chicago and New York.

Niagaras produced 6700 horsepower on test and averaged 26,000 miles per month. Using featureslike the large firebox from the 4-6-4 Hudson for steam generation and eight coupled drivers for tractiveforce from the 4-8-2 Mohawk, the Niagara demonstrated that modern steam could be at least aseconomical as the diesel. According to P. Kieler's An Evaluation of Railroad Motive Power(Simmons and Boardman, 1948), the total annual operating cost for the 4-8-4s per mile was $1.22versus $l.ll for a 4000 horsepower two-unit diesel. The test tended to solidify the already prevailingdiesel majority, which argued that operating cost for a diesel was much lower than that for steam.Steam advocates claimed foul because the 6000 horsepower Niagara was being compared to a 4000horsepower diesel. See "Did we Scrap Steam too Soon," Trains June 1974.

PAGE 26 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

stantially profitable. Only the unnaturalpress of wartime troop movements couldreverse the steady decline in passengerrevenues. Yet despite declining revenues,who would have thought that giant steelleviathans like the New York Central andgreat stations like Albany's would ever dis-appear? It was inconceivable.

But by the fifties the crisis was inescap-able. Costs had to be reduced, somehow,somewhere, anywhere. An easy target werethe money-losing passenger operationsand their supporting stations. The NewYork Central announced plans in 1956 toclose 406 passenger stations, including thedowntown terminals in Albany and Sche-nectady. "Excess and obsolete property,"they were called. Albany Mayor ErastusCorning II- ironically, the great-grandsonof the founder of the New York Central-knew that the closing of Union Stationwould mean the death of Albany's down-town commerce. He began a long andeventually acrimonious struggle with theunyielding railroad management to keepthe station open.

Even fellow Albanians were not alwaysallies. A 1961Albany Times-Union editorialsaid, "No longer the monopoly it once wasin transportation, the Central does not re-quire any longer the huge, hangar-like,expensive-to-run Albany depot. Its needsnow are for a much smaller, more comfort-able, modern terminal." The battle forUnion Station was being fought in a new,post-railroading era.

Central maintained "a passenger stop facil-ity" somewhere in downtown Albany.

There was little doubt about the even-tual decision. On December 14, 1966 theheadlines shouted: "UNION STATIONSOLD." New York State took custody of thestation and leased it back to the New YorkCentral. On December 3, 1967, the Twen-tieth Century Limited made its last stop atAlbany Union Station. Eleven months later,the station was closed.

Initially, there was much hope that thebuilding could be put to new use. Pro-posals came and went: central library, stategovernmental archive, office and retailshopping complex, railroad museum,planetarium, aquarium, bowling hall offame. Deliberations took time, but vandal-ism did not. Within months of the Decem-ber 1968 closing, the copper roof flashingshad been stripped (the scrap rate was uparound 50 cents a pound because of theVietnam war), and rain began seeping in.Every transportable fixture in the interiorwas carried off. In November 1971 the Stateheld two auctions, asking only $320,000 forthe granite white elephant and its primedowntown real estate. Even though thebuilding was by then on the National Regis-ter of Historic Places, the terms of salewould not preclude demolition. There wasnot a single bid.

As the years passed, rain trickled andthen streamed into the interior. The orna-

A pair of £-8s glide into Albany with the westbound Empire State Express on January 24, 1963.Dominated by the. sentinel towers of the Delaware & Hudson office buildings, a montage of earlytwentieth century architecture guards the background.

In October 1967, the New York StatePublic Service Commission approved con-struction of a passenger station in the sub-urb of Colonie (and thereby the closing ofUnion Station)-but only if the New York

The Rensselaer engine terminal, across the Hudson River from Albany, was an integral part of AlbanyUnion Station's 24-hour operation. The coal tipple, as well as a large roundhouse and other facilities,serviced road locomotives and as many as 22 0-8-0 switchers kept on hand for use as pushers onwestbound passenger trains heading up West Albany Hill out of the station, as well as to serve in theirnormal switching capacities at the station and in Rensselaer. A second Rensselaer roundhouseaccommodated Boston & Albany locomotives.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 27

Is there still something here worth saving? Ittook courage to answer "yes. "

For 16years Albany residents struggled withthat question. At first their answer was "No." In1971the asking price for the building was a mere$320,000; but no one bid. As the years passed,countless salvation schemes came and went.The trees on the roof grew taller. But during the16 years of uncertainty over the fate of thedeteriorating building, there emerged a con-sensus that UnionStation was valuable and hadto be saved. Norstar's April/984 announcementto save the building elicited universalexcitement.

mental plaster was soon waterlogged, thebricks soaked. Ceiling tiles fell away, andmahogany doors and railings sproutedmildew. The splendid cast iron pitted; evenmassive structural steel members werecorroding away. By 1977 small trees werevisible on the roof.

Not one developer had managed tocombine feasible idea with committedfunding. Merchants were fleeing Albany'sbadly depressed downtown, humblerbuildings were razed for "temporary" park-ing lots (still there a decade later), and anarterial highway now swept ominously pastthe hunkering "eyesore" of Union Station.(True, Albany Union Station looked awful.Rain and snow were passing directly intothe interior, and large sections of the or-nate ceiling had fallen.) In 1978,concernedarchitects warned that the building wouldnot survive another upstate New York win-ter. That warning coincided with a growingpublic sentiment now becoming attuned torehabilitation, a resurgent consciousnessof the value of old buildings. In 1979 thestate spent one million dollars on a tempo-rary roof and other measures; the landmarkstructure would at least survive. Then thewait for a buyer resumed.

In the fall of 1983, IBM announced itwas looking into purchase and renovationof Union Station for its Albany regionalheadquarters. Hope arose, then subsided:there had been too many false alarms al-ready. Sure enough, on January 16, 1984,IBM backed out. LocallV stations gave outthe discouraging news that evening. One ofthe viewers in the well-to-do Albany suburbof Loudonville, Peter D. Kiernan, took inthe news story before going to bed. Then,while shaving the following morning, hehad an inspiration.

Kiernan was president of Norstar Ban-corp, an Albany-based Fortune 500 bankholding company. Like most Albanians,he'd been following the Union Station sagafor years. In fact, back in 1969,as owner of asuccessful insurance business, he'd evenconsidered converting Union Station into a

PAGE 28 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

downtown insurance center-completewith parking in the waiting room space! Butnow a finer idea presented itself. NorstarBancorp had evolved from the State Bankof Albany, founded in 1804, financier of theMohawk & Hudson Railroad as well as theErie Canal. Hadn't that same Erastus Corn-ing of New York Central fame begun hiscareer as a loan officer in charge of railroadinvestments at the State Bank of Albany?Who better than Albany's pre-eminentbanking company could work the catalyticmagic that would revitalize the buildingand its Broadway neighborhood? Couldthere be a more appropriate buyer forUnion Station?

The news was released at a jubilantpress conference on April 11, 1984. It wasexactly 25 years after Trains magazine hadrun "New Look at Union Station," a featurethat analyzed the obsolescence of largedowntown terminals, using as a case study

a hypothetical "old 1900-era structure, in-spired by an actual building"". unmistaka-bly Albany's. It would indeed be getting anew look, but instead of "clearing somevaluable real estate for development" thisUnion Station was about to bring an entiredowntown area back to life.

Not the largest of the recent stationrehabilitations across the country, AlbanyUnion Station was remarkable in anothersense. This would be the first major rail-road station to be adapted for reuse by asingle, private-sector corporation. Manypreservation-minded citizens and munici-pal officials saw in this fact both blessingand warning. As had been made clear in St.Louis and Indianapolis, funding was al-ways the developer's bane. Wouldn't pri-vate corporations be the ideal saviors formedium- and large-sized terminals inmany American cities, if only the rightinducements could be found? But how

could the rigorous, and rightful, demandsof historic preservation be satisfied whileaccommodating the quite different needsof commercial occupancy?

Consider the challenge. The huge vol-ume of Albany Union Station's centralspace, the waiting room, was of little prac-ticality in a modern office environment. Yetpreservation officials would surely not ap-prove of dividing it up and ruining thecharacteristic sense of grandeur. Strictguidelines from the Secretary of the Depart-ment of the Interior applied to the gamut ofproblems, from the largest (reduce thewaiting room space?) to the smallest (howto choose doorknobs?). These federalguidelines all had to be met if Norstar wereto receive historic-preservation tax credits,which would permit one-fourth of the re-hab investment to be deducted from tax-able corporate earnings.

Then consider the consequences. IfNorstar met the requirements, it would be ashowcase triumph for both corporate andpreservation interests. Throughout theUnited States there are countless buildingsof architectural and historical value, emptyand awaiting rehabilitation, if only the peo-ple with the means can be enticed intopursuing such civic-minded ends. Doesn'tbusiness stand to benefit from the intan-gibles of community goodwill engenderedby saving a beloved but derelict landmark?Can the lofty ideal of architectural restora-tion and the reality of the bottom line bereconciled?

Albany Union Station, renamed NorstarPlaza, has proved to be the litmus test. The56-foot-high waiting room had cost theNew York Central a fortune to heat. YetNorstar had to simultaneously preservethat feeling of space while somehow doub-ling usable floor area. This really was thecentral problem in the adaptive-use pro-ject. The second major problem was theword "restore," which some people toutedinterchangeably with "renovation." Herewas a serious question of degree, touching

'--~

on issues as divergent as restoring 85-year-old plaster figurines and installing modernrevolving doors at the entrances. Adaptive-use renovation must begin with the as-sumption of restoring where possible. Itthen moves on to questions of alteringwhere practicable, and customizing for thenew owner's convenience wherepermissible.

Norstar's chosen architectural and en-gineering firm, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott ofAlbany, devised a brilliant solution. In thecentral cube of the waiting room, the entirefloor would be raised 12 feet, thus creatinga secure data-processing area beneath.The two-story-tall, cast-iron gallery facades

6 that ran along the east and west sides of the~ waiting room would then be raised ando:l2 moved inward some 15 feet, thus adding8 considerable office space within the gal-~ leries. Finally, in the north and south wings~ three stories would become four with the>- extension of the raised lobby level through~~ what had been the tall ground-level bag-S gage and restaurant areas. With nearly

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 29

twice the existing floor space then usable,the interior would nevertheless look largeand every bit as grand as before.

The simple sketch was difficult to ex-ecute. The owner and architect agreed to"fast-track" the project, the incentivesbeing earlier occupancy and reduced fi-nancing expense. But there would not betime to complete and approve a finalizedset of engineering plans before work be-gan. Executive Vice President Robert H.Sloan, Norstar's man in charge of the entireproject, knew what that meant. "I've beentold," he said, "that any straightforwardhistoric preservation project offers plentyof surprises and delays. But on a fast-trackschedule, problems are exacerbated." Par-tial demolition, cleanup work, and struc-tural modifications would have to begineven before management knew how muchto budget for each of hundreds of tasks andsubcontracts. The field drawings wouldliterally change from day to day as workproceeded and troubles appeared.

They appeared from day one. Asbestosremoval far exceeded cost and time esti-mates; the stuff turned up everywhere. Yetit all had to be extricated before anyoneelse could come on-site and get started.Then the bulldozers and cutting torcheslaunched into interior walls, floors, andframes. Concurrently, engineers examinedthe corroded steel members and evaluatedtheir findings. The new steel skeleton tookshape; masons and electricians contemp-lated boring through solid stone and two-foot-thick brick walls. Up in the attic, asingle original iron light fixture was dis-covered, as were the hand-wrought nu-merals of the Broadway clock face. From

PAGE 30 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

these remnants, new lighting units and arestored clock could be designed.

Work proceeded against time and theunexpected. During the steel erection, theboom of a crane brushed a column. Un-anchored steel beams twisted andcrashed; ironworkers hung on, jumped, orscrambled to precarious perches.Amazingly there was only one minor injury.But everyone had a fright, and a long delayensued while the remaining steel structurewas reinspected and recertified.

The best of the four giant plaster car-touches was gently lowered to the floor to---o""~=='~be taken away for restoration, but it shat-tered as it touched down. Dovetail, Inc., of -SECTIO"l'CY'!-LlI1E'A-B'

-sc ••..LE·~·~I.:O·.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988/ PAGE 31

Lowell, Massachusetts, then spent a fullmonth piecing it back together in order tomake a mold and cast the four largestplaster pieces they'd ever done, each sevenfeet tall and weighing a thousand pounds.

So it went for eighteen intense months.The expected tug-of war among SHPO (theState Historic Preservation Office), owner,and architect became instead no more

z than a muscle-flexing scrimmage, as a sur-Q prising confluence of interests served to~:t bring the parties together in pursuit of ac; mutually beneficial goal. Each party under-8cc stood the satisfaction, if not the glory, to be~ had from successful completion of the pro-~ ject and final approval by Interior; time and~ again they found ways to defuse arguments:0 and propose compromises. The promise of8 (Continued on page 60)

ALBANY UNION STATION .•.(Continued from page 31)

the private-sector/preservationist collab-oration was materializing.

As Sloan put it, once the people work-ing inside the building could see what wastaking shape, "Everyone fortunate enoughto get really involved in the project under-stood that we were doing somethingunique. What a thrill for all of us to havebeen a part of it." But Norstar kept thebrilliantly decorated interior under wraps;the papers and the public could only spec-ulate on what they were going to see.

For the 68 years in which Union Stationwas just "the station" to the people of

Albany, it may have been appreciated as ahandsome building, but its value was stillprimarily utilitarian. During the 13 yearsthat the New York Central and Mayor Corn-ing battled over the need for a downtownpassenger terminal, the station's value wasstill seen in terms of convenience. Butduring the 16 years of uncertainty over thefate of the vacant and deteriorating build-ing, there emerged a consensus that UnionStation was valuable and had to be saved-although most people could not articulatewhy.

Norstar's April 1984 announcementelicited universal interest and excitementin the community at the knowledge that thebuilding would be saved. That excitementgrew as people saw the granite facadecleaned, tucked, and pointed, and as thenewspapers reported on the progress, evenif the interior renovation remained unseen.But it was not until the grand opening, onSeptember 19, 1986 (in the city's tricenten-nial year), that the true value of AlbanyUnion Station became apparent. One hun-dred thousand people came down to Nor-star Plaza for the outdoor festivities,enjoying food, music, extravagant fire-works, and a laser light show. That week-end people began filing in on tour. In thedays and weeks that followed, an astound-ing 30,000 people queued up for a lingeringlook at the refurbished "station." Many ofthe older visitors were visibly moved asthey recollected earlier experiences.

More than a year after the grand open-ing, there is still interest enough to meritregular public tours of this now privatespace. Norstar has made the building avail-able to organizations wishing to scheduleanything from a tour to a ball. A half-hourmotion picture on the renovation, "Portraitof a Landmark: Union Station Reborn," wasso well received that it's been aired fivetimes on the Albany-area public televisionstation.

PAGE 60/ LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

This building evokes nostalgia in peo-ple who knew it as "the station," and won-der in those too young to have knownanything other than Amtrak and Conrail.Whether the visitor murmurs, "We used tosit right over there, by the heater, on thosecold afternoons while we waited for thetrain to take us home from shopping," or"Why did they put up all that gold, andthose big heads?," the immediacy anduniqueness of the experience is clear.

Some people, on seeing Albany UnionStation, recall how their ancestors boastedabout "working for the railroad," abouthow generation after generation of the fam-ily was in railroading. Others get their firstglimpse of an era whose physical plant hasall but disappeared from the social/indus-trial landscape. There are trains today;there will always be trains. But Railroadingis no longer with us. To see a restoredsteam locomotive is to be awed at themight of the railroad. To see a rehabilitateddowntown terminal is to glimpse how therailroad shaped the lives of millions. Sucha building is no less a prized survivor of ourrailroading heritage than are the coaches,

z A stunning contrast, the sheen of the renovatedo interior of Norstar Plaza underlines the paradox~ of adaptive- use historic preservation. The~ achievement is breathtaking. And yet ...the most8 meticulous of craftsmen is powerless to resusci-~ tate the one thing which, unavoidably, is lost in~o even faithful restoration: the highly personal;: story which each of us finds at the heart of agj train station's history.1;:::;)

8

.-

Pullmans, and locomotives that fusedthose stations into a nation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author WilliamKennedy is surely the former Union Sta-tion's most eloquent champion. A rhap-sodic chapter in his 0 Albany! incants themagic of the place for little boys and celeb-rity-watchers alike. Union Station, Kennedysays, was "an idea, a state of mind, a minorarchitectural wonder that led you not onlyto.the trains but to the idea of trains."Norstar Plaza, the reincarnated AlbanyUnion Station, preserves that idea for thisand coming generations, as do the othergrand railroad stations saved or yet to besaved across the country. We are all heirsto that good fortune.

Timothy Truscott is a former president ofthe Mohawk & Hudson chapter, NRHS. Hehas contributed to numerous Railroad reolated publications.Torn Finnegan is an freelance writer and iscurrently working on a book on AlbanyUnion Station.