Railway Miscellany – Railroads Create the First Time Zones – St. Paul Union Depot, Seven Years After Closing

Railway Miscellany

November 18, 1883: Railroads Create the First Time Zones

Photo: Railroads. Men working on locomotive II, ca. 1920-ca. 1950. (Library of Congress)

On this day in 1883, American and Canadian railroads began using four continental time zones. This stemmed from schedulers’ confusion transporting passengers across thousands of local times. Most towns in the United States had their own local times based on “high noon” when the sun reached its highest point in the sky.
The railroad companies created the new time coding system without assistance from the federal government. Most Americans and Canadians embraced the time zones since railroads were the primary link between the two countries. Congress did not officially adopt the time zones until 1918 under the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Check out American Experience’s “Streamliners” timeline of significant events related to the development of American railroads.

St. Paul Union Depot, Seven Years After Closing, 1978

Photo via Flickr: Electroburger’s Photostream

Passenger rail service officially came to an end in downtown St. Paul on April 30, 1971. The last train, the Burlington Afternoon Zephyr, left the depot that evening, bound for Minneapolis. Amtrak launched its passenger service to the Twin Cities the next day, bypassing downtown St. Paul. These photos, taken seven years after the fact, come from a wonderful collection by Kurt Haubrich.

Railroad Glory Days – Railway Miscellany – Seattle Station

Railroad Glory Days

Railway Miscellany – Seattle Station

Train time at King Street. Seattle’s station is looking much better in the last few years.  (Glen Brewer) http://RailroadGloryDays.com

King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located between South King and South Jackson streets and Second and Fourth Avenues South in the Pioneer Square neighbourhood of Seattle, the station is just south of downtown. Built between 1904 and 1906, it served the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway from its grand opening on May 10, 1906, until the creation of Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) on May 1, 1971. The station was designed by the St. Paul, Minnesota architectural firm of Charles A. Reed and Allen H. Stem, who were later associate designers for the New York Central Railroad’s Grand Central Terminal in New York City. King Street Station was Seattle’s primary train terminal until the construction of the adjacent Oregon & Washington Depot, later named Union Station, in 1911. King Street Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington Heritage Register in 1973.
Since the early 1990s the station was in various states of repair to undo remodels done during the middle of the Twentieth Century to “modernize” the facility, including the restoration of the elegant main waiting room. King Street Station was purchased by the City of Seattle in 2008 for $10 and, with enough funds finally in place, the restoration was finally completed in 2013.

King Street Station, Seattle

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