Western Stations

The South Shore – Portsmouth station, an enclosed shelter on the platform, was completed in early 2023 as part of a larger $3.5 million program of accessibility improvements. The one-story red brick building features grey stone trim at the base and in the window sills, and it is topped by a seamed metal hipped-gabled roof. Wide eaves supported by graceful paired brackets protect passengers from inclement weather. Inside, the waiting area appears light and airy due to large tripartite windows, while metal benches line the walls. Complementing the depot are new light standards, fencing and a concrete platform with tactile edging. This new facility replaced an earlier shelter erected by Amtrak in 1976.

Great American Stations

Amtrak began serving Maysville on June 12, 1977 via the James Whitcomb Riley (Washington-Cincinnati-Chicago) — which was soon renamed the Cardinal after the state bird of each state on the train’s route from Virginia to Illinois. A short article in Amtrak News, the company’s employee magazine, noted: “The new stop was added because of the population of the city and its surrounding area.”

The city’s passenger depot was built by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) around 1918 and has a waiting room with traditional wooden benches. The single-story red brick colonial-style building, trimmed in white, has a central entrance under a small classical portico and two small offset wings to either side of the entrance, with star-patterned panes above each front window and similarly-patterned clerestory windows at either end of the building’s wings. Another small rectangular brick building in the same style, the former freight depot, sits nearby. The former Maysville station for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad is also still standing in town, and has been restored for other uses.

Great American Stations

Amtrak customers at Connersville use a brick shelter on the platform, constructed with funds raised by volunteers of the local Rotary Club. A brick railroad depot, still standing nearby, was built in 1914 for the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad (CH&D) and is used by current owner CSX to support freight train operations. The depot was built only three years before the CH&D was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad at auction. By 1891, Connersville was a local stop on both the CH&D and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway a few blocks to the southeast. In summer 2023, Amtrak completed a $1.9 million improvement project at the Connersville station. Working with the city, Amtrak made improvements that included the construction of a new concrete platform meeting the specifications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Other upgrades included the installation of new lighting, a ramp, a new connection to the public right of way and upgrades to the parking lot.

Great American Stations

The Amtrak stop in Crawfordsville is a heated, enclosed shelter on the platform that opened in 2022. From a distance, it’s marked by a steep, sloping roof and bands of windows that allow natural light in, as well as provide a view up and down the platform. It sits close by the original depot, a modest red brick hip-roofed structure built in 1926 for the Monon Railroad and served by its passenger trains until 1967. The depot is currently owned by Crawfordsville resident Nancy Morrison, who purchased it from CSX in 2004. Since then, she has renovated the building for commercial purposes, in part through $20,000 of funding assistance from the Crawfordsville Historic Preservation Commission.

In August 2022, Amtrak and local officials gathered at the station to cut the ribbon on completion of a $2.6 million improvement project at the facility. As part of the work, the existing asphalt platform and the old passenger shelter were removed and replaced with a new 300-foot-long concrete platform and heated waiting shelter. Also included in the upgrades were new station signage, a mobile lift enclosure and energy efficient LED light fixtures that enhance lighting along the platform and pathways.

Great American Stations

The Romanesque style brick “Big Four” depot was built in 1902 by the Buckeye Chum Company for the Lake Erie & Western and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (the Big Four) Railroads. This well-landscaped restored station sits opposite the bank of the Wabash River, directly beside a city park. The brick and limestone building served as a train station until about 1970. It was partially restored in 1979 and given to the city of Lafayette in 1983.

The Big Four depot was relocated to the site from an address three blocks away in 1994. The 550-ton building was placed on 18 sets of wheeled dollies and rolled to the site over the better part of four days. Renovation was completed in 1995 and the depot was rededicated as the centerpiece of the James F. Riehle Plaza. The depot is open for plaza events and has meeting rooms for rent. The interior has been modernized and utilizes two levels, with track access on the lower level and the plaza entrance on the upper level.

When Amtrak trains began using the facility on January 4, 1996, it was first time Amtrak passengers traveling to and from Lafayette had the benefit of a waiting room in an actual railroad station. It was a major step toward completion of the Lafayette Railroad Relocation Project, a more than $170 million joint federal-state-local effort to end the practice of trains and motor vehicles sharing a 14-block stretch of Fifth Street in Lafayette.

Since the practice of “street-running” ended with the Amtrak train down Fifth Street on July 22, 1994, passengers used a temporary platform at Second and Alabama Streets. Previously, various Fifth Street storefronts were utilized.

Great American Stations

Amtrak passengers cross above the rail line on an elevated pedestrian bridge, which provides access to the Amtrak waiting shelter on the west side. Other features of Riehle Plaza include a brick-paved gathering place and public open space, a fountain, landscaped green space and a textured concrete wall to provide visual and sound screening from the tracks.

Great American Stations

On August 21, 2013, city and Amtrak officials and local residents gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new passenger shelter at Rensselaer. Students from the Rensselaer Central High School show choir serenaded the crowd with three songs, including the Star Spangled Banner. Following the event, participants were invited for a celebratory lunch.

Funded by Amtrak, the one story red brick building features grey stone trim at the base and in the window sills, and it is topped by a seamed metal hipped-gabled roof. Wide eaves supported by graceful paired brackets protect passengers from inclement weather. Inside, the waiting area appears light and airy due to large tripartite windows, while metal benches line the walls. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Rensselaer station also received new light standards and a $500,000, 550-foot long concrete platform with tactile edging in 2011.

The new brick facility replaced an earlier shelter erected in 1979 that was later cared for by volunteers from the Lions Club. It in turn had replaced an early 20th century Monon Railroad passenger depot razed in 1981. Today, some of the brick paving and red tile flooring from the Monon building can still be seen peeking out of the grass near the Amtrak shelter.

Great American Stations

Amtrak opened a new ADA-compliant shelter at Dyer in the summer of 2014; it replaced a smaller aluminum and glass structure erected in 1986. In addition to the building, the station includes a new concrete platform with tactile edging, accessible parking stalls, light standards and improved signage. Developed by d+A design+Architecture, LLC of Yardley, Pennsylvania, the station design draws inspiration from historic late 19th and early 20th century depots found in small towns across the nation.

Composed primarily of red brick, the structure has an enclosed, one-story waiting room with large windows that not only keep out the wind, but also allow ample sunlight to flood and brighten the space. On the principal facades facing the street and the tracks, the waiting room is marked by stylized projecting bays with deep eaves. Their surfaces are covered in a rock-faced, coursed ashlar in a light beige tone that adds texture to the elevation and provides a strong contrast against the brick. Recessed canopies, supported by squared posts sporting curved brackets, flank the waiting room and visually expand the station’s presence along the tracks. Benches in the waiting room and beneath the canopies provide abundant seating throughout the year’s changing seasons.

Travelers with an eye for detail might notice that the Dyer shelter is a close cousin to those constructed in Alliance, Ohio; Connellsville, Pa.; Winnemucca, Nev. and Okeechobee, Fla.

Great American Stations